Leaving Tanzania

It was time to go - after our day safari we were dropped off at the Kilimanjaro Tanzania International Airport.  I think this tiny airport only had three gates, all of which led you to outside where you got onto steps to go on the giant airplanes that bring people to and from Kilimanjaro.   First stop was a good meal with meat.  Craving bacon, we went to the little restaurant and got burgers, mine with avocado and bacon.  I will still craving bacon afterwards because they apparently don't do bacon like we do.  (Note that I've made myself bacon for breakfast 3 days that I was back in Philly)

As I was waiting in line to check my bag, there was a woman yelling and waving at me.  She had apparently seen me on the way up the mountain and wanted to know if I had made summit.  I'd find her later to chat for the couple of hours I was by myself waiting for the plane.

Hanging around at the airport, reading my book (I got a lot of reading done on this trip), I was able to speak with Julia from Berlin, who had been in Tanzania to teach at a school that helps African women become entrepreneurs.  It was fabulous to meet so many people who had come to Tanzania to do charitable work!  My only time that I had any issue with anyone though, was when she started talking about Israel and how they don't treat the "Palestinians" well.  This was the first time that I nearly blew my top and had to calm down and walk away.  She was the first German I had met (ever) who I decided I wasn't comfortable with.  Ugh!

After an uneventful trip home on three flights, I arrived home to snowmagedden.  I knew something was going on back home - at Uhuru Summit, a woman noticed my Phillies hat (the only knit cap I could find before I left) and said to me "Yo Philly!  Be glad you're here because it's an ice storm back home and nothing's moving!"  I had been unplugged for the past 12 days and had no clue as to what was happening back home!

I've come to several conclusions on this wonderful Adventure:

1.  I'm not brain dead - I just have too much going on in my brain!
2.  I still have an attention span to read a book (see above)
3.  Traveling solo is the best way to go, because you're forced to meet people and you'll always meet great ones.
4.  Africa is a beautiful continent and the people of Tanzania are so friendly.  When they weren't laughing at us, they were laughing with us :-P
5.  Everyone needs to unplug for a while - it's renewing.
6.  I'm hooked ... ready for my next adventure!
7.  Hakuna Matata!!!!!!!

Kilimanjaro Song

Back at Springlands Hotel

Day 6 of trek, day 8 of vacation

Exhaustion - it felt so good to be back in a place with a shower!  One thing you have to remember when you're in this place is to turn the water heater on a while before you get into the shower.  

My room at the hotel

ahhh ... king sized bed

The first thing I did after sorting through my clothes and packing my duffel with the stinky clothes (I had left my carry on at the hotel with fresh clean clothes in it), was take a loooong shower!  The only problem was that I didn't turn the water heater on early enough and I only had about 5 minutes of hot water.  It didn't matter, a cold shower was great too!  

The plan for the evening was to go into town and meet our guide Omari for dinner.  The reality of the evening was that it was a rainy, icky night and we ended up eating at the hotel again.  I was craving good food and American comfort food - the buffet this evening did include pizza and fries, so I was fine with hanging there in the rain.  I hung out for a little bit and then back to the room for a much needed good nights sleep.  You know you're tired when you're laying in bed and watch a giant hairy centipede walk around the perimeter of the room and not really care.  Heck, it's their Africa!  

The next day we planned to go into Moshi for barbeque lunch and souvenirs.   I woke up at 6:00am and thought, I'm on vacation, and rolled over and fell asleep until 9:30am and thought again, I'm on vacation.  By the time I woke up and actually got out of bed at 11:30, everyone was already in Moshi.  They had all woken up at 6:00am and wondered where I was.  I grabbed my book and headed to the garden for some relaxing reading and (hopefully) some brunch.  Kathryn had stayed behind and just finished a wonderful massage, so she joined me in the garden where we ordered food.  They made a wonderful Spanish Omelet at the hotel and fries completed my brunch.  Himanshu (who also didn't go into Moshi) joined us in a bit and we hung out and relaxed for a while.

Later that evening I finally got back to Moshi and we went out to a great Indian Italian restaurant where I finally found a beer that didn't taste like Bud to me!  

