Africa: Zanzibar and Return (Oct 19-22)

The trek was strenuous and intense at parts. The safari was not at all physically demanding, but required some level of focus all day (intermixed with bouts of napping). Zanzibar was completely relaxing. A GREAT direction of trip segments in terms of energy requirement! I certainly wouldn't want to do everything in reverse order. Of course, whenever I transition out of a high energy activity, I have a lot of extra energy over the next few days. This generally gets me in trouble. Calvin and Pat had decided we would spend one night in East Zanzibar and one in West Zanzibar near Stone Town, then each picked a place to stay.

East Zanzibar (Oct 19)
Our aggregate knowledge of the Zanzibar island was something along the lines of "they grow spices there, it's largely Muslim, and it has tropical beaches." That was probably all we needed to know to get started. We flew from Moshi to Zanzibar then bartered for a taxi ride to our resort at Kichanga lodge, as Calvin had planned, which was on the Eastern side of the island facing the Indian Ocean. We were reasonably nervous about the lodge while in the cab, as we were hoping it would be luxurious, comfortable, and have great views, yet worried we'd somehow end up camping again. After about an hour of driving through the boonies, we arrived at the lodge. No need to worry anymore, it WAS paradise!

Our lodge reminded me a lot of Costa Rica. Warm, tropical, simple, insanely relaxing. After getting squared away, and hearing the manager warn us about sea urchins in the ocean, we immediately hit the beach and I ordered a Kichanga special cocktail to commence relaxation.  We were joined on the beach by a few American women taking a break from a work assignment in Africa #IWANTTHATJOB. We also met a native Masai with whom we decided to play some soccer. "Playing soccer" more or less meant him kicking the ball to us, then us kicking it accidentally away from him while shouting "Pole" or "sorry". Thus, certainly not disproving the perception that "Americans don't play soccer." After a while we transitioned to a game of Bocce. Later, we decided to jump in the ocean and go for a swim. I decided I probably had enough in me to swim out past the lagoon to where the breakers started #ExtraEnergyTrouble.

I swam out for about 10 minutes then heard what I thought were cries for help. I looked over and saw two of the women I'd seen a few minutes ago back at shore waving their hands while in the ocean. Umm.. crap... there were no lifeguards there! I had absolutely NO lifeguard training so I didn't know what I personally could do to help if they were seriously drowning, but at least swimming towards them seemed like the right idea (back in the US I'm sure alerting an actual lifeguard would've been better.) As I got closer though, I realized they were both standing in the water and walking back towards shore. One of them had just stepped on a sea urchin and was impaled with the urchin barbs. They were not in immediate danger. I made sure they were able to get back, then decided to go continue swimming.

A few minutes later I stepped on a sea urchin, too. So much for listening to the manager's warning! I figured the barb hadn't penetrated my skin, so I continued swimming out to the breakers. I finally reached them then turned around to return to shore. I estimated I was out there for probably about an hour. I managed to step on urchins a few more times while returning, too, though I was not worried at the time because I figured the spines had merely poked my foot then remained with the urchin. When I reached shore, Calvin told me how he had also stepped on an urchin and just undergone "foot surgery" to remove embedded barbs. I was confused until Calvin explained that urchin barbs actually penetrate your skin and stay INSIDE your foot, as they are released when you step on one. When I showed the about 5 or 6 dark purple/black stains on my foot to Calvin and Pat, I realized that I must have had spines embedded myself! I tried to undergo the same surgery Calvin did, which was performed by another Zanzibar native and our Masai friend and consisted of using wooden thorns softened with papaya juice to pry the spines out. This combined with being somewhat dehydrated from the swim made me a bit light headed!

But we were all okay. We played some more Bocce ball with the Masai who turned out to be named "Mateo." Afterwards we cleaned up and enjoyed our chakula kitamu (delicious food).

Stonetown (Oct 20)
We awoke in the morning to somewhat sore feet (except for Pat who was smart enough to wear water shoes and avoid sea urchin barbs altogether) and prepared for our journey to the West part of Zanzibar, specifically Stonetown. The cab ride was again about an hour. I got a very different feeling from the other side of the island almost immediately. While the Eastern shore felt like a relaxed tropical paradise complete with white, sandy beaches, Stonetown felt more like a historic, colonial town bustling with culture and activity. Children were jumping and swimming in the bay, gigantic, modern barges docking were contrasted by olden looking sailboats in the ports, and street chefs were yelling at us to try their curry flavored meals.

