{"id":31970,"date":"2020-01-25T02:40:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T02:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2020\/01\/kilimanjaro-trek-getting-there\/"},"modified":"2020-02-11T11:47:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T11:47:22","slug":"kilimanjaro-trek-getting-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2020\/01\/kilimanjaro-trek-getting-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Kilimanjaro Trek – Getting there."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After much anticipation the day to head off for my Kilimanjaro Trek adventure finally arrived. As usual I was organised and had plenty of time in hand. In fact I was pretty much a whole day early, which even by my standards is a little excessive. With a day in hand I did a little work at home, chilled for a while and then set off towards Manchester where I had a Premier Inn room booked for the night. I had to be at the airport for 6am the following morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stopped at Cheshire Oaks for some retail therapy. Shoes from Skechers and a present for Anna and Morgan from the Lindt store. That was me another step ahead with presents bought before I\u2019d left!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was then on towards Manchester and the Premier Inn. Dinner in the Beefeater next door and then a fairly sleepless night in a typically clean, quiet and comfortable room. My airport parking for the week was literally 50yds away so after a 5am coffee and shower I had a 10 second drive from one parking space to another and was immediately on a minibus to the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No queues at check-in so it was off to security in no time at all. That was fairly painless as well except for the fact that my back support that I was wearing triggered some alarms and resulted in a fairly thorough frisking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All OK though so it was off to departures for a coffee, croissant and a wait. It wasn\u2019t too long and I was soon on the most comfortable economy class airplane I\u2019ve seen. I had a window seat, loads of legroom and a whole 3 seat row to myself. There were cushions and blankets and more entertainment options than I knew what to do with. The airplane even had various external cameras so I could watch the view from all different angles. 3741 miles to go, destination Dubai as I left a grey, dreary and wet Manchester behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flight Cameras – Cockpit view before take off<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I had free text messaging whilst on the plane too so was able to stay in touch with Anna. The films were good, the food was nice as were the views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everything was on time as we landed in Dubai just before 8pm local time. Perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n