Day 18 & 19: Zanzibar to home

Saturday marked the beginning of our long journey home. And when I say long, I mean long! We checked out of the hotel in Zanzibar at 07.30, getting a glimpse of sunrise.

It took around an hour and 20 minutes to drive back across the island to the airport. Our accommodation had been really helpful and arranged the taxi for us, which cost 40 USD. We arrived at Zanzibar airport on plenty of time for our flight, which wasn't until 11.00. That was good because entering airports in Tanzania is a bit stressful. You have to go through a full security check, not only removing all your electronics but also your shoes, before you're even allowed into the departures hall. Then once you've checked in, you have to go through exactly the same process a second time to get to your gate. By the end of Saturday we had gone through security five times and it was a lot!

We were flying from Zanzibar to Arusha with a local airline called Flightlink. This was slightly stressful because we only had a baggage allowance of 20kg on this flight (compared to 23kg on all our other flights) and my bag had started the holiday being around 21 - 22kg. We had to spend some time on Friday evening jettisoning toiletries to get the weight down but the good news is that we did manage it and our combined bags weighed exactly 40kg when they were weighed on Saturday morning!

I had expected Flightlink to be the most budget of budget airlines - especially once we checked in and discovered there was no allocated seating - but it actually turned out to be better than I expected. We not only got a free bottle of water but also free ice-cream!

The most exciting part of the flight came towards the end when the pilot announced that we could see Kilimanjaro on the right hand side!

We landed at Arusha airport some time before 12.30 and established that it's absolutely tiny. It's only a domestic airport and it's mainly used by small planes which fly people to airstrips in the Serengeti etc so that they can avoid some of the bumpy roads we experienced.

From the runway we had a fantastic view of Mount Meru, the mountain which we'd been able to get a glimpse of from our hotel balcony in Arusha when the weather was good.

Arusha airport is situated around 36 miles to the west of Kilimanjaro airport, which is where our international flight to Doha was departing from on Saturday evening. I'd booked a taxi online in advance to avoid the hassle of negotiating a price on the day and I was pleasantly surprised to find the driver waiting outside the airport with my name on a sign when we walked out.

What wasn't yet waiting for us outside the airport was our baggage! The airport set-up was very strange, so a member of staff had directed us to walk from the runway to the airport car park, without entering any kind of terminal building with a baggage reclaim carousel. I was a bit confused about what was happening, but it turned out that someone wheeled out carts of baggage from the plane and laid out each suitcase on a couple of long tables outside the airport. It was rather low-tech, but our cases did eventually appear!

The journey to Kilimanjaro airport took around another 90 minutes; it involved driving into the centre of Arusha and driving out again, so there was quite a lot of traffic. We did get another beautiful view of Mount Meru, complete with a small plane taking off.

We arrived at Kilimanjaro airport around 2pm. Our flight wasn't until 17.55, so the taxi driver dropped us off at a small cafe just outside the airport, where we got lunch. The pizza wasn't going to win any prizes, but at least it was something to eat.

Once we'd finished eating we went through security number 3 to enter the airport, checked in, went through passport control to get stamped out of Tanzania and then went through security number 4 to get to the gate.

The plane took off more or less on time and we landed in Doha around 23.30. Our onward flight to Birmingham wasn't until 08.15 on Sunday morning, so that meant we qualified for a (completely free) hotel room for the night. We'd been issued with a voucher to claim this, which we had to present at the transfer desk when we arrived.

We found the transfer desk without any difficulties and they confirmed that we had a room within a hotel physically inside the airport. That meant that we didn't have to go through passport control and get stamped into Qatar, which was good. We did, however, have to go through security check number 5 and trek across the very large airport to locate it, so it was nearly half-past midnight by the time we reached the room.

The room was comfy with good air-con, which we definitely needed because Qatar still felt like an oven. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend too long in it, needing to check out at 06.30 on Sunday morning so that we had time to get to our gate.

There was one final fun experience of the holiday to look forward to on Sunday though, because we were flying from Doha to Birmingham in business class

We're normally more Ryanair sort of people, but I got a late upgrade offer and was able to use some airline points I'd collected to pay for it, so it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.  The seats were definitely bigger and more comfortable than we're used to!

We had multiple cushions, a blanket, tonnes of legroom, a huge screen and a big table.

Some of the other passengers got straight onboard and ordered alcohol. 8am in the morning felt a bit early for that, but we made the most of breakfast. I had multiple coffees with pastries...

...while Tim was more adventurous in his menu choices.

The flight time from Doha to Birmingham was over seven hours, so that meant we did have opportunity to make the most of free alcohol and snacks in the second part of the flight. Tim was particularly impressed when he found you could help yourself to crisps

As we were flying over Europe we were able to order lunch. I had an amazing cheeseboard with warm bread rolls...

...plus some red wine to wash down the cheese, of course!

This may be the first time we've ever been sad for a flight to come to an end! Overall it was a perfect end to what has been a really exciting adventure