You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2009.
My sister created the album so I couldn’t add any subtitles, but I’m sure you can all figure out what is going on. Enjoy!
In the morning, we did a short 3-hour hike to Barafu Camp at 4600m. This was our last camp before summiting. We arrived early and took naps for most of the afternoon. The guides told us to sleep while we could. We had an early dinner, prepared our gear and got ready for bed.
I had been feeling great the whole trip, and just as I was getting ready for bed, I did a complete 180. I guess the altitude finally kicked in. I got really nauseous and my stomach and head started to hurt. I started puking and got diarrhea. It was about 8pm, and I immediately went to my guides’ tent. I crawled into their already full tent (the 2-person tent now had 4 people). We tried tea, coke, tums and imodium but I wasn’t feeling any better.
By midnight, it was time to summit and none of us had gotten a wink of sleep. And I could barely even sit up. They decided that I needed to descend the mountain. So my sister packed up my bag, the guide dressed me in all my warm clothes, and they put me in my sleeping bag on top of a makeshift stretcher (a tarp with straps). So while Risa, Elior, our head guide, Arnold, and a porter with no gloves went to the summit, I was carried down. From 1am until 4am, 6 porters and our assistant guide carried me down a steep path. They would trip here and there, but they didn’t drop me or put me down once. At 4am we arrived at a ranger hut. I stood up to go to the bathroom and basically fell over. My guide had to hold my hand and walk me to the bathroom. From the ranger hut, we got a stretcher with one wheel in the middle. It was easier for the porters to balance and push the stretcher than to carry me. But all the jostling on the stretcher didn’t help my head or stomach. By 6:30 am we arrived at Mweka Hut at 3000m. They set up a tent and I slept for a few hours. But my worst fear was confirmed – bad diarrhea in a disgusting drop toilet. My guide then decided that we needed to go all the way down to the gate. We slowly walked the 3 hours to the gate, where there was a real toilet! I slept for the afternoon while waiting for Risa and Elior.
Risa and Elior booked it to the summit in 5 hours and then started on their way down to Mweka Hut, where we were supposed to spend the night. When they found out we went all the way down to the gate, they decided to also. So after an incredibly long day, they arrived at the gate around 6pm. For those who have climbed Kili, you know that going to the summit and all the way down to the gate in one day is no easy task.
I am obviously bummed I didn’t make it to the top, but I still had a blast. The hikes were beautiful, our crew was awesome, we met cool people and camping was fun. I guess it just means I’ll have to try it again someday…
Day 2: We awoke early in the morning to tea being served to us in our tents. We enjoyed a nice breakfast outside and then headed out early. The hike would take about 6-7 hours and we wanted to beat the rain. The path was muddy and steep, and crowded with hikers and porters. We played geography to pass the time, and arrived at camp just as it started to rain. We stayed in our tents playing bananagrams until the rain stopped. After, we explored the Shira Caves by the campsite. Tonight we were sleeping at 3850m and it was 2c/35f inside the tents. Obviously it was significantly colder outside. But I was warm in my sleeping bag.
Day 3: On Machame you climb high and sleep low. We started out early again, stopping just outside the camp for a bathroom break (because the bush is better than the long drops). We hiked uphill for hours, but we were all so engrossed in our geography game that we didn’t even notice the tough hike. And then, it started to hail. I actually preferred this to the rain because the hail bounced off me while my clothes absorbed the rain. We climbed to Lava Tower at 4600m and ate lunch in some other groups’ dining tent (because we didn’t have our own). As we descended down to our camp it started to rain. We moved quickly and arrived at our camp at 3950m by early afternoon. We spent the afternoon as we usually did; playing bananagrams and searching for bathroom tents or places in the bush so we didn’t have to use the long drops. The bathrooms were as terrible as I’m making them sound. By this altitude, the mountain was pretty cold. We ate dinner inside the tent and slept with all our clothes.
