Kilimanjaro Photos

Kilimanjaro Trip Photos - Page 1

Note: All shots were taken with a Canon Powershot G2 at 1024x768 (the camera's max resolution is 2272x1704), 1GB IBM microdrive. The pictures were downloaded onto a Dell Dimension 8100 workstation where they were resized to 400x300 via PaintShopPro v5.

I left Denver for Johannesburg on Friday, Feb. 7 on the 12:50AM South African Airways flight and arrived in Johannesburg on Saturday, Feb. 8. The airport was jammed with incoming out-of-towners - for the Cricket World Cup which was opening that day. Spent a day in Centurion (suburb between Johannesburg and Pretoria), bedding down at the Centurion Guest House, a bed/breakfast place. I visited Stephan Van der Lingen with whom I left a large suitcase w/ stuff for the South African leg of my trip. Also dropped by Steph's Mom and had dinner with Martin VDL and family.

Left Johannesburg for Nairobi on Sunday, Feb. 9 and stayed at the New Stanley Hotel. After a brief stroll around the hotel's vicinity I had a light workout at the hotel's gym, had an early dinner, and retired early.

On Monday, Feb. 10, I took the Riverside Shuttle Bus from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania. The trip took about 4 hours, an hour of which was spent at the Kenyan border and at the Tanzanian border. Once the bus left the hustle and bustle of Nairobi's weekday morning rush hour, the countryside seemed like a throwback to another time. Saw lots of Maasai and their cattle. The little villages we passed along the way made it clear that we were in a Third World country.

The bus dropped me off at the Novotel Hotel in Arusha. My first impression of my room wasn't very good ... having come from home to Centurion to the New Stanley, the Novotel was definitely a huge step down (on the other hand, when I got back to the Novotel after Kilimanjaro I thought I landed in the lap of luxury!!) I contacted Mayee Warren, college batchmate, and she picked me up at the Novotel. I took with me a copy of our college batch's 25th Reunion Program (we both missed the reunion - I was in Paris with Cyn and Mr.K, Mayee had just started her job as Chief of Evidence for the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Rwandan War Crimes in Arusha.)

Mayee took me to the ICTR quarters where I got to sit in on a trial in progress. Prosecutions have started ... 9 years after the atrocities occurred. I got goose bumps listening to the proceedings. The prosecutor (a bewigged African) would make his statements in English (usually describing hacking incidents or events that lead to massacres by hacking) which would get translated to French and then to Hutu. The defendant would respond in Hutu which would get translated to French and then to English. After a couple of hours of this, I went over to Mayee's office. I was surprised at how rundown the ICTR facilities were, knowing that it is a UN Agency (one of two dedicated to war crimes, the other being the Yugoslavian one.)

Mayee also drove me around town, dropped in on a western style grocery store and to a PX (post-exchange) style dollar based store. The roads were pretty chaotic with people, cars, donkeys, goats, carts, etc. crisscrossing each others paths. Mayee also drove me around the ex-pat gated community ... through severely potholed roads.

We had dinner at Mayee's place - a huge 6 bedroom spread with large lawns and gardens surrounding the house. The house itself had all sorts of bars and gates - clearly security was not an after thought. After dinner I was dropped off at the Novotel where I made final preparations for the next day's start of the Kilimanjaro adventure.

Tuesday, Feb. 11, I got up bright and early, had a huge breakfast and waited for the African Adventures representative. Arnold (of AA) came bounding in and told me that I was #9 in the group. This caught me by surprise because up to this point in time I thought I was #1, a solo trekker with guide and porters. It turned out that the other 8 were relatives/friends ... which worried me somewhat as I'd rather be alone by myself than alone in a group. My worries were for naught as the group turned out to be a wonderful set of people ... with a distinctly Colorado flavor. Bobby and Sue Owen are from Arvada, Colorado. Sue's brother Tom Burns, his wife Anne, and their 2 sons Jake (recent college graduate) and Joe (college freshman) live in the D.C. area. Bob and Cyndi Douglass are Tom and Anne's friends from Virginia.

