Kilimanjaro Trip Photos - Page 4

Day 5 - push for the summit.  It's a shame that these glaciers will all be gone within 15 or so years ... due to global warming.

Day 5 - push for the summit.

Day 5 - push for the summit.  At this point I decided to put dollops of sunscreen on myself ... a good move as soon thereafter the sun's rays came down full force.  This was a pretty steep section, requiring a deep breath every other step up.  

Day 5 - push for the summit.  Jake taking a break on the way to the summit.  The summit plateau was right around the corner ... unbeknownst to us - my altimeter read 18,700 or so feet, leaving me to think we had another 600-700 vertical feet left to climb - a good hour away from the summit.

Day 5 - summit.   

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

 

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.  Myself and Eligius (this was his 200+ summit.)

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.

Day 5 - summit.  Bobby, Sue, Joe, Eligius, Jake, Anne, me.

Day 5 - summit.  Bobby, Sue, Joe, Eligius, Jake, Anne, me.  We decided to extend our arms open so as to possibly digitally include Bob, Cyndi, and Tom in the picture.

Day 5 - on the way down to Barafu campsite.  This was our lunch stop ... 4 hours down from the summit.  Eligius, Joe and Jake practically "skied" down the steepest parts of the descent and, along with Tom (who went with Dominic from Stella's Point) were all dozing under the hot sun when I hobbled in.  After a lunch of boiled eggs and French Toast, we continued downhill for another 4 hours till we reached the Barafu campsite.

Day 5 - on the way to Barafu campsite.  To keep my mind off my painful big toes, I "ouch, damn"-ed the entire way down ... left foot forward "ouch", right foot forward "damn".  I made heavy use of my hiking poles and was pretty pleased with my proficiency with them, so much so that at one point I thought I ought to schedule a race with Itzhak Perlman.

When our trek was all over, I gave Eligius my poles ... they had been to Kilimanjaro twice - once a couple of years ago when Dan and Jeanette went, and once with me.

Day 6 - morning in Barafu campsite.  View of Kilimanjaro from the campsite.  At the end of Day 5, I was too exhausted to even have dinner ... the 8 hour downhill trek was a real killer - within an hour of the descent my two big toes jammed heavily onto the front of my boots (Asolo 520, great boots till the descent, no blisters, no sores or aches).  By the time I removed my boots in camp, my socks were a bloody mess.  It was an ordeal getting my feet back in the boots on Day 6.  

Day 6 - morning in Barafu campsite.

Day 6 - in Barafu campsite.  This was our final breakfast ... boiled eggs, watermelon, toast, tea.  As I hadn't had dinner the night before I wolfed down half a dozen eggs, littering the grounds with egg shells ... I had mistakenly thought that it was okay to do so and took great pleasure dropping the shells onto the ground (much like a kid being given the go ahead to splash around in a mud puddle.)  Soon thereafter Dominic (our cook) came along and started collecting the littered shells from the ground!

Day 6 - morning in Barafu campsite.  The shed was where we all checked in the day before ... and bought soda ($2) and water ($3).   Shortly after this shot was taken I gave Eligius 9 dozen ballpoint pens to distribute to our porters and cook ... they were a very happy bunch.  A lot of spontaneous dancing and singing broke out amongst the various porters (from our group and other groups) - expressing joy about the completion of another adventure and their receipt of their tips.  Tipping guidelines called for $20/day for guides, $10/day for cooks, $5/day for porters.

Day 6 - morning in Barafu campsite.  In a show of company loyalty, I wore my TIAA shirt (old logo).  It being made of cotton, the shirt got soaked through during our 4 hour hike to the Park gates, making me regret my lapse in judgement.  If there's one thing I learned during the trip ... the saying "cotton kills" is so true.  The new fangled quick-dry, quick-wick fabrics were phenomenally good at keeping one dry whereas cotton kept one sweaty and clammy.

Day 6 - morning in Barafu campsite.  

