Travel

Kilimanjaro, Day Two

December 27, 2010.

I woke up around 5:00 a.m. and had a light breakfast with fruit and boiled eggs.  A fellow climber, Kay, marveled at how small the bananas were, “adorable and sweet” as she put it.  We dined by candlelight when the power cut out.  After breakfast we packed up and trundled down to the hotel’s front entrance with our luggage in tow.  I had brought a bit more gear than the other climbers.  Based on recommendations from my wife who had climbed Kilimanjaro the year before, I brought items that she thought were necessary to reach the summit.  I brought a small day pack to wear and packed my other gear in a large duffle bag and a smaller bag to be carried by porters.  Even though we were responsible for getting our bodies to the top, the support team toted most of our belongings.

The drive to the Rongai Route from Arusha was a three-hour long bumpy affair.  Our transport was a 1990s minivan with obviously worn shock absorbers that subjected our bums to every speed bump and pothole en route.  We took in all the sights, sounds and smells that passed us by, including the sooty fumes of smoking vehicles that would never have passed a DMV inspection in the United States.  The middling air conditioning did not hold the heat of the day at bay and left us uncomfortably warm.  We stopped several times along the way to pick up supplies, which slowed us down considerably.  Our guide, August, told us that he had been unable to buy supplies the day before because all the stores had closed for Christmas; I suspect that picking up supplies such as propane for the cook stove on the way was standard procedure for him.  In hindsight, it might have been better for us to have stayed in Moshi closer to the Kilimanjaro National Park entrance at Marangu, or to choose another route closer to Arusha such as the Shira or Machame.  The Rongai Route is the furthest climbing route from Arusha.  Contrary to guides who might push you to stay in Arusha’s higher priced hotels because they cut a deal with management, Moshi is a perfectly acceptable place to stay the night before the climb.  There are at least two decent hotels in Moshi much closer to most of the Kilimanjaro climbing routes.

The Rongai Route (formerly known as Nalemalu) is on the north side of the mountain approaching the summit from the Kenyan border.  A lesser used route, its main advantages over other climbing options are that is moderately difficult, sheltered from the elements, and less crowded.  Some say it’s more scenic too, although a more accurate assessment is that the scenery is more Alpine than other routes.  Marangu, aka the Coca-Cola Route, is the most popular route.  It’s longer and more gradual a climb to Kibo Hut, the base camp below the summit. The Shira Route is the longest and most likely to offer animal sightings; August told us that guides are required to carry firearms in the event the group stumbles upon a predator.  The Macambe Route, aka the Whisky Route, is the shortest, steepest, and (some say) offers the best chance of success at summiting the mountain.  I chose the Rongai Route, which we affectionately dubbed the “Kilimanjaro Beer” Route, based on the recommendation of my wife and other climbers who climbed it the year before.  Climbing in her footsteps was an important consideration for me.   I wanted to relive her experience as closely as possible.  We could not climb Kilimanjaro together because we did not want to leave our young son alone over the holidays and opted to climb separately.  Following her example gave me the chance to know firsthand what she went through to reach the top.

To be continued…

Kilimanjaro, Day One

December 26, 2010.

My travel day from Lusaka, Zambia to Arusha, Tanzania was rather uneventful.  I did not feel fully recovered from whatever illness hit me the previous week but still well enough to attempt to summit Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa at 5,895 meters (19,341 feet).  I went with a group to four climbers from Lusaka to Arusha, one of Tanzania’s largest cities about 1.5 hours from the entrance to Kilimanjaro National Park, via Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  The mountain is so imposing that it affects the climate of the lowlands below, causing changes in weather patterns over short distances depending on proximity of the mountain and wind currents.  While the area around the rural airport is a semi-arid plain, Arusha itself is situated in an overgrown, subtropical bowl flourishing in the shadow of Kilimanjaro’s sister mountain, Mount Meru.  The city itself is quite organic and gives one the impression that it grew and expanded through osmosis.  Roads run willy nilly and thread through shade trees with high-rise hotels co-existing with ramshackle brick buildings housing a variety of family businesses emblazoned with bright colors and hand painted signs.  A small, stereotypical taste of the flavor of Africa.

The airline offered to put us on an earlier flight to Arusha.  We arrived three hours earlier than scheduled and missed our guide at the airport.  We took an overpriced airport taxi to our hotel, a backpacker-style spartan accommodation called the Arusha Tourist Inn (not to be confused with its twin, the Arusha Tourist Centre Inn).  The $45 hotel was fine for the outbound portion of our climb.  The room was sparse but neat and none too well lit.  The walls were paper thin and reverberated with the sounds of climbers and other adventurers loitering at the hotel.  They were quite a vocal bunch, particularly the drunk man yelling unintelligibly in the alleyway behind the hotel at 4 a.m. in the morning.

