Mt Kilimanjaro

Jambo (hello) from the roof of Africa!

After what seemed like the never ending day, two plane and over 36 hours of travel, I finally arrived in Tanzania. It was a bit overwhelming at first and I must admit I was pretty lonely at first. I was kinda going, shit what did I just get myself into?!" Then of course the tourists starting coming out and after just one day at the YMCA I was headed up to climb Kilimanjaro. It was an amazing trip! I spent 7 days on the mountain with two fantastic guides, five porters (they carry everything), and a cook. These guys were just amazing. The hiking was intense to say the least with anywhere from 4 to 7 hour on the trail each day. This wasn't walking on a flat trail mind you, we were going up over 1000 meters a day and then down 1000 meters to camp everyday, hike high, sleep low. Anyway it was really physically intense. The last day, summit day, we had to wake up at 11pm! We started our long journey up the mountain at midnight, in the snow, but it was so beautiful. With the bright moon we didn't need to use our head lamps at all. It was so steep that, even with the walking poles, we had to take a step, stop, take a step, stop. It was all you could do just to keep going. Luckily this entire trip I didn't have any altitude sickness, mostly in part to the medication my doctor prescribed I'm sure. We finally reached the roof of Africa, Uhuru peak, at 6:20am. We just caught the sun as it was coming up, took some photos before the clouds came back in and then were headed back down the mountain. The peak is 5895 meters high, I don't know what it is in feet but almost 20,000. So, anyway, running out of time here on the computer so I'll wrap it up. I'm completely in tact, well soar as hell but fine. I am figuring out how to take the bus to Nairobi and even met some fellow travelers that I might meet up with in about a months time. So I'll do my best to keep you all posted. Love to everyone, can't wait to show you pictures!!!!