We checked into the Meru Meru hotel, as picked by Pat, and were impressed with it's luxurious, very Muslim feel. Or at least what I imagined a "Muslim feel" might be. We decided our plan would be to obtain some more shillings, secure our ferry ride to Dar Es Salaam for the next day, and then do some brief shopping with any leftover time. We walked a few minutes to the ferry station, passing a few mosques along the way, and obtained our tickets. We then returned and decided to check out an old castle on the way back. As we passed a police station, we saw a crowd of locals gathered outside and were about to hear one of the scariest things I'd ever heard.

We had been warned about Stonetown the previous day while at the Kichanga Lounge. Apparently a Muslim leader had been kidnapped which precipitated riots in the streets. We had planned to stay another night on the East coast should the situation still be unstable, but decided that was unnecessary as we were told the leader was released, resulting in a celebratory attitude and a safe environment in Stonetown. Nevertheless, I'm sure some tensions were still high. Approaching the police station, we heard a series of "thwumps" from inside. I can't describe too well what they sounded like, but following them was a shrieking wail. A primal, uncontrolled cry. It became clear what was happening, a man was being tortured. We talked about it later and decided we weren't sure if it was more a show for the public as a scare tactic or punishment for the sake of punishment, but it was unsettling. It sure didn't seem like a James Bond movie where Bond just bites his lip and gives a "you can't break me" badass look to the torturer, it seemed more like a "Okay, you broke me, STOP, PLEASE" desperation.

We made a bee line back to our hotel to be in a safe place in case anything did happen in the streets. Fortunately, WE were all fine and able to enjoy a comfortable, delicious, rooftop dinner overlooking the sites of the city. Our last night of vacation, with a bit of a scare.

To Dar Es Salaam, Amsterdam, and SFO (Oct 21-22)
Our next day was a lot more peaceful. In the morning we headed out for a tour of a spice plantation. We were shown around by a really engaging, fun guide. We got to see, taste (when appropriate), and smell aloe plants, cloves, cinnamon, and many other plants and fresh fruits. I might have appreciated this more if I cooked, but I thought it was pretty cool, anyway! At the conclusion of the tour we haggled for some spices, coffees, and teas, then returned to Meru Meru to check out.

Dar at evening

We boarded the ferry and enjoyed the nice ride back to the continent. Navigating to DAR wasn't too complicated, and after a minor snafu of Calvin's boarding pass not being printed, we boarded for our return trip. I started to look back on the past two weeks at this point, and decided on a scale of relaxed to "aggressively ensuring everything was okay" I would order us as Pat, Matt, Calvin. And that I was really happy with the way our group turned out, since we had a good balance. As usual, after a long trip, I was looking forwards to getting home and catching up with people. But also thinking that I seriously could have spent another week on the coast of Zanzibar.

Our flights to AMS and then to SFO were uneventful. Then finally, the trip was over. Calvin drove us home with Alli's car. And on Oct 22 I was back at my place in Mountain View and exhausted with jet lag. But I got back just in time to see the Giants win game 7 of the NLCS. Not a bad welcome back :)

And as I write this I still haven't transitioned back into California life, a month later. Climbing Kili was something I had dreamed about for years. Seriously prepared for the past ten months. Intensely and specifically trained for the last month and a half. We did it. We had our pictures, our souvenirs, our memories, and they were great. But there was also now a void in me. An emptiness. And I'm trying to figure out how to fill it. What the next step is. I am lucky and happy to have my full time job which is far from a dream job, but certainly comfortable. But spending 8 hours of my day coding and another 2 driving pales in comparison to the adventure EACH day was in Africa. And the months leading up were stressful but purposeful. Then I have to think, well, if I made a living in Tanzania, odds are my 8 hours might be filled with manual labor such as farming, or working as a porter. And unless I was rich enough to own a touring company, I likely would never travel.

