Was asleep pretty early, but woke up around 2:30, and I don't think that I ever really got back to sleep. Finally got up a little before 5:00, and finished doing my packing and was ready to go before our wake up call at 5:30. I went over to the mess tent, and was shortly joined by the other two ladies, where we shared our last breakfast together. We had a royal send-off, with the whole crew standing at attention, and gratefully accepted our envelope of gratuities. I had slipped a separate tip for each of the main leaders: Luke, Morissa, JB, and Henry. After the ceremonial speeches and numerous thank yous, in Swahili, that's Asante Sana, and we piled into the Open Jeep and headed out. It was quite a cool morning, the sun hadn't really come up much yet, and it was a very cloudy and damp day, which only got progressively worse as we headed up into the Highlands, where we were met with extreme winds and clouds and cold weather. We stopped once at what was supposed to be a beautiful lookout, but it was completely fogged in, so we didn't stay. I had learned that there was a ceasefire in the Iran war, so I spent some time online trying to see if I could re-book the Qatar flight, and for a while there it looked like I would be able to. They had some seats open but then their website sent me around in loops and circles trying to reconfirm who I was, changing my password etc etc, until eventually I finally was able to get through, only to discover that the flight I wanted was full and I wasn't able to book it anyway. The next flight was $600 more and extended the trip to over 33 hours, so I decided to just forget about it and go with my original plan B. By then we were all so cold, Luke was bundled up from head to toe with only his eyes peering out from behind a scarf, and everyone else was pretty chilled. I was happy that I had put on several layers and my rain suit, which did a pretty good job of keeping me fairly warm, but we were all quite cold by the time we came off the Highlands. We stopped at a little tourist gift shop area for about 45 minutes or so, I just took one local around and used the restroom, which I was very happy to see were extremely well kept in clean, and then got back into the Jeep while the others went shopping and wandered around. You know me, I'm not much of a shopping or souvenir kind of gal. We were only about 5 minutes from the airstrip, where we climbed into a single engine prop plane. Apparently usually they charter a plane, but because there was only three of us they decided to just take the regular commercial flight, but there was literally no one else on the flight at all anyway, so it felt like a charter. At least this flight had two pilots, whereas our first flight only had one, so I felt a little better about that. It was only about 35 or 40 minutes before we landed in Kilimanjaro, just glimpsing the mountain top a couple of times between the clouds, as it was still a cloudy rainy day. It was much warmer in Kilimanjaro, however, when we got off the plane, it was feeling much more tropical, but still wet. We all said our good-byes, and headed our separate ways, though it wasn't long before we started texting each other and sharing our pictures and videos through WhatsApp. I was meant by Angel and we waited for the ride back to the hotel. I had considered going to the desk at the airport and trying to see if I could get the original flight that I wanted today, but by then I was so cold and achy and only really wanted to just lay down after taking a nice hot bath, so once I got back to the hotel, driven by the same lovely Samil that I had on my first night of arrival, I upgraded to a deluxe room so that I could have a hot bath, and also added a day room, so that I would have some place comfortable to hang out until I have to be at the airport at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. I did have a lovely hot bath, but when I pulled the drain plug, it backed up out of the shower drain and ended up flooding in the bathroom. Whatever. I lay down for the rest of the afternoon, happy to be warm and comfortable, though the air conditioning in this room was nowhere near as efficient as my last room and it was pretty hot for quite a while. No matter, I just rested and read until it was time for dinner. Once again, excellent service and delicious food, I had a lamb stir fry, which was plentiful and filling. Back in the room I watched one episode of the series I'm binge watching, but I kept nodding off so I'll probably have to watch it again. Same goes for the previous episode, I don't remember much of that either. Lights out by about 9:30! Glad to say the beds here are quite comfortable, so I'm looking forward to a good night sleep. Even though it didn't go exactly as planned, it was an absolutely incredible adventure, and I will have priceless memories that I'll never forget. I will say that it has prompted me to add another item to my bucket list. I realize that even though now I've been on six of the seven continents, I haven't ridden on all of those continents yet. Have decided I need to go back to somewhere in South America, and to Europe, so that I can then accomplish that goal. I may have to wait until Lola has passed, though, because apparently she's been a basket case since I was gone. I got a text from Michelle that she has ripped up the flooring in the bathroom and by the back door, and has been digging at the hole where her underground propane tank lives, and has otherwise been quite unhappy, particularly whenever there was any wind and storms. I had just replaced that floor when I put in the new toilet two summers ago, so that's another chore I'm going to have to do, though I doubt I can get it done before I'm scheduled to leave Michelle's, unless I decide to delay my departure, which means canceling the tickets I have for an event in Chattanooga. We'll see. I called and canceled my chiropractic appointment for Monday, and instead had my doctor order up an x-ray for my back, to see if I have in fact cracked a rib. I still have an appointment for the horses on Monday, so I'm going to have to work that out. Well, I've carried on long enough, so I'm going to get in my zzzzz's! Good night, my love!
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