Day 6 - morning in Barafu campsite.  Eligius overseeing the final breakdown of camp.  We shortly thereafter set out on the final day's journey to the Park gates ... a short 4 hours away.

Day 6 - along the path to the Park gates.

Day 6 - along the path to the Park gates.

Day 6 - along the path to the Park gates.

Day 6 - along the path to the Park gates.

Day 6 - along the path to the Park gates.  Eligius in his most Tarzan-like pose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Barafu campsite, I managed to record a 30 second video clip of Eligius et al singing the Kilimanjaro song.  

Note:  the .wmv file is 377kb in size.

Kilimanjaro Song

 Though Day 6's 4 hour hike to the Park gates was the trip's shortest excursion, I found it pretty rough going due to the less than ideal conditions of my big toes.  We were back in rain forest terrain but the weather held up nicely, providing us with a very pleasant stroll down to the Park gates.

After logging in at the Park offices and purchasing soda and some souvenirs and T-Shirts (all very capitalistically overpriced, knowing full well that trekkers with their sense of accomplishment tend to hold on to their purse strings a little less tightly), we got on the mini-bus for the trip back to Arusha.  

Along the way back to Arusha we passed a lot of little villages, most of them with people going to or from Church services.  I was very impressed by the villagers' Sunday attire, the women were especially resplendent in their Sunday finest.  Knowing that water isn't easy to come by, I wondered how they managed to keep their clothes so clean and pressed given the dusty/muddy roads and the heat and humidity.

On the bus I showed Eligius and Dominic family pictures.  I told them that I'd be back in 4 years time with Mr.K when he turns 15.  I also hope to convince Aimee to come along too.  They were very amused by pictures of Sydney, especially the one where she was in her dog bed with Cyn.

The mini-bus dropped us off at the Novotel in Arusha.  After a quick phone call to Mayee to let her know that I was staying at the Novotel again, I went up for a nice long hot shower.   I had the very same room I had 6 days before ... but this time around it seemed like a most luxurious suite.   The hot shower was a most welcome treat.  I was quite surprised though to see the rivers of mud flowing off me ... all along the trek I was very pleased with what I thought was a great job of keeping myself clean.  I had all sorts of towelette wipes and no rinse shampoos, etc.  Then again everything is relative.

Once I was nicely cleaned, Mayee came around and we went off to Redds Restaurant for a long, lazy, early dinner.  Occasional torrential rains came down ... a welcomed relief for the Tanzanians ... but another extension of our struggle to stay dry!  After dinner we headed off for Stiggy's, an Australian run pub and restaurant.  Stiggy, the proprietor, is a longtime Australian ex-pat who, according to him, has become thoroughly "third worldized".  The stream of ex-pats that dropped in the pub were a most eclectic bunch of people, all with stories to tell.  

One of the ladies that dropped by had Tanzanite stones to sell, unfortunately she only dealt in US dollars, of which I was short.  The next morning I decided to postpone my morning return to Nairobi in order to try to get some dollars so as to buy some Tanzanite and to get some arts/crafts from the Arusha Cultural Center.  

After an hour or so trying to locate an American Express office, I was taken by cab to what was presumably the Amex branch in Arusha (it turns out that they didn't have any in Arusha, their closest office being in Dar es Salaam in the north).  I rang the bell of the office and when the wooden door opened up a barred cage was revealed ... and behind the cage was a mercenary looking white dude with a couple of guns and knife.  I very quickly realized that this wasn't exactly an American Express office ... or if it was it was atypical of Amex!

I told Rambo that I needed US dollars and he asked me to hand him my passport, which he took, examined, and proceeded to unlock the cage.  I got in the cage with him after which he locked it up and we both sat across each other.  He told me that he didn't sell dollars directly, that I had to buy Tanzanian Shillings first - with a 20% fee to him, then he'd sell me US dollars for which I'd pay him with Tanzanian Shillings - for another 20% fee.  I told him that I wasn't interested in those terms ... and he got quite upset at that ... but he gave me back my passport and let me out of the cage.  This was my only unpleasant experience in Tanzania.

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