But enough rambling. I will always remember Calvin claiming on our trek we were at Kibo when we were only 13,500 ft up. Pat shouting "F- you" at a thief bird. Our head porter teaching us daily Swahili lessons. How beautiful Mawenzi and Kibo looked after snowfall. Coming back to Moshi to share how proud we were we had summited with our friends back home. Watching lions approach our car in their natural habitat. Yitzhak calling me "Muzungu" every 2 minutes. Julius showing us what "Uzuri Sana" was. The beautiful site of the Indian Ocean rushing up on white sand. The painful sting of sea urchin barbs. The frightening shriek of a tortured man. And sunset over Stonetown from a rooftop. And those minutes we spent on the crater rim of Kibo, atop Africa, will always seem surreal, and like all the stress and sacrifice was well worth it.

Africa: Safari (Oct 16-18)

After our goal had been accomplished, it really felt like vacation, in the more literal sense, had finally begun. I'd never been a huge animal person, but when you're in East Africa how could you possibly pass up the chance at a world-class safari? I was definitely looking forwards to exploring new lands and seeing exotic animals, but maybe more looking forwards to just relaxing.

Lake Manyara (Oct 16)
But, as we were eating breakfast at the Keys Hotel and anticipating a nice, comparatively luxurious stay in a safari camp with beds and showers, our guide and driver Jimmy told us to remember to pack our sleeping bags. At this time Calvin also noticed that the same tent we'd spent the previous week sleeping in was packed up and on top of the safari Landrover. WHUT. There were no beds for our safari trip. Back to camping. Sigh.

With spirits mildly dampened, we nevertheless enjoyed a nice game drive at Lake Manyara. Highlights of the drive were baboons, monkeys, zebras, a giraffe, a hippopotamus, a wildebeest, deer, and an elephant. I wasn't necessarily giddy with excitement, but I enjoyed the day. Back at the safari camp lodge, after dinner, we were treated to a dance and music show by a Masai tribal themed group. This was actually a lot of fun. Pat and I were pulled up on stage to participate in a flaming branch limbo activity. When it was my turn to limbo I promptly wimped out and just ducked the branch. Pat, however, passed the test with incredible agility. We listened to the omnipresent "Jambo Bwana" song as performed by the group and I bought a CD with the group's recordings. We turned in early that night as Jimmy told us to be ready to leave for our second game drive at 5 am. Meh.

Ngorongoro Crater (Oct 17)

Really 5am? VACATION?? Grumble grumble. Well, carpe diem, our drive through Ngorongoro was supposed to be the overall highlight of our safari, and it certainly lived up to the hype! But I was sleepy. I napped in the truck on our way to the crater, in between animal sitings while driving around inside the crater, and on the way back to our safari camp.

In between my naps for the day a lot of exciting things happened, though. Entering the crater itself was awe-inspiring. I took a panoramic video from the gate. Once inside, the density of wildlife was a lot higher than Lake Manyara. We got to see our first lions, warthogs, buffalo, and hyenas. We also saw a pretty exciting wildebeest confrontation. Later in the afternoon it looked like a fight was brewing as buffalo seemed to test their boundaries with nearby lions. Hyenas waited near by in hopes of scavenging any wounded animals. Unfortunately (fortunately?) there was no active conflict in the end and both sides peacefully backed away.

Although I was tired, I enjoyed this day the most of the safari. I learned a lot about my various camera settings in attempts to capture some neat shots. I was also pretty excited when lions passed within inches of our Landrover. But, truth be told, I was looking forwards to returning to Moshi.

Tarangire (Oct 18)
We got to sleep in until a late 5:30 am today. So I was still plenty sleepy out on the game drive. We saw more or less the same sets of animals as the day before, with the addition of giraffes and elephants. Overall I enjoyed the safari and found it worthwhile, but I would have been okay with just seeing the Ngorongoro crater. We returned to Moshi, once again, and I appreciatediIt was time to look forwards to our last part of the trip, 2 nights on the island of Zanzibar!

Africa: Return to Moshi (Oct 14, 15)

And then after a few minutes on top of Africa, it was time to come back down. Maybe I'm still coming back down to reality as I write this. But with the goal achieved, our willingness to handle the lack of comfort seemed to vanish. We longed for showers and civilization. That became our focus. Also, we were sure the Giants had been eliminated, but at least I was very eager to check the NLDS results.

