The day began at 6:00 AM. The morning consisted of packing and then checking out from the New Stanley Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. At about 7:30 AM we met our driver, Steven, who then stopped off at UTC headquarters to confirm with the tour company that he had picked us up. After about half an hour, including an unscheduled parcel delivery, we finally departed for Tanzania.

Our first stop was at the border town of Namanga which seems to be a place all tours stop. This place has a small cafe and many gift shops. We did not buy anything since we knew we would stop here on the way back and departed. after about half an hour. A very short time later we were at the border.

Crossing the border requires you to stop on the Kenya side to get your passport stamped (to officially exit) and to stop on the Tanzania side for another stamp (to officially enter). I was almost denied entry because my Tanzania Visa was already cancelled from a Tanzania safari I took a week earlier. However, our driver took my passport inside and was able to get me an entry fee.

Our first stop in Tanzania was the town of Arusha. We spent about an hour checking in at the UTC office at the Mt. Meru Hotel before proceeding to the Dik Dik Hotel (another hour drive), which is 25 km outside of Arusha.

The Dik Dik Hotel, under management by a Swiss family, is a very nice place. Each room is an individual bungalow with a modern bathroom, electricity, and beds surrounded by a large mosquito net. The electricity was nice because it allowed me to recharge my video camera batteries the day before the climb. As for the mosquito net ... as massive as it was, a few mosquitos always manage to find a way through it. The hotel also had a dining room , a bar, and a swimming pool . (Note: I tend to avoid public pools when children are around because I feel that kids put the "p" in pool).

At 6:00 PM we had our tour briefing with Carmen. She must have noticed how uptight/serious I was because she told us, "Relax, you are on vacation", with which I responded, "if we really wanted to relax, we would not be climbing this mountain". We learned that the 20% success rate (reaching the summit) was a statistic based on all trails. On the "tourist route" (Marangu Route) the success rate was 60%. The briefing was very helpful and Carmen answered all of our questions and concerns about equipment to take, conditions on the trail, etc., and also coached us on tipping the porters (she stressed the importance of not tipping too much and gave us a guide on the maximum amount).

I learned this tour company is very high quality and takes very good care of you, unlike what I was told by UTC, and I was starting to feel a little more at ease. The rest of the night we did a little star gazing, sorted out our gear, and relaxed.