Matthew & Mom Ming

Mark and Maureen, keeping me laughing

Lee - came for safari, Nancy - did the trek SOLO with just her guides and Himanshu

Mmmmmm ... chicken tiki masala and a fruity beer.  Perfect (almost) ending dinner in Africa!

The next day, my tenth and final day in Africa, I watched our guides leave the hotel with a whole new contingent of trekkers, this time going on a different route up the mountain.  These new folks were from the neighboring country of Zambia and I had been chatting with them (Sue, Sara, Richard and nine other Hindu trekkers) the day before in the garden.

Richard from Zambia and I - in person he looked a bit like Richard Branson, on film he looks more like Gary Busey :-P

I watched the people in our group who continued on to safari leave on their bus.  G-d be with them, some of the new people in the group were what I consider "tourons".  I hate to be judgmental, but ... oh, who am I kidding, I'm judgemental and I am who I am!

Then, Maureen and I loaded up for our day safari to Urusha National Park!  Lions and tigers and bears ... oh ... no!  There would be no lions and tigers for us, Zebra's and Giraffes and Monkeys OH MY!

Zebra's

Baboons

Giraffes

Our lunch - samosa, corn bread, roll, inedible citrus and peanuts

Our lunch spot - pretty!

My safari partner and I 

Our vehicle

Pink Flamingos

More pink flamingos

Waterbuck

Black and White Colobus Monkey

Red ants

Gorgeous African tree with Mount Meru in the background

Leaving the park :-(

On to Kibo Camp ...

Day 4 of trek - to Kibo Camp

When I woke up on day four, I knew that this would be the hardest and longest day of our trek up the mountain.  We would be going from the 12,340 feet Horombo Camp, to Kibo Base Camp at the base of the mountain at 15,430 feet in the arctic temperate zone.  The road would be bereft of foliage, the landscape bare.  As we re-packed our bags and set out for this hike, there was excitement and anxiety in the air.  There was also hunger in the air because the food was so bad most of us stopped eating anything but the bread and boiled eggs!  I had also gotten a new nickname - dada kichaa (crazy sister) because I was hanging with mama kichaa and Mo, who was kichaachaachaa!  Every time I'd pass a couple of porters, I'd hear them say kichaa (crazy) to me.  These new friends were a great, fun group.  Jambo Kichaa!

We got our water for the day and headed up, up, up into the arctic zone...

Yup ... it's getting closer!

13,500 feet ... getting closer!

Lunch stop

I think this is Juma, the porter who carried my bag the whole trip

I'm still feeling great!

In "The Saddle" - this lies between the two peaks - Mawenzi and Kibo

Animal life in the saddle

After about a 6 hour hike, we finally arrived at Kibo Camp!

At Kibo Base Camp - 6 hours to Gilman's Point!

Our sleeping quarters at Kibo

We were exhausted and knew that we would only have a few hours to rest before the last leg of our ascent.  This was also the beginning of the bad.  They had put our group of nine in large quarters that slept 20 people, but right after we got there, that Kilimanjaro Initiative group arrived.  There were 27 in their group of adults and teenagers and they wanted the larger quarters.  Because we were a very convivial group and saw that they really wanted to stay together, we relinquished our quarters to them thinking that they had somewhere else for us to stay.  Well, NOT REALLY!  They were apparently overbooked and the only place for us to sleep was the porters quarters.  This meant that we were actually taking our porters spots.  We were not happy about this, but what could we do at this point?

We set our sleeping bags up, and went for dinner in the small dining hut.  We would be leaving in just a few hours for the summit.  Exhaustion and excitement were in the air!  I was also beginning to feel allergies kick in and one of my eyes was hurting.  I took two Allegra to try to head it off.

Days 4.5 and 5 of trek - to the Summit!

We woke up at 11:00 PM for an 11:30 PM start for the summit.  Headlamps lit, hiking poles ready and dressed in 5 layers up, 3 layers down with heated packets in our gloves, we started up, up, up.  It's a really great thing to do this ascent in the dark because if you saw the trail and how steep it was, you might not go!  We went up pole pole (slowly, slowly), using switchback trails.  It was the first time I decided to use my poles.  My calves and quads were hurting from the steepness and I was extremely thankful for my extra two legs (poles).  I was walking slowly and trying to stay awake - not sure if it was the altitude or just the lack of sleep, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open and on the prize of the summit.

