Andrew's Awesome Adventures

Previous entry.

Our fist full day in the Serengeti. We started with a sunrise balloon ride over the plains (with a few issues causing sunrise itself to happen under our feet...) where we saw lots of animals from a unique perspective. This was followed by a full English breakfast with sparkling wine served on the plains of the Serengeti, with zebra and a few other animals slowly strolling by. Despite the technical issues, a quite fun way to spend the morning.

Previous entry.

So, have you ever wanted to do a safari? Well, it's worth it. Just on the first day, at Lake Manyara, we've already seen tons of baboons, elephants, antelopes, baboons, warthogs, zebra, baboons, flamingos, toucan, baboons, wildebeest, giraffes, baboons and more (Did I mention baboons? There were quite a few of those). And they don't even run off when you drive up (they're not hunted in the reserves here). You see things better than you would in a zoo and the animals get to live in their natural homes. There are also a lot more of them around.

Previous entry.

After yesterday's long ordeal, today was a pleasant and joyous celebration. A few hours of hiking down through the beautiful rainforest (including finding the endemic Impassion Kilimajaro flower) brought us to the Mweka Gate. We signed the log book a final time, after which several people paid for boot cleaning--it's amazing how dirt colored an originally black boot can become.

Previous entry.

Summit day. Team Kelele Kilele (noisy summit) awoke around 11 PM to get ready for our push to the summit. We left around midnight with a full moon overhead--while some people used headlamps, the terrain was clearly visible without one. The weather was cold but movement helped keep that from being too big an issue.

Previous entry.

Today was a day mostly in preparation for tomorrow. We hiked for a few hours to reach the Barafu Hut (4,673 meters, 15,331 feet) and then rested to prepare for our summit bid leaving near local midnight. Reports from those on the way down suggest a difficult day ahead. There is a good chance some of us won't make it. Hopefully we beat those chances!

On the way into camp, we happened to cross a long section of musical rocks. Here you can hear the sound of Kilimanjaro:

Previous entry.

The Barranco Wall: a massive cliff that stood on our path to the summit. That was our main challenge today.

Scrambling up the cliff took a couple of hours, both due to the sheer number of people climbing and the altitude contributing to the difficulty. The views on the way up were quite spectacular, although we entered a cloud at the top.

Previous entry.

Previous entry.

Today we walked across the Shira Plateau with Kilimanjaro standing tall by our side. It even had the decency to wear a stylish hat of clouds.

Just before leaving the plateau, we crossed the emergency road used for evacuations. Probably a much easier way up but almost certainly less fun.

Previous entry.

Today the climb began in earnest. ~8 km (5 miles) horizontal and ~700 meters (2000 feet) vertical took us out of the rainforest and onto the Shira Plateau (~3500 meters, 11,500 feet). Our team is still doing fine but the rigors of the climb are coming more in focus.