Pin the Passport on the Globe

I spend an inordinate amount of time explaining the whys for my travel.  Granted, I don’t usually pick your typical vacation spot, and oft times it does seem to come out of the blue.

Pretty much anything and everything can send me running for my passport and backpack.  For Iceland, it was a pamphlet advertizing the Glitnir marathon.  For Belgium it was a combination of a chance to visit a corner of Europe I’d never seen, the opportunity to connect with a few old friends who live over there, and a free place to stay.  (That counted for a lot, actually.)  I went to Florence because a book I read as a teenager partly took place there.  (This is also, by the way, why I did a cartwheel in the Louvre.)  My trip to Hawaii was inspired by a current deals board at a local travel agency.

The desire to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro came from watching an IMAX movie on the subject several years back.  The movie made it seem interesting, and attainable.  Difficult, but attainable.  And my trek in the Andes two years now seems like good training.  I got a taste of high altitudes (the highest I got was 4758 metres above sea level.  Kili’s summit sits at 5895.  Base Camp for Mt Everest sits at 5364.  So basically, if I can climb Kili, I can go to Mt Everest!  Also on my list of things to do.) 

Most of the companies that organize Kilimanjaro treks also organize safaris, and if they don’t, they still advertize them.  That led to the thought of “Hey, I should go on a safari while I’m there!!”  I’m not too sure when I found out about Zanzibar, but it quickly became part of the trip, rounding it out nicely.  I’d rough it up the mountain, relax a little on the safari, while still camping, and then bam!  Relax on the sandy shores of Zanzibar, with a nice tour of a spice plantation thrown in.

Then, while researching Zanzibar (the next best thing to travelling for me, is pricing out flights and figuring out what I’m going to do/see in any given location.  As well as finding other locations that I simply must visit) I found out about Mafia Island.

C’mon.  MAFIA Island.  I have to go, and yes only for the name.  Turns out it’s a good spot for diving and fishing, and also beaches.  It's easily reachable from Zanzibar,  and handily close to Dar Es Salaam, my fly in/out airport on the mainland.  

I'm sure in the next months this trip will balloon out of control.  I've seen a 4 day trip to Kenya to explore gorilla territory that looks interesting....