Mar 1, 2010 - Kilimanjaro Marathon Weekend

February 26- March 1 Marathon weekend is here! I needed to get from Nairobi, Kenya to Moshi, Tanzania which on the map doesn’t look to far but given African infrastructure the road was less than optimal for driving. The shuttle bus had a 14 person capacity with all the luggage piled on the roof. The road consisted of patches of rough pavement and detours every few hundred meters of rough, boulder/ dirt road. This road made our gravel roads look like the autobahn. I met a US gentlemen in Nairobi also travelling for the marathon and he asked...

Feb 5, 2009 - Disaster Strikes

I had a great few days in Ngorongoro Crater and Conservation Area about 3 hours north of Arusha, but when we got back to the lodge to pick up our bags for Kili, I was mortified to discover that my bag was missing! I'm sure some of you are not surprised at all by this, knowing my luck. It was not in the storage room or anywhere else. They suspect that another group picked it up, which means it could be anywhere right now. They are trying to track it down, but my hopes of that happening in Africa are slim to none. Practically everything I...

Dec 21, 2007 - A very white Kilimanjaro Krismasi

Its hard to believe but we have had a white Christmas in Africa! We have just returned from our 7 day hike to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in the world at 5895m! Now we're staggering around like cripples but its definitely worth it! During our trip thus far there have been times when we have asked ourselves "why are we paying to do this?" and these thoughts were certainly there as we started our ascent at 1 am in pitch black surroundings! Off we went, aided by head torches, rugged up in all our warm...