Lynda's Hiking Adventures: 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 :-)