The Great African Balloon Adventure - Kilimanjaro
Earlier today, I borrowed $500 from a total stranger in the queue for the plane I wanted to catch from Kilimanjaro back to Dar es Salaam. I promised I'd pay it back as soon as I got to a 'working' cash machine at Dar airport. He was very suspicious but it worked once I gave him Sam's passport.
Later I'll show you a picture of Sam, and the plane that took us so far away from Dar.
And also pictures of the area we plan to fly the balloon. And I'll also tell you how we missed the 7.30 pm flight back to Dar, and also the 7.30 am flight this morning.
Watch this space...... I'm going to get some tea.....
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We got to Dar airfield about 12 and Sam went off to file a flight plan and get the weather etc. I found a cafe and bought a couple of ham and tomato toasties to last us the 3 hour flight.
Sam re-appeared wanting some dollars because they didn't accept credit cards. So I gave him $300 and took a few pictures. We then pushed the plane to the refuelling shed and - yes you guessed it... no credit cards.
I handed over 150,000 shillings and he started filling the tanks. This was turning into quite an adventure.
We took off about 1pm and I ate the first half of my toastie whilst Sam set the gps navigation and attended to radio traffic. He warned me it would be 'quite bumpy'. He wasn't wrong - we once were lifted out of our seats in a tremendous thermal. I made a mental note not to fly after 8am when the sun starts to warm up.
We flew north at about 120 knots identifying landmarks and planning how we would recce the points required by the film director.
The terrain looks alot better than the pictures on google earth. It reminds of The Lake District and I breathe a mighty sigh of relief when I saw so many places to land!
The balloon is stuck in customs, so we have to stay another night in this hotel. They are choosing this time to refurbish the 4th floor, and judging by the smell of paint in the corridoor I think I had better pack and find my next room.
Once we landed at the little Manyara strip I jumped out and found some men who were thrilled to see us. They obviously don't get many planes landing. I asked them to call us a taxi to Kilimanjaro airport. We might just make the 7.30pm flight back to Dar. We found a couple of large stones to tie down the aircraft and enjoyed a cup of coffee before leaving in the taxi.
It was a 2 hour drive but it meant driving through Arusha, and sure enough it was sold so we didn't arrive at Kili airport until 7.45. We booked ourselves onto the 7.30am flight and went to the nearby hotel. The taxi was $200 so we were seriously low on funds now. I agreed a big discount for Pilots at the hotel and was told the credit card machine was not working. Never mind - off to have some dinner.
It still wasn't working in the morning, so we had a great time persuading the hotel to accept my remaining English pounds and Tanzanian shillings. We left with smiles all round and headed for the airport. They had our booking but we had to pay - $460.
Fine says I - here's my credit card. No credit card says she. Cash only.
Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh.
Later I'll show you a picture of Sam, and the plane that took us so far away from Dar.
And also pictures of the area we plan to fly the balloon. And I'll also tell you how we missed the 7.30 pm flight back to Dar, and also the 7.30 am flight this morning.
Watch this space...... I'm going to get some tea.....
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We got to Dar airfield about 12 and Sam went off to file a flight plan and get the weather etc. I found a cafe and bought a couple of ham and tomato toasties to last us the 3 hour flight.Sam re-appeared wanting some dollars because they didn't accept credit cards. So I gave him $300 and took a few pictures. We then pushed the plane to the refuelling shed and - yes you guessed it... no credit cards.
I handed over 150,000 shillings and he started filling the tanks. This was turning into quite an adventure.
We took off about 1pm and I ate the first half of my toastie whilst Sam set the gps navigation and attended to radio traffic. He warned me it would be 'quite bumpy'. He wasn't wrong - we once were lifted out of our seats in a tremendous thermal. I made a mental note not to fly after 8am when the sun starts to warm up.
We flew north at about 120 knots identifying landmarks and planning how we would recce the points required by the film director.
The terrain looks alot better than the pictures on google earth. It reminds of The Lake District and I breathe a mighty sigh of relief when I saw so many places to land!
The balloon is stuck in customs, so we have to stay another night in this hotel. They are choosing this time to refurbish the 4th floor, and judging by the smell of paint in the corridoor I think I had better pack and find my next room.
Once we landed at the little Manyara strip I jumped out and found some men who were thrilled to see us. They obviously don't get many planes landing. I asked them to call us a taxi to Kilimanjaro airport. We might just make the 7.30pm flight back to Dar. We found a couple of large stones to tie down the aircraft and enjoyed a cup of coffee before leaving in the taxi.
It was a 2 hour drive but it meant driving through Arusha, and sure enough it was sold so we didn't arrive at Kili airport until 7.45. We booked ourselves onto the 7.30am flight and went to the nearby hotel. The taxi was $200 so we were seriously low on funds now. I agreed a big discount for Pilots at the hotel and was told the credit card machine was not working. Never mind - off to have some dinner.
It still wasn't working in the morning, so we had a great time persuading the hotel to accept my remaining English pounds and Tanzanian shillings. We left with smiles all round and headed for the airport. They had our booking but we had to pay - $460.
Fine says I - here's my credit card. No credit card says she. Cash only.
Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh.
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