Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: African Contrasts 2015
Bound for Addis
It was our fourth and last morning in exotic Zanzibar and, knowing that the main business of the day was a (hopefully) straightforward relocation task, we for once felt able to begin with a nice lie-in. After our final breakfast in the hotel's top-floor restaurant, we took time to admire the views across the rooftops from the open-air terraces. We then set out for a final stroll around Stone Town, concentrating on the seafront and Forodhani Gardens area. I felt a little sad to be leaving, but this was tempered by the satisfaction of knowing that we had made a pretty good job of seeing the destination, together with the excitement and sense of anticipation brought by moving on to sample more new experiences.
| RIGHT: Views across the rooftops from the hotel's fifth-floor terrace |
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| ROW BELOW: Morning stroll in Stone Town | |||||
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We
checked out of the DoubleTree sometime between 1pm and 1:30,
transferred to the airport, went through the various formalities and
in due course discovered that there was an Ethiopian Airlines lounge
that we were entitled to use. There had been a change to the
schedule since today's flight was booked. We were meant to be on
ET814, operated by a Boeing 767 and making a stop in Kilimanjaro,
which had sounded like fun on account of the long-haul aircraft and
the airborne sightseeing opportunity afforded by Africa's highest
peak. This had all changed, and we would now be on ET804, operated
by a Boeing 757 and stopping in Dar es Salaam after an initial
'puddle-jump' sector of just 45 miles.
It
was a reasonable enough flight, despite becoming very busy after
that first short sector, and we arrived into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's
capital city, ahead of schedule. Immigration procedures went
smoothly and we easily located the Hilton's shuttle service. After
briefly settling into our latest accommodation and arranging an
early-morning transfer back to the airport for the next day, we
visited the busy and cosmopolitan-looking lobby bar to celebrate our
arrival in Ethiopia with a nightcap.