Our guide, August, met us at our hotel to talk about the climb.  We worked out logistics ranging from what to expect on the climb to whether to bunk alone to what to do or not to do to prepare for the climb.  We learned ipso facto that it’s not a good idea to drink alcohol before climb as it might hasten the effects of altitude sickness – after we had consumed moderate quantities of beer.  During dinner, a somewhat greasy meat-and-pasta heavy fare, we talked to two chatty Danish women who had returned earlier that day from a successful climb. Cheery and full of good spirits, they inspired us with horror stories of freezing weather and the unavoidable challenges of climbing a mountain that reaches into the upper atmosphere.   They recounted how they had thwarted a robbery attempt in the main square and news of another tourist who had been injured in an attack by thieves.  I made a note not to tour Arusha without a body guard.

I retired to my room about 9 p.m. and set about arranging my belongings for the climb.  I had packed some valuables in my carry-on luggage and need to regroup them according to function.  I set aside clothing for my first day of hiking and consolidated clothing, food, and other accessories into separate bags.  My entire life for a week wrapped up in protective plastic.  I missed home already.

In the faint light of the room, I wondered whether I would make it to the top of Kilimanjaro.  Could I do it?  After all, former tennis star Martina Navratilova had had to be evacuated from the mountain after she succumbed to altitude sickness.  I wasn’t so sure I would succeed considering my nagging chest cold and frame that still carried too much weight despite rigorous training.  I wondered what challenges and difficulties lay before me, praying that I would overcome them and achieve this elusive goal.

Lessons learned:  Don’t drink alcohol before a climb!  Do not walk around Arusha like a tourist.  It’s too dangerous, and you’re too easy a target for would-be thieves.

 

An Epic Flight

Have you ever taken a long-haul flight?  By “long-haul” I mean a flight that takes you across a large body of water and/or to a faraway continent.  These flights typically last at least eight hours or more.  Whether it’s a trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific, or trans-Indian flight, it’s a long haul.  If you have been on a long-haul flight, then have you ever taken an “epic” flight?  The precise definition of an “epic” flight is subject to debate, but I loosely define it as a flight that lasts at least 20 hours with multiple connections and a mixture of time spent in flight and in transit.  Many epic flights last longer than 20 hours. 

My family and I are taking just such a flight right now.  We just disembarked from Africa on a three-continent tour that will take us to Asia, North America, and back to Africa in just about five weeks.  We arrived at our current destination, Bangkok, Thailand, after an epic flight that lasted about 30 hours.  We departed Lusaka, Zambia and arrived in Bangkok via Johannesburg, South Africa and Hong Kong.  We spent about 2.5 hours in the air to Joburg; eight hours waiting in the transit terminal at Joburg’s Tambo International Airport; 13 hours and 40 minutes in the air to Hong Kong; 2.5 hours waiting in transit in Hong Kong; and 2.5 hours in flight to Bangkok.  This does not include the three hours – give or take a few minutes – we spent driving from home to the airport in Lusaka and from the airport to the hotel in Bangkok.

In a bit over a week, we will embark on the next segment on our epic flight, a short-haul flight to China.  It’s a short flight – just a mere four hours or so.  Then in a couple weeks we will depart for the United States, where we will spend another two weeks before returning to Africa via the East Coast.  The entire journey will quite literally take us around the world in five weeks.  It’s a good story to share over coffee, but I don’t recommend doing a compressed around-the-world flight if you can help it.

Epic flights put you in survival mode.  Try as they might, the airlines can do little to make your flight comfortable or enjoyable.  First class or business can make the flight more bearable, but it can still feel like a slog with a heightened state of discomfort.  Economy class is much worse.  The cabin air grows stale, and your body sits contorted in your seat leaving you feeling numb.  The airlines recommend doing body movements during the flight that exercise body parts before they begin to atrophy and leave you susceptible to blood clots, the chills, or worse.  Unfortunately, movement is limited on these kinds of flights because they’re so packed with passengers.  Attempts to walk it off up and down aisles are frequently thwarted by turbulence and living obstacles.

There is one silver lining to an epic flight – it’s an easy way to earn a lot of frequent flier miles (as long as you get credit for it with whatever partner airline you’re flying on, but I digress — that’s another tale to tell another day).