Grease the palm

 Oh my!!

Well, it was an interesting day. We have had all our car plans prearranged and it just wasn't our day. After having breaskfast and saying goodbye to the remaining group, it was time to move on. There was some confusion about the car and it came, but it was an hour late. That put us in a precarious position to get to the airport on time. 

I sat in the back while DH stewed in the front with his Waize or whatever, We are on vacation, just let it be. But I didn't say that. I just sat in the back and observed the scenary. There were four sections of the "highway" under construction and it was a disaster. As we got closer to Arusha and the airport, the question was  how easy to get through the airport. 

Thankfully, we have no big bags with us. We arrived at the airport about 30 minutes before the flight was to take off. The security line was long, so we stopped an employee and he set about seeing if we could jump the cue. He brought us over to the guy right at the machine and well-- it was  a VERY BIG favor to jump the cue. 

As I've aways said about DH --- his motto is just throw money at it! I'm kidding - that's not always his motto, but it worked and we got through that line and onto the checkin desk. I don't think we got onto the original flight, but there are lots of planes coming here and there and we got on a flilght.

We were the last to board the plane and I swear our luggage didn't make it, so I was very surprised when I spotted our bags on the carousel. How did that hapen? A miracle. 

Then we went outside to try and find the car to the hotel. No car - again! It's a crazy zoo outside any airport here, but someone found us and then we waited for the car which was late or we were early. I didn't catch which.

Let's say that we had the BEST snacks of any flight I've ever had. I would love more of them!!!

We are in Zanzabar now, which is an island off the east coast of AFrica. It's a nice place, and very old. DH's family (great grandfather) was born here so that is why we are here. We are in Stonetown and will do some adventuring around later today. And yes, there are geocaches!

By the time we arrived at the hotel, and had a small bite to eat, I was exhausted and went to bed or a couple of hours. God --- I don't do sick well!

Then we got up and Went for another small bite for dinner. In the garden of the hotel where everyone was smoking the hookah pipe. 

How am I doing? Well, you can see my somewhat black eye that I got from falling on the mouting. I'll spare you the palmsize bruise on my right hip. At least I fell onto the mountain and not off of it!!!! Nothing hurts so I'm not really worried about those. The cough is better but taking a toll on my energy levels, but I'm OK with that. WE have a couple of days here to wander around and nothing strenous planned. Thank goodness for that. 

The worst part is getting a tickle in your throat and there's no way to alleviate that. I'm going to see if I can find some hard candies today. I don't care what they taste like. There's also so much dust here and crazy smells that it's throwing me off. Since when did I become a troublesome traveller? 

The coffee tables are filled with spices!!!!

The other thing I'm monitoring are my toes. Thank goodness for nurse Diane to provide me some excellent items for my emergency travel kit. I'm getting very good at bandaging those toes to prottect them and they don't hurt at all. I will spare you those pictures because they are not pretty and I know that any medical person would be in there with their tools digging out all the rap. I can't do that. So I'm going on a  wing and a prayer that the antibiotics will stave off any infection and I can survive until I get home!!

I swear the issues are always with my right foot and are a result of breaking the toe beside my big toe a number of years ago. They do nothing for a broken toe, but I swear that is the root cause of all my foot issues. I am so tempted when I get home to have them break that toe and reset it STRAIGHT. Absolutely zero issues with left foot.

I don't know if that would solve my right foot woes, but it's a pain in the butt for travel. 

And I have lost my comb. My goodness, I sound  like a travelling disaster!!!! I lost it before I started to climb - no idea where or perhaps it's just hidden inside one of my many little bags or pockets. No worries -- an elastic does a great job of hiding messy hair. 

Now here's soemthing else about hair. My hair is still relatively thick and after summiting Kili, it was thick and I meanTHICK with dust. I washed my hair when we got back to the hotel. I washed it the next morning and it still felt thick with dust. I mean THICK. This is a totally phycological thing, but I need shampoo with suds. I read an article about it and the suds are just there becuse we like them. It does nothing to add to getting the hair clean.

I had a shower with suds this morning and despite not having a comb my hair feels cleaner. Or is that my imagination? 

I had another good sweat last night, which is disgusting - I feel like I"m in a sweat lodge. But it wasn't as bad as the previous night and my lungs appear clearer this morning, Trust me, I'll be taking eery one of those antibotics I got. 

But here's the amazing thing. I have ZERO muscle aches after the climb My knees feel amazing well, with zero issues. That's insane But there's an expression here and we heard it oftten on the climb. POLE POLE --- it's pronounced POL EE. It means slow and at times when we were hiking up, we were walking less than 1 KM an hour. I thought this would be a problem for me. Oh no --- if you inceased your pace to let's say catch up because you wanted to stop and look at something, it was not good. You felt like someone was sitting on your chest, so I had zero issues aout the pace!!

Well, now that I've walked to the washroom a thousand times as I clear my lungs for the day ahead and time to take my cocktail of pills, it's also time to find something to eat. I'm actually hungry this morning and I know that I'm going to be OK. 

I might check in with Nurse Diane to see if I need to find a clinic to clean those toes or just let them go. Both nails will be toast, I know that but I'm going to be OK. I could beome a wound care nurse.. OK --- that's a lie --- I know how to bandage bad toes and that's about it!!!!

Maybe this afternoon, I will get a chance to write a bit more about the climb before I forget it all!!!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!!