Aug 19, 2011 - Kili Day Six: Return to the Gate and Goodbye

In total from midnight until about 3:30pm when we reached Horombo yesterday we ascended 1200m and descended 2200m and our bodies - legs, arms, back and feet felt it! There were no pee breaks and no tossing and turning last night, instead we were all knocked out for about 9 hours. But we weren't finished yet, we still needed to cram our sore feet back in our hiking boots one last time for the six hours of walking that remained. It was a hot sunny day as we headed off back through the last of the alpine desert and into...

Aug 18, 2011 - Kili Day Four/Five: Part III: Return to Kibo Hut

We didn't linger at Uhuru for long, we arrived there about 7:30am, the sun was now up and we were warming up slightly, we grabbed a quick snack and the crowd that was made up of trekkers from all the various routes up the mountain was getting larger. It was time to retrace our steps and return to Kibo Hut for lunch and to pack up our gear that we had left behind. The path from Uhuru back to Gilman's meandered along the crater rim and had some inclines, you had to remind yourself that you still needed to go pole pole, that...

Aug 18, 2011 - Kili Day Four/Five: Part II: Summit Day (Night)

Room 2 at Kibo Hut, in addition to Amanda, Anna and myself, housed the following: A. Japanese couple - likely in the 40-50 age range.  Very quiet pair only two in their group. B. Solo Japanese guy - probably in his late 20s, alone in his group with his guide and porters.  He was quiet but very kind - he was the bottom of my bunk and had the musfortune of having to sleep through my tossing and turning. C. Spanish threesome from a larger group.  Two girls and a guy.  One of the girls and the guy were already sick upon...

Aug 18, 2011 - Kili Day Four/Five: Part IV: Return to Horombo Camp

Following our lunch of chicken noodle soup and toasted sandwiches it was time to continue our descent. We were all feeling good at this point, on an adrenaline high from reaching the summit and for 3/4 of the walk down we were smiling, laughing and chatting with the passing porters. It was not an easy walk though, the sun was out in full force, our legs, knees, arms and feet were hurting and it was still a long way until we could sleep. I am still today suffering from the extreme sunburn my nose got coming down the...

Aug 17, 2011 - Kili Day Four/Five: Part I - Kibo Hut (4700m)

Today was the start of a very long 48 hours. It didn't start out any differently, the first part wasn't anything we weren't already accustomed to when leaving for the next camp.  We would be walking 3.5 hrs through alpine desert - pole pole, stopping for a picnic lunch then continuing on another 3 hours. For much of the morning we were able to see the peak and we took as many photos as possible and looked in amazement at where we were headed. During the day we were passed by groups that were returning from their...

Aug 16, 2011 - Kili Day Three: Horombo Camp (3700m)

Since this was our "rest" day, our breakfast and wake up was later than normal and we didn't have to pack up our gear. We ate and got ready at a leisurely pace and emptied our daypacks of almost everything for our day trek to 4100m. From Horombo there are two paths to reach Kibo Hut; the low road and the high road.  We would be taking the low road (~9.26km) the following day so for our acclimatization hike, we took the high road.  If you followed it all the way to Kibo it would be ~10.5km but we weren't going that...

Aug 15, 2011 - Kili Day Two: Mandara Hut to Horombo Hut (3700m)

Mornings went about the same each day.  We were usually awake before the knock at the door from Johnny with tea, milo and coffee.  He'd come inside and make each of us a cup of whatever we wanted and in response to our "Good Morning, Johnny", he'd always ask us how we slept...like a baby? About fifteen minutes after serving us tea in bed, he'd be back with tubs of warm water and soap for washing. We'd change back into our day hiking clothes - wash whatever body parts we could manage, pack up our sleeping bag and whatever else...

Aug 7, 2011 - Safari Day 3 - NgoroNgoro Crater

Safari day 3 took us to the NgoroNgoro crater. A massive volcanic crater caused by the collapse of the original volcano. It was 21km wide and held many different animals. The most exciting were the Lions. We finally saw a male Liom however it was pretty far! We also saw for the first time two Rhino's. They were also really far and unfortunately my new Zoom lens wasn't strong enough to get all the way there! It was a cool experience but we were pretty safari'd out at that point. Its lots of fun but gets a bit claustrophobic in the same car...

Aug 6, 2011 - Safari Day 1 and 2

We started our Safari in the Tangiere national park on the Serengetti. It was incredible! We saw Elephants, Zebras, Giraffe's, Impala's, wildbeast, monkeys, and to top it all off we saw a Lioness laying on a rock bed! We have some great photos on our other camera we'll try and upload when we get to a landline. That night we stayed at the Butman Safari lodge which was 2km away from the park. It was very sketchy to say the least! The manager explained the weird noises we hear at night could be lions or hyenas crossing the lodge grounds!! We...

Aug 3, 2011 - Day 5,6 and 7 - Karunga camp, Kosovo Camp, Summit and descent

Day 5 started early at 730am. We were hiking from our camp at Karanga to hike to the high camp at Kosovo. The hike lasted about 6 hours and took us from an altitude of approximatelu 4000m to 4800m but felt like a much longer walk as we had to hike up over lots of rocks and tough terrain. Once we got to Kosovo camp we had a late lunch and spent the rest of the day acclimatizing to the altitude. That night we had an early dinner as day 6 was the summit day! We woke up early in the morning on day 6, 4am, to give us the summit all to ourselves....

Jul 31, 2011 - Day 2, 3, 4 - Umbwe Route to Umbwe camp, Barancco Camp, Karunga Camp

Sorry for the delay in our posting but its hard to find service on the mountain. We have made it to Day 4 and are going strong! It is unbelievable cold!! We knew it would be cold at night but neither of us expected to be wearing four layers of clothing to bed!! Day 1 on the mountain started out on the Umbwe route. This is a very challenging route and it had many vertical spots. It is amazing how hard it is to walk on such steep inclines. Our guide Paul let us go ahead and learn how tired we would get by trying to climb to fast! In Swahili...

Jul 27, 2011 - Moshi and Arusha

Our first day in Africa was a beauty! We woke up around 8am to go for breakfast. Our guide Paul ate some kind of chicken spleen. It looked like mushrooms? We then took a 45 minute hike into the town of Moshi. When we got there we walked through the town to see the city. It was an interesting site and we took lots of pictures we'll upload later. I bought a patch for my bag and Laura bought a batik (painting) and a bracelet that is supposed to help her up the mountain. From there we went to a small diner outside of town for lunch. We ate...