Trekking is a great combination of travel and hiking, as well as a motivator for me to consistently get to the gym and stay in good shape. I started this hobby several years ago when I turned 40 and have a working list of various treks that I'd like to tackle over the next several years. After some great experiences in Tibet, Nepal, Peru and the US, it was time to try one of the classics - climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.
One of the things I find enjoyable about trekking is doing the research on the actual trek, the country (people, history, culture, food, etc.) and the logistics required to make it successful. This started for me back in March and I booked the trip in April. The flight plan consisted of traveling eight hours from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, and then another nine directly into Kilimanjaro International Airport just south of the mountain between the two small cities of Arusha and Moshi. I selected G Adventures as my trekking agency, having enjoyed using them a couple of years ago for the Inca Trail.
There is a gym at my workplace, but I was leading an initiative over the summer that didn't allow my schedule much time for my usual gym routine, so my primary training for the trek was to go on frequent hikes around the town I live in - hiking boots, trekking poles and a rucksack with a 30-pound sandbag. You can't train for high altitude in Minnesota, but you can be in good hiking shape. The summer passed by quickly, the kids went back to school and it was soon ready for the mid-October trek. I used some detailed packing lists to get my gear into two travel bags and a rucksack, and was ready for the trip to start.
My wife, who a great supporter of me doing these treks, dropped me off at the airport and away I went. The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, and after a layover and nice breakfast in Amsterdam, the second flight took me just south of the equator to the continent of Africa. I'd had some worry on and off the previous months about Ebola, but the CDC website didn't have any travel restrictions and I found a map during my research that showed West Africa, where the outbreak is occurring, is actually closer to London than it is to Tanzania.
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| Completing a health form |
The flight arrived a bit before 8pm local time in the dark as we disembarked down stairs and walked across the tarmac into the terminal. After the process of getting a visa, and then going through passport control and customs, I made it outside and found the G Adventures shuttle driver for the hour drive to Moshi. The drive was quiet and I was able to make out the outline of Kilimanjaro in the early evening moonlight, but I didn't see much else along the drive. Getting into Moshi, I met my agency contact and found out that the hotel was out of rooms for the night, so I was shuttled down the road to another hotel and crashed for the night.
In the morning, I was pleased to find there was hot water - the shower helped wake me up and I had a nice breakfast in the hotel and even met a couple of my fellow trekkers in the lobby before we got shuttled back over to the original hotel. After dumping our bags, several of us took a taxi into Moshi and we walked around the city for several hours. It was great to stretch my legs after the long travel and jetlag (nine hours ahead).
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| Walking around Moshi |
The weather was very warm and I had added DEET to my malaria medication to help fend off the mosquitoes, which weren't too bad. We ate a nice lunch outdoors and then did a bit of souvenir shopping. A couple of locals working for one of the shops walked us up to the top of one of the taller buildings and we got a nice view looking north across the city to Kilimanjaro. Although it was mostly obscured with afternoon clouds, we did see the top of the peak and began to appreciate the incredible size of the dormant volcano. Kilimanjaro is not only Africa's tallest peak, but it is also the largest free-standing mountain in the world, rising to a height of 19,341 feet above sea level.
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| View north from Moshi to Kilimanjaro, mostly hidden by afternoon clouds |
After a ride back to the hotel, we met the rest of the trekking group and got a briefing from our head guide, Lipumba. There were 11 of us, nine women and two men, with a nice geographical mix - US, UK (including one from Poland), Canada and Germany (living in the Netherlands). Several of us ate dinner together and then we headed back to the room, where I repacked my bags - one bag stayed at the hotel, while the other (and my rucksack) were getting on a bus tomorrow morning after breakfast to drive to Machame Gate for the start of the trek.
Next up: Machame Gate, Kilimanjaro National Park as the 6-day trek begins in the rainforest.
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