One step in front of the other - I kept thinking "this is like having a baby, there WILL BE AN END.  By tomorrow I'll be back down and the pain of walking will only be a memory"  When I first started thinking of doing this trek, someone said to me "it's just a walk".  Yes, it's not a technical climb, but it's more than a walk.  It's a walk up the Manayunk Wall x 50.  It's a walk up an extremely steep mountain in the middle of the night with lack of sleep and half the oxygen going into your system than at ground level.  It's a painful walk that (as I suspected) is like having a baby - you forget about it the day after as you insanely think "I can do that again on a different route".

Six hard, cold, painful hours later we reached Gilman's Point - ALMOST the top of the mountain.  There will be two more hours of walking around the crater rim before we reach the true summit, Uhuru Point!

At Gilman's Point - I wanted to stop there, but Omari wouldn't let me (THANK YOU OMARI)

Probably on our way to Stella Point

It would be another hour before we went around the crater to Stella Point.  Stella Point is where almost all of the other routes taken get to the almost summit of the mountain.

Stella Point - one hour to summit!

Another hour and I WAS THERE!

I can see it!

Exhaustion and blindness

Here I am!!!!

WE MADE IT!

By now the eye that allergies had affected was swollen (actually, all around it was swollen and I was extremely light sensitive).  I felt like I was blind - I had made it up, but how will I make it back down when I kept having to close my eyes from the light?

Also, the time makes no sense up there - 8 hours to summit, 2 hours down?  I need a pair of skis or a sled on this mountain!  We started making our way back around the crater to Stella Point.  Omari saw that I was having an issue - the water tube of my camelback was frozen, I had drunk all of the water in my small insulated cup and I was sitting down on a rock parched and blind ... painfully blind.  I felt like there were pins in my left eye and I was trying not to cry.

The way back down - but rest first at Gilmans Point

I have to let people know how amazing these guides are - Omari told me that we would all summit and he was a rock getting us all up there.  Dula, Rama and Mohammed had helped one of our group who was having huge issues up the mountain by holding him under each arm - Omari knew that this trekker would be fine once he got there even though he was kind of hallucinating!  Our three assistant guides had also taken each of our packs and they were each going up the mountain carrying at least three packs in addition to their own.  So, when it was apparent that I couldn't navigate my way down the mountain, Rama took me by the arm to help.

It may not have been a "technical climb", but the trails were ice and snow covered from the storm the day before as were the rocks we had to go down before we got the the scree.  Being 4'10" it was kind of a climb down - I'm extremely thankful that I couldn't see those huge rocks we were going up on the way up!  Then we got to the scree, or as I thought when my calves stopped hurting from "skiing" down it, the WHEEEEEE!  Loose volcanic dirt, you dug your heels in and slid down, right foot, left foot, right foot ... all the time holding onto Rama while my eyes were closed from the light.  Stopping to rest and let our calves recover a bit before going again.   What we had done as switchbacks on the way up, we were doing straight down on the way down!

Finally, after what felt like forever, I arrived back at Kibo Camp where we were told we could rest until 2:00 (it was 10:15AM at this point).  The only problem was that we were in the porters quarters and a whole new contingent was coming in to summit that evening.  No sooner did I get into my sleeping bag and close my eyes from complete exhaustion, that a porter came in and told us we had until noon to be out of there!  What a horrible feeling to be completely exhausted and not able to rest!  By this time it had also started raining again.   I woke up at noon, packed my bags and headed to the meal hut for lunch.  I had no appetite at all so I think I once again just had coffee for lunch and possibly a bite of a crepe.  We were out of apricot jam at this point so it was a dry crepe for me. (note to the tour companies:  It doesn't take much to make edible food!  I was craving meat that wasn't breakfast hot dog or overcooked squab)

Then we began our faster hike back down to Horombo Camp.  As we were heading back down I knew that I could go haraka haraka (quickly) instead of pole pole (slowly) and that made me happy!  On the way down we watched our porters carrying our gear back, and several people being taken down the mountain on stretchers with wheels.  It was a great reminder that anything could happen!  At least one person had a knee injury and couldn't get down on their own and another with extreme altitude sickness.  All of us made it up and down again with just a little help, we were lucky.