A huge mini-bus arrived at the Novotel with close to 2 dozen guides, porters, cooks. We met Eligius who was our main guide, a young man 26 years old (wife just their first child, a daughter born January 18). Two assistant guides, Honese and someone else. Dominic was our cook. The rest were porters. We all hopped onto the bus and drove off approximately 2 hours to the Machame Gate ... the starting point of our trek.

Shortly after we arrived, it started to pour. We all promptly put our rain gear on, immediately afterwhich the rain stopped. We eventually learned that the weather played fickle games of the sort constantly. After registering at the gate we started our Kilimanjaro adventure.

At the Machame Gate, Feb. 11, 2003. There was a great sense of anticipation when we got to the Park gates.	At the Machame Gate.
At the Machame Gate.	Start of the trek, Feb. 11, 2003. l-r: Bob Douglass, Tom Burns, Cyndi Douglass, Joe Burns, Jake Burns, Bobby Owen, Sue Owen, Anne Burns, me.
Day 1 - rain forest scene. It felt absolutely great to be on our way. The flora was spectacularly lush, the air was semi-thick with moisture, the ground wet and muddy. There was so much visual stimulus that I missed any auditory stimuli.	Day 1 - rain forest scene. The scenery brought to mind Stars Wars with the Ewoks.
Day 1 - rain forest scene. There were some incredibly large ferns.	Day 1 - Anne. This was before the heavy rains set in and made the trails considerably more muddy. Somehow Anne managed to keep herself mud-free. She managed the deep mud puddles with low-top hiking shoes! Most of the rest of us weren't so lucky.
Day 1 - rain forest scene.	Day 1 - tree trunk.
Day 1 - rain forest scene.	Day 1 - rain forest scene.
Day 1 - Machame campsite. The first thing that crossed my mind when we got to the campsite was - how do I get into the tent without soaking/muddying it up. That was something we had to contend with the next few days as we'd get hit with torrential downpours along the trail. Hours into the hike towards the campsite, Eligius decided to split the group into two - a faster group which he led and a slower group which Honese lead. Eligius wanted to make sure the campsite was set up and in order by the time we got there. Eligius led myself, Joe, Jake, Bobby and Sue on a hard charging two hours dash for camp. It was an awesome but tiring pace as we splashed through puddles, calf deep mud, long stretches of immense roots.	Day 1 - Machame campsite. The tents were provided by African Adventures ... REI and North Face. Once I unloaded the contents of my duffle bag, the tent seemed awfully crowded, with the sleeping bag taking most of the space. The routine I established was to unloaded everything when we got to camp and first thing in the morning was to load everything back. The duffle bag was then stuffed into a plastic burlap sack along with other bags ... and carried by a porter on his head. At initial weigh in my duffle bag was 31 kilos. The porters have a limit of 75 kilos!!
Day 2 - morning at Machame campsite - view of Mt. Meru, seemingly a constant companion in the distance throughout the trek.	Day 2 - morning at Machame campsite - breakfast. Breakfast and dinner were served on this elegant tarp/table cloth setting. Breakfast usually consisted of toast, scrambled eggs, coffee, tea, jelly. It wasn't till the 4th day that we remembered to tell the cook that we all hated the scrambled eggs and wanted hard boiled eggs instead. My first and only attempt at drinking coffee failed miserably ... to the instant Africafe mix I dumped a teaspoon of sugar and within a split second a swarm of little gnats dove into the cup in a dramatic show of mass suicide. As I had all the protein I needed from the eggs, I declined sampling the more exotic variety. At dinner the night before, I very quickly learned that dropping down on one's knees onto the tarp/table cloth was not a good idea - I ended up with a little bruise on my right knee as a result of dropping on a pebble beneath the tarp.
Day 2 - morning at Machame campsite. Wrapping up our dining setting after breakfast. Our guide, Eligius is in the middle and our cook, Dominic is on the right.	Day 2 - morning at Machame campsite. Packing up prior to the second day's trek. Bobby in foreground, Joe and Jake in left background, Cyndi in right background. Dominic (our cook) would bring a little basin of hot water for the group for brushing teeth or washing up. We all became very efficient water users quickly.
