Blogs from Mount Kilimanjaro, North, Tanzania, Africa - page 7

Countdown to Kilimanjaro A year has passed since THAT e-mail dropped into my inbox at work, from the corporate events team, detailing various exciting and worthwhile charity events, including climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. My eyes lit up, possibly a little hastily ! 'Ahh, Why not?' I thought. A challenge could be exactly just what I need. 'Where do I sign myself up ?!' I work the standard 9 to 5:30 (boring) office job in Cambridge, so the idea of having an extracurricular challenge seemed like a good one. As the months have passed, and the trip has become to loom - it's just under 3 months away now - my gung-ho mentality has weaned, and the prospect of ascending 20,000 feet that stand between me and the summit suddenly feels ...... awfully daunting, to say the least. ... read more

3 Day Safari: Tarangire, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara Whilst most people would probably leave a safari to the end of their Tanzanian trip, we decided to put ours first. This was mostly due to timing, but actually I was very happy with the arrangement. It gave us a few days to get used to Tanzania - to the climate, the food, the water, etc - before starting our big hike. We had a lovely guide - Gabriele - who was endlessly patient with our turning up late for him every morning (Barry is so slow at packing!), stopping for photos all the time, and being the only people on his tour. Because we didn’t have other people to worry about we were able to spread ourselves out in Gabriele’s 4x4 jeep, making it a very comfortable ... read more

For a long time we were looking forward to our climb of the Kilimanjaro. Since many people suffer from altitide sicknes on the Kilimanjaro we decided to start our trip to Tanzania at Mount Meru. Kilimanjaro´s little sister would be a good place to acclimatize to the high altitude. Located in Arusha national park we could only climb this mountain with the company of a ranger, since there are many wild animals in the park. We started of climbing with a group of 7 other tourist, on our drive to the park gate we already viewed many zebra's, wildebeasts and buffalo's. While walking through te forest we saw some White Colobus Monkeys, and some Reedbuck. After walking 3 hours we had to stand still, the Ranger pointed with his fingers to the wood and there we ... read more

Long time held ambition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro... read more

Today - 20 June 2010. The group had a very early start as they prepared themselves forthe summit attempt on Kili. A total of 7 hours were taken for 11 members of the 20 strong group to reach the first stage of the climb, reaching Gilmans Point (5683m) at 07:15 hours. The weather was cold, the sun was breaking through the cloud and everones was exhausted. Ice coasted everyones gear. 6 persons continued on with the summit bid as the group headed onto Uhuru Peak - 5895m. The remaining group returned to Kibo hut for a well deserved rest. After a long and debilitating day the group all finally returned to Kibo hut by 13:00 hours for lunch. they all then descended to Horomobo huts for a good nights rest, knowing they had all done their ... read more