AFRICA!!

Well we made it, after 36hrs of traveling we arrived in arrived in Arusha yesterday. presently I'm sitting in a internet cafe at a very pleasant 28deg C. There is a post written the plane, unfortunately I don't have my memory stick with me today, so that will have to be uploaded tomorrow.

We had as 7 hr wait at Dar Saleem before we were about to catch our connection to Kilimanjaro, during which time we stored our big bags, and took our day packs to the city - probably the main event there was travelling round the fish market - nothing like anything you see in the UK or US. Noise, colours, giant fish, all coming off little sail boats sitting out in the harbour. Although we had deposited our big bags, we still had our days packs, coming in at about 10kg each, and then our camera kit, making walking round quite difficult. The sweat sweat wads actually dripping off us - the panama was coming in quite useful in order to keep the sun off and sweat out of the eyes- even Mayhem conceded it was actually a good idea.

We then stumbled out of the heat at 9:30am to a bar, where Mayhem had his first Kilimanjaro beer - which was quickly followed by me running through a series of alcohol abuse questions - for those of you not of a medical background one of those questions is "Do you ever require a morning eye opener" which at that point in the morning was quite appropriate of course. As for myself, having not been able to find my life giving Fanta yet settled for Cola

As for Africa itself - Dar Saleem was HOT and that is coming from someone who is happy at 35deg C. Mayhem has been very vocal about the heat as our video diary can atest. As for Arusha, its warm, but there is a constant light breeze which is helping us to survive as we walk around

The view from the balcony's in house are amazing. We can see three peaks, one of which is Mt Meru - a 3 day climb, and two smaller peaks I havn't found the name of, but they look like more day trip size. The gardens of our house have mangoes and avocados growing in the grounds.

Its a really great house, beautiful inside, lots of dark wood and white walls and very cool. The windows are barred but with a fine mesh rather than glass, allowing a constant breeze to pass through.

On our tour today we were shown the dead Centre of Africa - a clock tower in the middle of Arusha, from this joint it is equal distance North and South.

Mayhem has just popped up behind me and told me to say hi to the world.

Right we are off to change some money now and look at the prices of climbing Kili and Safari's,

TTFN

Kaos