Day 2 - morning at Machame campsite. Tom setting his Suunto Vector watch while Eligius and Bobby look on. My Casio Pathfinder and Tom's Vector had an altimeter variance of about 120 feet. In the end, it turned out that my altimeter was 700 feet short at Uhuru Peak.	Day 2 - morning at Machame campsite. These were the tents used by the guides, porters, cook. They were all from the Chagaa tribe - one of 127 in Tanzania. Amongst themselves they'd talk in Chagaa dialect. KaSwahili is Tanzania's lingua franca. Most of the porters and guides grew up in nearby villages. A number of them have since moved to the "big" city of Arusha. Those who can speak English, French or German had far greater opportunities for earning dollars. Being a guide is at the top of their totem pole, a porter is at the bottom rung.
Day 2 - morning at Machame campsite. We had to sign in in the little shack when we got to the campsite the day before.	Day 2 - start of the trek. Honese, assistant guide, lead the way with Cyndi following right behind him. He is shown here carrying Cyndi's pack in front of him, his own backpack, and dozens of eggs in the sack above his backpack. No matter the terrain, Honese would walk with both arms holding onto the load on his back.
Day 2 - along the trail. Cyndi, Jake, Joe, Tom. Early on the trail we left the rain forest scene. The first hour or so of the trek saw very good weather - sunny but cool.	Day 2 - along the trail.
Day 2 - along the trail. Bob and Cyndi Douglass. This was right before torrential rains set in. We all had to scramble to get our rain gear on. The rain did not let up for the next 4 hours. Along the way a group of 11 European trekkers along with their guides and porters gave up their trip and passed us on their way out. Unfortunately, many gaps in trail pictography exist - whenever hard driving rains came down, the camera went into its case.	Day 2 - Shira Huts campsite. This was after the rain finally let up. We ate our bagged lunches in our tents (sandwich, boiled egg, carrots, orange.) I was shivering so hard from the cold that I managed to eat my carrots without voluntarily moving my jaws ... they were in motion from all the shivering. The mountains in the background were very unearthly like ... unfortunately none of the pictures show it like it was. The mountains looked barren with nary a bush or brush - but it possessed a stark beauty nonetheless.
Day 2 - Shira Huts campsite. We all tried to take advantage of the break in the weather to dry out some of our things.	Day 2 - Shira Huts campsite. It was here where we saw the most number of other trekkers (apart from Barafu on Day 5.) The numbers thinned out considerably from Day 3 on.
Day 2 - Shira Huts campsite. The rugged mountains in the background reminded me of scenes from Lord of the Rings.	Day 2 - Shira Huts campsite. This was the finest outhouse in the entire Machame Trail. The first time I went in to use it, I very quickly realized that I had no idea how to perform while squatting without messing up oneself. I had to rush back out all consult with Bobby on the finer arts of squat toilet performance.
Day 2 - Shira Huts campsite. Inside my tent. My duffle bag was completely soaked through - it was a good thing I had everything in plastic bags, so my gear remained dry for the most part. I had to do some duct tape repair on the duffle bag at this point as small cuts developed in the bottom of the bag. The first two nights, I mistakenly thought the sleeping bag was too short for me (I had borrowed it from Jeanette) ... and worrying about having to deal with the next two nights when it'd be considerably colder. It turns out my feet failed to find the opening to the feet section of the bag ... but when they did, the bag suddenly felt perfectly right! There's something to be said about checking out all gear before going off on a trip!	Day 2 - Shira Huts campsite. We all optimistically set our soaked clothes out to dry in the cold damp air.

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