Day 4: This morning was freezing. It was too cold to eat breakfast. Today would be a short, 4-hour hike up and down Barafu wall. They all say that Kilimanjaro is a non-technical climb, but the hike today involved some serious rock hugging and climbing. Machame route is the second most popular, so it was slow going. The hikers were slow to climb, and while the porters were still moving quickly, rock climbing with 20kg on your head can’t be easy. We went as high as 4200m and then descended to 4100m to sleep. Now that it was getting too cold to even sit outside during the day, we made some friends in a group with a nice, big and warm dining tent. We spent the afternoon just chatting, and of course taught them all to play bananagrams. Their Tanzanian guide tried to play too, but he was obviously at a disadvantage trying to build a scrabble board in English. So we played a round in Swahili. He did better than me, but I wasn’t too bad. We ate dinner early at around 6pm, and were in our sleeping bags by 7:30pm.
After eating and sitting too much on safari, Risa, Elior and I embarked on a more active adventure. My parents flew home and we spent the night preparing our gear for Mt. Kilimanjaro. Located in northern Tanzania, Kili is the tallest freestanding mountain in Africa at 5895m. Risa and I had talked about climbing Kili for years now, so we were more than excited to finally be doing it. We climbed via the Machame Route.
Day 1: We were transferred to the gate and met our crew; Arnold (our head guide), Filbert (our asst guide), Amos (our cook) and 10 porters to carry all the gear. The place was organized chaos, as all the different groups gathered their gear and had the bags weighed. While we were waiting, we mistakenly used the “local” bathrooms and were quickly introduced to what would be one of the hardest parts of the climb.
Once we were all sorted, we started hiking the 6 hours to the first campsite through a beautiful rainforest. A few hours in, it started to rain, despite February supposedly being the “warm, dry season.” We were glad we had ponchos, and they even covered us when we had to pee (which was frequent from the Diamox – altitude sickness meds). It poured so hard that my feet were swishing around despite my Goretex-covered Merrells, and I became pretty miserable. By the time we arrived at camp it was clear enough to eat dinner outside, but a lot of our clothes were still wet. Per our guide’s recommendation, we slept on everything that was wet so our body heat could dry it. Risa and I also quickly learned to sleep with all the clothes we planned to wear the next day so they wouldn’t be freezing in the morning. As I mentioned earlier, the bathrooms at the campsites were pretty basic, if not downright disgusting (and my standards are pretty low). The luxury companies bring bathroom tents, which we started sneaking into at night.
Laying in our tents, we were proud we made it through day 1. We were getting into a routine and ready for day 2!
Safari the second time around was just as amazing and fun. This time, my parents, my sister Risa, and her friend Elior came all the way to Tanzania for a 6-day safari. We used a company called Tropical Trails (www.tropicaltrails.com) that offers top-notch safaris for reasonable prices. Our incredible guide, John, spotted everything and anything from miles away. We started in Tarangire National Park where we stayed at a beautiful luxury tented camp (www.tarangireroikatentedlodge.com). From there, we headed to Ndutu for two days to watch the spectacular wildbeest migration. After that, it was to the vast Serengeti Plains for more leopard searching. Lastly, we descended into the Ngorongoro Crater. All of the lodging was fantastic and I think our only complaint was too much food. There was enough to feed an entire African village.
Risa, dad, John (our guide), Elior and mom with Ngorongoro Crater in the background
Some of the highlights:
1. Being with my family (Elior, you count too).
2. John being the best safari guide ever.
3. Seeing lions mating.
4. Watching cheetah cubs in Ndutu learn from their mother how to hunt. We saw them kill two gazelles.
5. Baby everything…zebras, elephants, hippos, etc.
6. Finally finding the elusive leopard on day 5. Thank you John!
7. Watching a wilderbeest give birth in Ngorongoro Crater.
8. Playing bananagrams before dinner.
9. Having a picnic breakfast on the plains of Ndutu.
10. Seeing all the Big Five (elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo).
When we first started out, my dad questioned why he had to come all the way to Tanzania to see animals, when he could have just gone to the safari at Six Flags. By the end, we all agreed that the trip was more than worthwhile. A trip of a lifetime, if you will.
Zebras grazing in the plains of Ndutu
Cheetah cub playing in the trees