Quarters at Kibo

Heading back down

Arctic terrain on the way down

Exhausted, back at Horombo Hut

Arctic going into Heath terrain

It seemed to take forever to get back to Horombo Hut - exhausted from the day, I only wanted to get there and get into my sleeping bag!  We arrived to find that they couldn't accommodate us as we were before.  We ended up being split up into several different huts, but six of us could fit into one long thin hut that didn't have a door that stayed closed.  It was cold and damp outside, but I didn't care - just let me wash with my cleansing clothes and get into my sleeping bag!  Almost all of us skipped dinner that night and slept.  Sweet, sweet, sleep!

Day 6 of trek - back down the mountain

Cold and rainy - that's what we woke up to on our final day on Kilimanjaro.  I knew that at the bottom of the mountain it was warm and tropical, but that didn't help now!  I was hoping to pack all of my cold weather gear, but no, that wasn't to be.

So ... after another bad breakfast we started down the mountain on our way through the Heath zone to Mandara Hut where we would have lunch.  Haraka Haraka I was running and jumping over puddles, jumping from rock to rock.  I was so happy that I could finally go "Lynda speed"!   I thought nothing about what I was doing to my knees or how it would affect me the next day ... ouch!  We headed down, down, down stopping for that lunch before taking the porters road down to the entrance of the park.  We saw cows along the way and monkeys (although I didn't get a good picture of the monkeys)

Back through the rain forest

Monkey

When we got back down to the beginning of the trail - that's where I saw the plaque commemorating the first white man who climbed to the summit!

Plaque for Hans Meyer - I wonder if we're related?
(I know we're not as Meyer is probably the most common name in the western world)

We made it - up and down the mountain.  Now time to go back to the hotel for some real rest and SHOWERS!!!

Getting ready for Kili

Getting ready for Kilimanjaro

One year ago, that's when this motorcycle riding, trail running woman who had barely ever hiked decided I would hike Kilimanjaro.  I went to a lecture about Mount Everest and decided that although I never wanted to do that particular insane mountain, Kilimanjaro looked doable and incredibly beautiful, not to mention not extremely cold!

It's Lynda time now - my kids are almost grown and starting families of their own.  We did a fabulous job of raising the most wonderful, caring and responsible children, and now it's my time to have adventures, travel and enjoy.  

So ... I started to hike.  I hiked many miles and tried to hike trails with friends that were steep and would raise my fitness level.  I also loved running the hills in my new neighborhood (anyone who's run with me knows that I LOVE running up hills), which also helped in my conditioning to get ready to hike the highest mountain in the African Continent, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world.  

My biggest fear was altitude sickness, as I'd never been higher than the 6,000 feet of the Cherohola Skyway in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina (on the Harley), and have never hiked higher than Mount Moosilauke in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and that's just short of 5,000 feet.  If I had researched a little more and known the name of the first white man to reach the summit, I would probably not have worried at all!  

Back in 1889 when Tanzania was under German rule, the first white man to summit was Hans Meyer.  Well, I'm a Meyer through and through (my Oma was Rose Meyer and married my grandfather Gustav Meyer).  Han's father's name was Julius Meyer (my great grandfather was also named Julius Meyer).  Us Meyers are extremely tough.  Anyone who knows a little bit about me knows that my Oma survived three death camps during WWII, my Uncle Karl Meyer survived in the forest after climbing out the roof of their house in Rotterdam, holding onto the back of a boat in the canal for two days and nights until he could escape safely.  My Uncle Herman Meyer escaped to South America during the war too.  The Meyer boys were tough (as was their baby sister, my Oma).  My Oma used to tell me about how they were wrestlers or boxers in the Maccabee games back in Germany and no one would fight them because these little guys would beat their butts so bad!  Karl was my favorite uncle and I don't think he stood over 5'1". 

