What an experience! Sorry for the ridiculously long blog... I promise it gets more exciting toward the end. As mentioned previously, the four of us (myself, Doug, Sarah and Jared) had decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. We had talked about it in November of 2008, and had been training (lots of hiking!) since then. Coming into the climb, I felt like we were prepared and that we would succeed in our endeavor. Our family and friends had confidence in us and we had all our necessary gear. Day One Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa (19,341 ft) and the [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Last weekend a few of us took a day trip out to Machame village, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. We went with a guide who showed us all the local sights. The village is spread out, and surrounded by rainforest/bananna plantations. First of we went for a short 2hour trek into the forest, where we saw 3 waterfalls, and caves. We couldn't get to the big waterfall which you can swim in as it was the rainy season and so the path ws flooded. The village produces several local delicacies, the 2 main ones being coffee and bannana beer. [View Full Entry]

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Monday, March 23, 2009: We left the school of preaching at 7:30 this morning. Kamarabi was our driver and he drove us to Moshi. That is about 40 miles, maybe, but it took us quite a while to get there. Around Arusha and Maji Ya Chai it's really green and tropical, but just a little ways farther it turns into what you picture Africa as-- desert. We saw a lot of homes that didn't have windows, doors, roofs. The reason is, if you have a lot of money (or any money) you are automatically obligated to give some to your relatives [View Full Entry]

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Kilimanjaro - Machame Route - Day 4 - Friday 6th March I woke up on the morning of day 4 after a very good night’s sleep, much to my relief after the freezing cold night I had at Shira Caves. We were up early and the sky was very clear. We had a beautiful sight of the summit once again and so we took the opportunity to take our team photo, all seven of us! I had with me my guide, Felex, four porters (one of whom was my waiter) and Alex my cook. They were all very friendly although I [View Full Entry]

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Kilimanjaro - Machame Route - Day 1 - Tuesday 3rd March Breakfast was served from 6am so I was up and about around half five. The power had still not come on from the night before and so the head torch was out to do the final packing of my daypack. The majority of the morning was spent running around like a headless chicken trying to organise the rental gear and settle my bill form the plate of chips and a bottle of water for the night before. We all stood waiting to meet our guides; I was the only one [View Full Entry]

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Welcome back folks, Our next adveture is Mombasa to Moshi (base town for Kilimanjaro treks) by bus and then to Mount Kilmanjaro. The bus journey was the ride of a lifetime! The 1st 4 hours were nice and easy, just a few stops by the Kenyan Police who had set up a toll in the middle of no where when suddenly the road ended and the next 4 hours were spent holding on for dear life dodging potholes and speed bumps (why one requires speed bumps on a dirt road is beyond me). The holding on for dear life was somewhat [View Full Entry]

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Hitting the peak of Kilimanjaro is a shock, a relief and an ecstatic rush all rolled into one. The orange horizon burned my eyes after hiking for 6 hours in the dark, my fingers were frozen, lips ripped apart from the wind and sand. My boots weighed ten times what they did when we set off 5 days before, my head was throbbing from the thin air up here. But still it was amazing. Having trekked through monkey-filled mountain rainforests, from soaking cloud layers to parched, dry deserts and up the steep volcanic ash fields to the frozen glacier walls, i [View Full Entry]

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"No, you're not on the passenger list." said the check-in guy, stuck his bottom lip out, and leaned back in his seat as if he was going back to sleep. Zanzibar airport desks are little more than corroding wooden desks set against the side of the road with scruffy, faded signs advertising defunct plane companies and a chalk board to list the departures. The board had yesterdays date at the top. And my ticket was really a corroding peice of paper with 'J&Js Travel' printed at the top and some scruffy handwriting underneath and was no more than a reciept for [View Full Entry]

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There she is. Standing firm through the thin blanket of clouds over the African planes, a great big square chunk of rock dumped in the middle of Africa. Kilimanjaro, viewed from my airplane window looks amazing. The cloud line is barely halfway up the slopes and she looks a barren, lunar wasteland above, with hardly any snow covering or vegetation. I'm going to climb that! ME? Am i sure? Surely theres no air above the clouds? Surely the wind will blow us all off? Will we be higher than this plane? But for now, my worries must wait and brood. This [View Full Entry]

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Hey Everyone, After 8 nights of camping, temperatures ranging from 0-80 degrees, no showers (yes...we didn't shower for 8 days), some minor vomiting occurrences and headaches, we summitted Kilimanjaro on January 1st at 6:00 am as the sun rose over the mountain. It was truly amazing and the pictures will not due it justice but--it is something we will never forget. The journey getting there was great adventure that we enjoyed (most of the time). We had a great group of 7 that we summitted with, two of which were 59 (Mom and Dad you are under 59 aren't you?). Also [View Full Entry]

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