So, Friday 24th Feb had arrived - my bag had already been packed for a week. So much stuff to think about taking, but also making sure that the contents of my main bag weren't going to weigh more than 15kg was a real worry. Quite rightly, the porters won't carry our bags if they weigh more than that - but the weather forecast was going to be cold and wet - and I wanted enough warm and dry gear to see me through 6 days on the mountain! So after standing on the scales to work out what I weighed, then standing on them again with my bag - then having to find a piece of paper to work out stone v kg - I was confident I was just on the weight limit and ready to go.
John had also given me a card whilst I was packing - he just said it was to open on the summit and that it would make my friends laugh when I opened it. I honestly thought it was a good luck/well done thing and put it in a waterproof plastic wallet and tucked it in my rucksac.
The flight wasn't until 8pm, so after faffing around at home in the mor
ning, I drove to where John works after lunchtime and he drove me to Heathrow. After saying our farewells, I waited around for my travel buddy George and her boyfriend Paul to arrive. They turned up just after John left and then Mary turned up a little while later. We were also waiting for Joyce to arrive - but I'd forgotten her mobile number. This was my gang of friends who were all coming too. We also bumped into Sophie (a Dentist) at the check in desk too. You could spot the people all checking in on the Ethiopian Airlines flight who were clearly going to climb Kilimanajro. All of us wearing our 
walking boots and overpacked daypacks - just in case our main kit bags didn't arrive so that we'd have enough kit to at least start the walk on Kili. It was apparently quite common for luggage to get lost on this route - and having now travelled on Ethiopian Airlines several times - I'm still surprised that we actually arrived at all!
ning, I drove to where John works after lunchtime and he drove me to Heathrow. After saying our farewells, I waited around for my travel buddy George and her boyfriend Paul to arrive. They turned up just after John left and then Mary turned up a little while later. We were also waiting for Joyce to arrive - but I'd forgotten her mobile number. This was my gang of friends who were all coming too. We also bumped into Sophie (a Dentist) at the check in desk too. You could spot the people all checking in on the Ethiopian Airlines flight who were clearly going to climb Kilimanajro. All of us wearing our 
walking boots and overpacked daypacks - just in case our main kit bags didn't arrive so that we'd have enough kit to at least start the walk on Kili. It was apparently quite common for luggage to get lost on this route - and having now travelled on Ethiopian Airlines several times - I'm still surprised that we actually arrived at all!As our flight was called - Joyce still hadn't arrived. Had she bottled it??? No - she just couldn't face leaving her boyfriend and had left it right to the last minute to catch the flight. Bless!
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