Helen, Julius, Karl, Rose and Herman Meyer

So ... I was hiking and buying equipment for my trek.  So much to buy when you don't start out as a hiker/camper!  Sturdy hiking boots that don't cause me to lose toenails (I love my Vasques), hiking pants, hiking socks, hiking poles, sleeping bags, duffel bags, electrolite tablets for my water, backpack with camelback that holds enough water to make it through the day, clothes for the hot African summer and clothes for the freezing summit.  Clothes for the rain forest and clothes for the arctic plain.  Headlamps for the night and plenty of cleansing clothes because there will be no shower facilities for my six days on the mountain.  I was so looking forward to this vacation from makeup and skin care ...vacation from hair styling tools, vacation from cell phones and computers and the life I have in the USA.  Vacation from everything I know and into a new world!  Time to think about my life and contemplate how to make it even better than it is.  Time to just ... be ....

Getting there and Day 1

 The plane ride

The visa line 

The Springlands Hotel

I booked the trip through an adventure travel agency that advertises with one of my Meetup Groups.  For anyone who hasn't heard of Meetup.com, it's the most wonderful thing to happen on the internet, better than Facebook because you actually MEET the people!  I hike with Meetup people, ride with Meetup people, hang out and dine with Meetup people, run with Meetup people, all on a casual basis.  You meet people who have the same interests as you and I've been lucky enough to connect with many people who have become wonderful friends!   If you're one of my friends who isn't on Meetup.com, GO!  Go to events (solo) and you will meet the best, most intelligent, well read, well traveled, friendliest people around! 

I was the only one in my area to book this trip through this agency, but I knew in my heart that I would be traveling with eight of my new best friends that I've yet to meet.  Funny that I kept saying that to people, because there were indeed nine of us on this trip!  

On the way there I met some wonderful people - a man (Bruce) from Anapolis who was going on his second trip to the area, this time to teach English for a month. A woman (Dorothy) from Connecticut who was adventure traveling with four friends that she'd met on a previous adventure travel trip.  A girl (Cindy) from New York who was climbing with the Kilimanjaro Initiative, an organization that brings inner city kids to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (http://kiworld.org/)

My biggest fear was that I'd arrive and not know where to go in this tiny East African country and tiny airport.  Those fears were for naught, as I got off the plane and went to the Visa line to find someone holding up a piece of paper with my name as well as two others.   After one cancelled flight, a diversion to another airport for a more direct flight and 22 hours on two planes in the air, I'd arrived in Tanzania!

On the one hour bus ride to the Springland Hotel, I met my first new friends from Boulder and Atlanta - the Mom and her son from Atlanta ended up being hysterical the whole trip and we called her Mama Kichaa (crazy mama), and my new friend from Boulder had already been on a trip with this agency and was a wealth of information on that first night!  Over the next day I met a new wonderful friend from San Francisco, an African Aphrodisiac (Kichaachaachaa) friend from Chicago, our Melder (middle aged elder) from Atlanta, (who kept me laughing along with that Chicagoan friend) a great young guy from Washington DC and lastly our very own Man Pablo (bachelor) from Portugal.  We had a couple of days to rest and relax before our trek up the mountain.  

Relaxing with some Kilimanjaro Beer (tasted like bad Budweiser)

Day 2 - relaxing and checking out Moshi

After a good nights sleep, several of us decided to head into the nearest town to check out the local vibe.  The road to the hotel, which we had done in the dark the night before, was a dirt road.  It was a precarious rutted road that I'm not sure how anything except the motorcycles stayed upright on!  Motorcycles - they were everywhere!  Honda's, Toyota's and Toyo's - they were their main mode of transportation as well as what they used as cabs.   

Our guide (in Zara shirt)

Moshi town

At the market

Sardines - I really wanted to try one, but restrained myself!

Mark, Kathryn, Maureen, Me and Hitomi

Tamarind - I did try one of these

Here chicky chicky chicky!

Tanzania grows wonderful coffee beans - I did try one raw (yuck, I think our guide took it off the ground) and one roasted - and then had yummy iced coffee while the rest of the crew drank mango milkshakes!

We stood on the rooftop observatory of the local mall ...

And after our return to the hotel, our guide took us on a tour of the spring that the hotel is named for ...

After which we walked to the rice paddy

Wonderful seeing beautiful flowers!

