Getting closer!

We had pretty close to on time flights out of Kilimanjaro and then Doha and we’re now waiting for our afternoon flight and enjoying football at JFK. We are clearly back in the good old USA!

As we flew out from Kilimanjaro yesterday, we took full advantage of Erika’s window seat and the clouds parted to give us some final, beautiful views of the mountain and Uhuru Peak.  We couldn’t peel our faces off the window until Kilimanjaro was finally out of sight and reflected on the experience of climbing THAT high!

Until next time, Kili, you beautiful mountain.

Farewell, Tanzania!

We're about to head out from the hotel to begin our series of flights back home but we will both miss Tanzania quite a bit.  Along our travels we met and learned from incredibly kind people and saw a wider array of natural beauty than either of us could have imagined.  We climbed a mountain, saw a lion from ten feet away, and found out what Simon's beard looks like after over two weeks without shaving.  We pushed ourselves mentally and physically and we benefited from the tremendous support of a dedicated team that was as invested in our well-being as we were.  We traveled thousands of miles and grew closer together while accomplishing a long-term goal.  We hope that we made our team, our families, our friends, and our pup proud!  We were fortunate to visit this remarkable place and benefit from its endless hospitality.  We will carry the lessons from this journey with us even as we leave Tanzania.  Thank you, Kilimanjaro Brothers, Joseph, Priscus, George, Juma, Andrew, Stephen, Jacob, Edward, Masanja, Magembe, Paul, Emmanuel, and Mtaki.  We are glad to have met you and we will miss you very much.

Until the next adventure!
-Erika and Simon

Safari Days 3 and 4 - Serengeti and Ngorongoro

We are happy to report a successful last two days on safari!  Yesterday we woke up in the northern Serengeti and then deliberately made our way back south.  First, though, we had a tasty breakfast at the lodge and saw a few not uncommon guests waiting to sneak in. 

Once we got on the road, we quickly came upon several large buffalo grazing their breakfast.  Soon after that, we hit the highlight of our safari.  Our guide took us over to a rocky hill upon which we spotted what looked at first like one female lion.  Soon, we saw she was joined by another lioness, and then, one by one, three lion cubs popped out of the den.  The noises these little creatures made were unbearably cute and we could not get enough of them.  Two of the cubs were two weeks old and the other was just over a month old. 

We weren’t done getting our fill of lions, though, as just minutes later we came across an impressive roadblock that refused, understandably, to yield. 

Yes.  He’s sitting right in the middle of the road. Yes. We drove around him.  This may have been the first time we felt truly frightened, since as you can see, our presence did not go unnoticed.

We then headed further into the center of Serengeti and found a pond chock full of hippos, grunting as they tried to use one another as pool toys. 

Then, just before lunch, we drove past a remarkable lioness who had enjoyed a successful hunt and earned a snooze in an unexpected spot.  

Luckily, she didn’t jump out on our Land Cruiser (although, she was certainly close enough to do so).  Candidly, the guides had no idea how she climbed up there since the tree had no branches lower than the one she was sleeping on.  Oh well - a fun mystery to stumble upon.  Also note that this was the second time we felt truly frightened on safari.

Finally, after lunch we saw a few more of Simon’s favorite - elephants - before exiting the park and heading for the Ngorongoro Crater and our lodge for the night.  

Unfortunately, soon after leaving the park gates, the notoriously rough Serengeti roads gave us some car trouble, but George at Kilimanjaro Brothers made sure that our safari could go on as planned, so we went to sleep at the Rhino Lodge prepared for our final day.

This morning we woke up at our lodge on the walls of the crater, had a quick breakfast, and then began our descent in our new Land Cruiser.  The crater is a natural enclosure for a wide array of wildlife and we were lucky to get close views of several new animals, including jackals, water oxen, and crown cranes.  We also saw many, many more warthogs, hyenas, lions, wildebeest, hippos, buffalo, zebras, and elephants. 

Alas, the leopard eluded us, but we will have to catch up with her during a hopeful return visit!

Safari Day 2 - Serengeti

This morning, we got up and had a tasty breakfast at our lodge with Chris before we set off for Serengeti National Park at around 9am.  After driving through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to which we will return tomorrow evening, we got to Serengeti at around 12pm.  We had lunch and hiked up to an overlook where we could get a sense of the size of the 14,000 sq km park.  Serengeti means “endless plain,” and it certainly lives up to the name!

