Our good friend Jo whisked us to the airport with over 2 1/2 hours to spare, so when the KLM Rep advised that Prestige Lounge was having a sale and asked if we wanted to take advantage of it, knowing we definitely weren't getting a deal, took her up on her offer any way and spent our final hours in T.O. nibbling samosas and sipping tea. Naw, we got rip-roaring drunk! On-ly kidding!
The flight was uneventful. Movie, movie, nap, Amsterdam. As we staggered off the flight, exhausted and disoriented, we walked until we found ourselves in the line-up for customs. Half an hour later when we eventually made it to the desk, the officer glanced down at our ticket, back up to us, back down at the ticket and asked, "Why are you here?" "Well, we're going to Tanzania!", we excitedly answered in unison. "No, why are you in this line-up?" We looked at each other (also in unison), waiting for the other to answer, only to realize we had been following each other and neither of us actually knew what we were doing there. This happened 6 more times before we finally made it to the next departure lounge. It was tiring.
Another uneventful flight, except this time it was nap, THEN movie, movie. You really need to create your own excitement on these 17 hour flights. The best part, however, was at the end, where the French guy sitting beside me all of a sudden came to life and instigated a conversation starting with the fact that he was a safari leader in Tanzania (this guy really knew a lot) and ending with a list that took well over half an hour of the horrific events that have and will again occur to Kili climbers, specifically on our route (most likely to us). It was encouraging. It really wasn't. He pretty much told us we were going to die.
Within 15 hours, we'd watched the sun set, rise, then set again and in a euphoric daze, we disembarked the plane and practically skipped down the steps and across the tarmac. We are in AFRICA!!!
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