No swim, but....

When we got back to the hotel, Fredrick, our guide, Hesbon, our assistant guide, and Bonifas, our cook were waiting for us for a pre-trek briefing. Fredrick, 36, has made the climb to Uhuru peak 487 times, about four times per month for a dozen years. Fredrick asked about our previous climbing and high-altitude experience and we went through the entire itinerary. Our crew will consist of twelve men: in addition to the three of them, there will be eight porters and an additional cook for the porters. That means there will be fourteen of us in total. Quite an expedition!

We were also told that my bag had arrived at Arusha airport and so after an inspection of our gear (we passed with flying colors), we headed back to Arusha.

Darkness was settling in and the rush-hour drive was quite a different experience from our earlier drive to Arusha. The two-lane road had turned into a four-lane highway that was shared between pedestrian, heavy trucks, cows, black smoke belching dala dalas (shared minibuses) and speeding cars trying to overtake each other. Every few hundred yards our car hit a speed bump, propelling us into the air. I am sure this was the most dangerous part of our trip.

Arusha airport is on the far side of Arusha, so we had to cross the town and continue on the other side. We got to the airport via a mile-long dirt road full of potholes. The airport was even smaller than Kilimanjaro airport, where I landed yesterday. We pulled up to lone building, which looked ominously dark. A guard told us that the airport was closed.

Fredrick convinced the guard to call the airport staff so we could retrieve my bag. We stood outside in the cool darkness. In the distance you could hear the sounds of mooing cows and the call to prayer from a nearby mosque.

After waiting a while, the guard's phone rang and a heated discussion ensued between Fredrick and the guard. Apparently my bag was at Kilimanjaro airport, 90 minutes by car in the opposite direction from our hotel, not Arusha airport. Fredrick still believed my bag was at Arusha and many more phone calls and discussions followed. Where was my bag?

In the end it became clear the bag was not in Arusha and so we decided to head back to the hotel and pick up my bag tomorrow on the way to Marangu gate, where our trek will start.

We had a nice dinner in our new Nigerian shirts and we just finished preparing our gear for tomorrow.