Kilimanjaro - Part II

by Cindy

Earlier Jeff posted some of the facts about our trip to Tanzania so I thought I would take the time to add some commentary. Our team theme was "clear and copious." Our leader always wanted to know if we were clear and copious. There were 13 of us in our group, half female, with Jeff being the youngest and the oldest being 73! The best part about it is that the 73 year old made it to the top before anyone else. The trip was great. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. We met some great people and had a great team.

First night of camping with the summit in the background.

From the get go, I was skeptical about even taking the trip. I knew it was a lifelong dream of Jeff's and I admit, after seeing first hand from Kenya just how beautiful the mountain is, it was kind-of tempting. But, it cost a lot of money, the packing list was four pages long and we didn't have a thing on the list! What we did have was in storage in Texas so we were starting from scratch. My real (unvoiced until now) fear was that Jeff would love the trip so much that every vacation would become a climbing vacation and there would be no more R&R vacations and cooking schools (my kind of trips!). I was afraid that we would be climbing Mt. Everest or K2 next! Fortunately, we are both on the same page in that we enjoyed the trip but eight days was a bit long for us. We prefer a night or two out and shower every few days.

The trip was not too hard physically. Jeff and I work out for 30-60 minutes six days a week and we were in good enough shape to climb. Most of the "climbing" is walking a path up the mountain. There was one section on one day that we were climbing over rocks and using our hands but otherwise, it really is more of a hike than a climb. As one of our team members put it, you are more challenged by the amount of air your lungs can take in than you are challenged by the hiking. We took six days to get up the mountain and some of those days we were to our camp site by lunch so we had the whole afternoon to rest and adjust to the altitude.

The hard part of the trip was the combination of the "other" elements that you don't necessarily consider and for which you can't really train. For instance, sleeping on the ground (or trying to sleep), the cold weather, having to get up multiple times a night to go to the bathroom and having to bundle up each time (remember - clear and copious), drinking filtered water from Africa and all of the intestinal issues that come with that, altitude sickness and not taking a shower for eight days. I admit it, not showering was the part that scared me the most! I took a plethora of wet wipes and took every chance I had to wipe down and clean up in any way I could. The upside was that the weather was cold so we didn't have to worry about sweating too much. I also wore a hat full time after the first day. I cannot express to you how nasty my hair was. I would wear it in a pony tail during the day, take the elastic holder out at night and the next morning, it would still be in the form of a pony tail, even though I had slept on it! GROSS! It helped that every other woman on the trip was in the same boat but it was still gross.

We were fortunate to have amazing weather for the whole trip. It rained twice, both times while we were in the tent eating lunch. We had fog a couple of times but the next day it was clear so we were able to see the things we had missed. My favorite part was that we were above the clouds! It really was a cool feeling and a great accomplishment.

Overall the trip was a success and I am tankful that we took the time to do it. It was only a four hour flight for us and a one hour time difference. Would I recommend it? Only if you are already considering doing it. If you are thinking about it - go for it! It will be easier than you think. Jeff and I were both thankful that we already have our next trip planned so on the tough days, we were taking and daydreaming about cooking school in Seville and the sweet villa in the Southern Spain countryside that awaits us in April!

Above the clouds.

We made it up the Western Breach - above the clouds!

Camping in the clouds.

Porters and campers hiking into the clouds.

Before we got started.