Just after 1:45pm we began our safari through parts of the park.  We saw 12 different new species, including Thompson’s Gazelle, Grant’s Gazelle, Hyena, Cheetahs, Heartbeast, a Hippopotamus, a Jackal, Lions, a Black Rhino (from very far away), Topi, a Buffalo, Koribastards, and Vultures.  We also were able to see many more elephants, giraffes, zebra, baboons, impala, and wildebeest. 

The highlights were seeing a mother cheetah and her four cubs, a small pride of lions licking their lips to get us, Simon being able to distinguish between a big hippo and a large boulder, and a massive buffalo chewing on some tall grass. 

(Yes, that’s a rhino) 

As if that wasn’t enough, when we began our drive to our lodge, which is in the northern region of the park, we came upon a large pride of lions eating a zebra.  Apparently the lions had scared away some hyena, who were now patiently waiting their turn, and then vultures also kept tabs on the situation from a nearby tree.  It was not the easiest sight to see, but a remarkable chance to witness the food chain live, in living color! Toto, we’re not at the zoo anymore. We 

(Fairly graphic content below)

What a day! Tomorrow we continue exploring the Serengeti before heading back down to Ngorongoro.  We’re in search of leopards!

Safari Day 1 - Tarangire National Park

We continued our adventure this morning when Chris, our driver-guide, picked us up from our hotel at 7:30am.  After a short stop to pick up our boxed lunches, we drove to Tarangire National Park via Arusha.  On the way we passed several Maasai Bomba compounds and were able to see villagers guiding their goats and cows.  It was very interesting to experience a different local culture even more. 

We got to Tarangire around 12:30, quickly ate our lunches, and then popped open the top of our Land Cruiser, and stood in awe as Chris drove us around part of the nearly 3,000 sq km park.  Very early on, we ran into several giraffes and zebras on their way to their watering hole. 

All told we were lucky to see fifteen different species of animals: velvet monkeys, impala, giraffes, endless wildebeest and zebras, digbeets, warthogs (pumbas), mongoose, baboons, superb stalings, eland antelopes, ostriches, guinea fowl, and water buck.  The highlight, though, was seeing a large family of elephants VERY up close as they were getting water a few feet down in an apparently dry river.  The elephants were on both sides of our Land Cruiser and Simon felt and acted like a giddy kid!

(Our photographer extraordinaire at work) 

(The happiest of 28-year-old children) 

(Waiting for the next great photo)

As an added bonus, on our way out of the park we drove by 10 giraffes and Erika made a friend. 

We left the park at 5:00pm to drive to our safari lodge for the night, but on the way we got this beautiful view passing by Lake Manyara. 

We’re excited to continue our safari adventure tomorrow! Who knows what we will see?

Kilimanjaro Trek Day 8 - Mweka to Mweka Gate

We got up this morning for one last time in our tents a little more reluctantly than we had expected.  First, the campsite was relatively warm and we both slept so well in our sleeping bags.  It was also quiet since almost everyone was exhausted by 8pm last night after a long day.  Second, we knew this was our last day with our Kili Brothers climbing family. 

After a final delicious breakfast whipped up by Edward, our guides and porters performed a few songs and dances to celebrate our time together, and Erika and I joined in knowing a few of the tunes from our summit hike yesterday.  After the celebration, we took a final picture with the guys before beginning our hike down to Mweka Gate. 

(Masanja and Erika in the tent for breakfast)

(L to R: Top: Juma, Stephen, Jacob, Edward, Masanja, Magembe, Andrew, Paul. Bottom: Joseph, us, Priscus)

Our hike took about two and a half hours and the path took us down from Mweka Camp at 3100m to Mweka Gate to exit the park at 1640m.  Over the 10km walk, we descended back into the lush Kilimanjaro rainforest and could hardly believe that just 24 hours ago we were trekking through icy, alpine desert. 

We got to the gate around 10:45am, officially checked out of the park, and then took a van with our climbing team back to our hotel.  

(L to R: Priscus, us, Joseph)

After some very necessary showers, we got packed for our safari which starts tomorrow morning.  Before then, though, we met again with Joseph, Priscus, and others from Kilimanjaro Brothers for a celebratory drink.  We’ll update from the safari as WiFi permits.  Thanks for following along with our adventures!

