I felt refreshed after more than 10 hours of sleep. The next morning, we woke up at 6am, packed our gears, had breakfast in the morning sun, and headed back to the gate at 8am. It was only about 3 hours of down hill hiking in the rain forest terrain...it was a beautiful and relaxing hike. I took my sweet time to enjoy the scenary. I saw colobus monkeys with black and white fur. A couple of them leaped from the tree on one side of the trail to the oppositing side. * On the last day and the easiest hike, [View Full Entry]

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I had less than 3 hours of sleep and got up at 10pm. I forced down a few cookies and tea...then at 11pm sharp, about 10 of us started the slow hike to Uhuru Peak - the top of Kilimanjaro. Hiking in the dark was scary. Winds were blowing at 40 miles per hour and temperature was less than 30 degrees when we started the climb. My head lamp went out 10 mintues into the hike (the battery stopped working when the weather gets too cold). I had to follow someone who had a decent head lamp the rest of the [View Full Entry]

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Karanga Camp (13,800′) to Barafu Camp (15,200′) We had a short hike today (3-4 hours). It was a weird day. Winds were hollering when we arrived at camp at noon. I found some brand new tiolets at the camp....after days of enduring smelly tiolets, you can imagine my joy at the sight of new tiolets...I think I might have been the first few that christened the new tiolets. I had a quick lunch and went to sleep. I woke up at around 6pm for dinner (some people skipped dinner to get more sleep - now looking back, I wished I had [View Full Entry]

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Barranco Hut to Karanga Valley (13,000') Most of the hike today was over steep hills...climbing up and down without the use of my trekking poles for the first 3 hours. It was foggy for the most part. Certain parts of the hike reminded me of the "Planet of the Apes"...moon like, devoided of life. I saw many stones were stacked together to form a temple like structure. It appeared to point to certain direction or to indicate the trail. Regardless of its purpose, I found the stones beautiful to look at. Near the campsite, I took several snap shoots at the [View Full Entry]

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Shira Camp (12,300') to Barranco Camp (12, 800'). The hike today was brutal. The oxygen level in the air decreased substantially. I felt out of breath and had a slight headache as we hiked to about 14,200' in the early afternoon. I took Diamox in the morning to alleviate the headache associated with high altitude sickness. It helped. But since Diamox was diuretic, I was on the constant lookout for that big rock or big bush to hide behind to answer the call of nature. After lunch we had the option of continuing to Lava Tower (15,000', close to the rockslide [View Full Entry]

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Machame Hut to Shira Hut (12,300') I felt weak today. I had soup for breakfast and lunch. The hike was noticeably more difficult than yesterday due to the gain in altitude. I got to camp after 4pm and lied down in the tent. * I did not have an appetite for dinner...just had soup again. Afraid that I was going to have to turn back the next day, I finally took an anti-nausea pill at night and felt much better the next morning. [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at the Keys Hotel yesterday afternoon and met the other travelers in the group. The hotel has a swimming pool! This morning, as I sat at the courtyard of Keys Hotel and looked out...I saw Mt. Kilimanjaro staring right at me. It was massive. I could hardly believe that I was about to embark on this trek to summit the highest free standing mountain in the world. We left the hotel at about 8am and drove 45 minutes from Moshi up to Machame Gate (5,600′). There were about 50-60 porters, cooks, and guides in our group. We checked in [View Full Entry]

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I almost forgot that it was Christmas. Dates and holidays seemed less relevant when you are not surrounded by friends and family. The only signs of Christmas at Moshi were the plastic trees and the annoying "jingle bell" song played over and over again at the hotel lobby. I set out to explore the town a bit with Sherry this morning. Madhu and I met Sherry during the bus ride from Nairobi. Sherry is one of the 28 people on the bootsnall Kilimanjaro/Safari tour. The people greeted us with "jambo" (hello). One little boy came up and sang "happy birthday" to [View Full Entry]

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I left SF on 12/22/05 at 2pm for the airport. It was raining like cats and dogs. I hope the weather in London would be better. * I sat next to a girl (about 6-7 years old) and her mom. During the long flight, the girl at times would fall asleep and put her head on my shoulder (perhaps thinking that I was the mom). I didn't have the heart to wake her up...although she was far from a petite size girl...taking after her mom. With kids....that's when you experience unconditional love (please don't say that my biological clock is ticking...it [View Full Entry]

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The goal for the last weekend before the trip was to summit Mt. Diablo in Concord, CA, via the Mitchell Canyon Road trail. The elevation gain … about 3,300 ft, round trip about 15 miles. The weather forecast said it would rain in the evening. I figured Madhavi and I should have enough time to get back before the rain set in… On the way to the staging area on Mitchell Canyon Road… hmm, strange….there was a mining operation right next to residential houses. There were few cars parked at the lot. I can see why….the weather didn’t look too good. [View Full Entry]

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