Amsterdam to Arusha, Tanzania

From Amsterdam, we head south to Tanzania, crossing the Austrian Alps, following Italy down across the Mediterranean, continuing over Egypt and the glowing Sahara--a vast void. There are interesting young people on this flight, most traveling to Kili on holiday. One guy from Birmingham, England has been to Kili many times. The man in front of me (in his early 30s) is originally from Holland but now lives in Arusha where he trains dogs to sniff out land mines all over the world.

I'm seeing my first African sunset from the right side of the plane. It is a beautiful series of colored stripes rising against the black outline of the Earth. The strips climb and grow lighter, turning blue, and above them hangs a sliver of the moon glowing into the clouds around it. The monitor says we're about to fly over Addis Ababa. Michelle Strong, a fellow VSO volunteer, will be in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a year. One day I'll visit Michelle in that city below us. And she'll visit Kisumu, Kenya. But for now we keep flying south over Kenya, on to Arusha's Kilimanjaro International airport.

We exit the 747 onto the tarmac and enter customs at the Kilimanjaro International airport, where the wood floor shows wear and fans turn overhead. It is 10:00 p.m. The officer stamps my passport and customs card and without further delay I grab my bags from the carousel and walk outside, looking for our guide holding a "Mountain Madness" sign. Ben and Noel are there, along with two drivers. There are seven Americans in our group and we load into two green Range Rovers and head to camp at the base of Mt. Mehru.

I'm riding with Mike from Los Angeles and Ken and Licia from Manhattan. Mike is an economist, Ken is a bonds broker and Licia is an actor. We turn off the main paved road and drive for a while over rough spots. Then, amazingly, we come up on two giraffes standing in the road. They are huge and both appear to be male. Our driver says they may be preparing to fight, called Necking, because they will stand belly-to-belly and knock necks. When the second vehicle in our group pulls up, the giraffes step off the road, gracefully awkward. The night sky is covered in stars, as Nigel had predicted. They are as numerous and bright as Nigel had prophesied. Though it is late, there are occasionally women walking on the side of the road, and young boys running as they hold hands, and a small child, perhaps 4 years, standing on the left.

We drive for a couple hours over "traditional" roads, which are unpaved and usually deeply rutted. We drive through forest, to the foot of Mehru, into camp. Mehru will be our companion until we leave Kilimanjaro National Park next week, because we'll be able to see it as we ascend and descend Kili. We pull into camp and tour our luxury tents. They contain cots with thick, foam mattresses and rugs and battery-powered lights overhead. We have a toilet and shower in each tent! The crew has prepared food for our late arrival and we all stumble into the mess tent, a little jet-lagged, and marvel at the feast set out: Spinach soup, quiche, baked potatoes, a fruit salad and gingerbread. Coffee (Kahawa), tea (Chai), Cokes, milk (mazewa) and beer: Kilimanjaro and Safari brands. What a lovely way to enter Tanzania; giraffes, western-style toilets and beer!