Kilimanjaro Trek Day 7 - Barafu to Uhuru Peak to Mweka

The more time we have spent on this trek the more that we have realized that our success or failure is only about 1/3 attributable to us and 2/3 the product of the remarkable support team that we have with our outfitter, Kilimanjaro Brothers.  This was never more evident than this morning in our summit attempt.  Long story short - we made it to Uhuru Peak.  However, our success was not always assured.  We both woke up at 11pm last night at the Barafu Camp feeling the effects of the altitude.  Erika has been battling it for several days but Simon’s Diamox-provided immunity apparently wore off, and it did so in the form of an ear-splitting headache for most of yesterday and all of last night.  

Still, after we got up, got dressed in our frigid tent, and had our briefing with Joseph and Priscus, they made all the necessary safety arrangements and had personal oxygen systems for each of us.  Fortunately, we never ended up having to use it. 

After a small breakfast of sugar cookies and tea, we took off up the mountain at our slow, pole pole, pace, which made all the difference.  Our goal was 6km away but this is misleading since we were hoping to climb over 1200m and trying to do so after starting at 4673m.  Our traveling party consisted of the two of us, Joseph, Priscus, and superhuman porter, Juma.  The conditions were, by Priscus’s admissions, terrible.  It was well below freezing (this was expected) and there were violent, near constant wind gusts that threatened to topple us over if we weren’t alert to them.  Joseph adjusted our pace and hiking lines accordingly, though, but it was still rough going up 1222m (4072ft) over five kiomenters.  At our pace, we trudged slowly and exclusively uphill trying to catch our breath for five hours in darkness, cold, and wind before the sun rose.  Joseph, Priscus, and Juma made all the difference.  They kept us going with positive encouragement, pointed out sites around us and locations we could see in Tanzania and Kenya from that height, and even sang many times through the night to keep us awake, knowing that we were climbing in the middle of the night on very little sleep.  Erika and I cannot thank them enough.  They were responsive when we needed to take breaks, helped us deal with temperature fluctuations and our gear (including preparing a strategy for when our camelbacks would inevitable freeze), and carried our day packs along with the emergency gear so we could maximize our chances.  

The sun came up at 6:00am, just after we reached Stella Peak - the lower of the two peaks at Kilimanjaro’s summit.  We felt an instant energy jolt upon reaching Stella and felt our fingers and toes again when the sun rose.  We were treated to pilot’s eye views of the summit, the surrounding terrain, and the glaciers and crater near the peak. 

(Photo taken later on our way down from Uhuru Peak)

We continued climbing around the rim of the crater up another 200m to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa, where we could celebrate with the team.  We got there at 6:30am local time.  After months of planning and training, and days of anticipation, the challenges we faced on our way up only made it all the more thrilling to achieve this long-held goal together!  Erika, in particular, acclimated to the altitude with no medical assistance. 

(Simon and probably Erika but who knows under all of that gear!  We were wearing bare layers, middle layers,  fleeces, heavier jackets, and windbreakers on top, three layers of pants, two layers of socks, and ski hats and scarves, and ski gloves.  Luckily all of our gear kept us perfectly warm and Joseph also showed us how to ventilate safely when we got a little too warm!)

(L to R: Juma, us, Priscus, and Joseph)

We were also able to see nearby Mt. Meru and the Kilimanjaro glacier above the clouds. 

After ten minutes at the summit, we needed to race back to Barafu Camp to escape the altitude.  After a quick picture and juice back at Stella Peak, we descended down the mountain at Juma’s incredible pace, skiing down the scree terrain and getting back to Barafu at 10am.  We were glad to have summited overnight as the terrain looked even more intimidating when we did it in reverse later in the morning. 

After we got back to base camp at Barafu, we briefly napped, packed our gear, and had a quick lunch before beginning the 10km hike down to Mweka Camp, located at a much more pleasant 3100m, at 12:15pm.  This hike was all down hill and we were thanking our trekking poles for saving our knees from further taxation than they were already facing.  Along the way, we left the Alpine Desert and got back into the Moorland, breathing deeply as the oxygen content in the air increased, and enjoying the natural beauty of the mountain. 

We arrived at Mweka Camp at 3:35pm, had some tea, and are now trying to stay awake until dinner.  We’ll see if we make it.  Overall we hiked the equivalent of a half marathon over almost 14 hours and across 4017 vertical meters (13389ft) so bear with us!

We’ll be sad to conclude this part of our Tanzanian adventure tomorrow and sadder still to part with the incredible team and friends we have made here.