Before the rice paddy

In a hollow tree

Egret in the rice paddy

After I fell in to the rice paddy

These clothes are done!

And after that - and a shower to clean off from falling into the rice paddy, we had a nice dinner at the hotel along with more Kilimanjaro beer :-)

Day 3 - Starting up the mountain to our first hut

After breakfast at the Hotel, we left for the mountain and our first day of trekking through rain forest.  As we wound up, up, up, my ears started popping.  At the bottom of the mountain we would be at 5,500 feet - higher than I'd ever been on foot!  Joining us 8 adventurers (not including our Portugese friend who joined us with a 3 person support team) were 22 support staff - our main guide, 3 assistant guides, and at least 2 porters per person for equipment, luggage and food.
  

The dirt road that our hotel was on - the view of Kili in the distance

Our bus to the start

Check in time!

Our Melder relaxing

Me and Ming

Marangu Route

Ming and Matthew

Manuel and Ming enjoying lunch

Kathryn expounding on something, Hitomi and Maureen enjoying lunch

WOOO HOOOOO!

The typical lunch - mango juice, egg, some unidentifiable and inedible citrus fruit, roll and a tiny banana

The route up was beautiful through the rain forest - we hiked (always going up) for about 3 hours.  We went from 5,500 feet to 9,000 feet in altitude and ended up at our first nights hut - Mandara Hut.  We would be staying over for one night in this kind of comfortable hut.  There was plumbing:

And beds:

We had a great hut with women in one room, men in another, and another group in a separate room and even a porch to hang out on.

The hike up was gorgeous!

     After a typical dinner ... probably a soup that they called "cucumber soup" (it was the same soup every night with a different name.  A soup thickened with a roux and no texture)  pasta with a vegetable sauce that had too much butter, coffee, bread, peanut butter, possibly potato, and some mango for dessert, we headed to bed.  The cots and foam mattresses were kind of comfortable and my sleeping bag was more than sufficient.  I went out to the bathroom to attempt to brush my teeth and found people outside looking up.
OMG - living in a big city my whole like I have NEVER seen stars like that.  The sky was full of them.  The Milky Way was pointed out to me as was Orions Belt, the Little Dipper, planets and satellites!  I couldn't believe how many stars and planets you can see when there is no light pollution!  Beautiful!

Day 4 - Day 2 of trek up Kilimanjaro to Horombo Hut

After a restful sleep and a typical breakfast (cornmeal mush, white toast, fried eggs and "sausages" (otherwise known as hot dogs)), we were on our way to Horombo Hut

Meal hut - Himnshu, me and Maureen

Maureen Me, Ming, Himnshu, Mark, Hitomi, Matthew

The terrain changed from Rain Forest to Heath on the way up to Horombo Hut at about 12,000 feet.  It was so cool to see how much the terrain changed!  We made a stop at Maundi Crater on our way up ...

The girls and guides - Mohammed, Dula, Rama, Omari

I'm flying!

It was a 6 hour trek up to Horombo Hut - we were going Pole Pole (slowly) and saying Jambo to everyone on the way up (hello) or Mambo (what's up), answer is Poa (cool)

Heath vegetation - those cool trees are only on Mt. Kilimanjaro

These cool crows were everywhere

Made it to Horombo Hut!  Every step I take is higher than I've ever been before!

Our hut - that last step is a doozy!

It's getting closer!

We're going up there :-)

Day 3 of trek - Hanging at Horombo Hut

Up until now we've had beautiful weather - today is our rest day at Horombo Hut with only a small 3.4 kilometer hike up to Zebra Rock to acclimate to the altitude.  I was trying to decide whether to take the Diamox for the altitude and decided to try to take a half dose and see if it did anything.  The only altitude related issue I seemed to be having was pins and needles in my heels and fingertips.  The medication didn't make it better or worse, so I decided not to take anymore.  At this point I was more than twice as high as I've ever been - except for when I tandem jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet, but I don't think that counts!

I was counting my blessings that I didn't have any altitude or gastric issues - and that kept up for the whole trip :-) 

To Zebra rock - the clouds moved in

Back at camp - hailing and snowing!

Dinner

Time to rest and get ready for our last day hike to Kibo Camp ....