Descent to Horombo (Oct 14)
After taking pictures at the sign and chatting with other trekkers, reality sunk in that we were all pretty cold, had mild headaches, and still had 10 miles left to trek for the day. Also, unfortunately, Julius's back had become really sore from the reserve emergency Oxygen tank he was carrying that weighed 35 pounds. Yitzhak had mentioned this to us and wanted to make sure we tipped him well. We had already planned to because he was incredibly enthusiastic and took us on a lot of neat side routes. We traced our steps back to Gilman's Point while getting congratulations from approaching trekkers and wishing them good luck in return.

When we reached Gilman's we rested again and Yitzhak tended to Julius. We offered him our extra water, snacks, and ibuprofen, which he politely refused. Pat gave him a few heating pads which he accepted to help with the soreness. Julius and Yitzhak then guided us down a shorter route back to Kibo. This route was more difficult for our tired legs, but we were all glad to drop the altitude so quickly. Julius had started to feel a little better. Also it was a great chance to chat some more with Yitzhak about politics and try to explain the electoral college system. He also asked us what we had been doing to train and said we were strong hikers. Suhhhweet! Upon arrival back at Kibo, we were greated with celebration and some special fruit juice by the porters. This was a great feeling. That lastest a whole 5 minutes until we completely conked out back in our tents for about an hour!

Back to Kibo

I awoke groggily to one Pat Lu defending our trail mix supply from a bird. We then handled our final packing and started the road down to Horombu. Those last 6 miles of trekking took forever, but finally we reached the camp. It was a bit of a stark contrast to see our tents next to the nicer huts trekkers on the Marangu route stayed in, but our tents were still more luxurious than the porters' sleeping conditions. We gladly slept the rest of the day only getting up for dinner.

Return to Moshi (Oct 15)
It was really hard to get up in the morning of Day 7, but we managed to make breakfast. Afterwards, we tipped our porters, and gave an extra $10 to the head porter who made sure we made all our meals and were doing okay. I decided to also give him my TNT captain's jersey. Since Matt was an idiot and left his $US back in Moshi, we made arrangements with Julius and Yitzhak to tip them and the cook back in town. After some celebration, it was time to begin the 12 miles downhill to Marangu Gate.

I was definitely anticipating being back in town, but the last stage of the trek was quite enjoyable. We passed through rainforest, saw a few waterfalls, our last glimpses of Mawenzi and Kibo which were "starkly different from the other side of the mountain," and were reintroduced to wildlife. Our Swahili for the day was "Muzungu" meaning "white person" and "China" meaning "Chinese person." From then on I was known to Yitzhak as Muzungu.

We reached the Marangu gate not too long after lunch and checked out of the log books. Yitzhak gave us our summit certificates. I took advantage of the gift store to buy my remaining essentials of a trip: a shot glass and a T-shirt. Then, after a "post-hike" photo requested by Calvin, we were off back to Moshi by van. We stopped on the way back to buy some bananas at which time Yitzhak, Pat, and Calvin had a laugh at how red the Muzungu's face had turned from the sun. I decided to call them all "Jingas" (roughly "idiot") but had to admit it was pretty funny.

Calvin, Pat, Yitzhak, Matt post-hike

On the way back to the Keys Motel, we swung by the Spoonbill office in order for our porters to receive their salary from Pius. At this time we tipped Julius, Yitzhak, and our cook after visiting the bank. I can't say the porters seemed really happy with their salaries. And this has bothered me some. Generally it sounded like their lives had involved living in a village in the outskirts of Moshi, Machame, or another nearby town. Pat learned from Yitzhak that at a very early age they were required to carry large amounts of food or other materials on their heads, so becoming a porter was often a natural transition. That certainly did not make it an easy living by any means. As Westerners, we were able to trek up Kili comfortably in our $1000 worth of North Face/REI gear. The porters often had to wear hand me downs or clothes donated from previous trekkers. I decided to make a donation to the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project at KPAP.

We did celebrate when we returned to the Keys Motel, and it felt GREAT. We cleaned up for the first time in a week and got back in touch with reality. And by that I mean the internet. I returned to 20 texts from our friend Cliff (who may have forgotten we were in Africa?) about how the Stanford football games had gone. Calvin received a VERY interesting message from our friend Alli. Apparently her office was going crazy because Buster Posey had hit a grand slam. Excitedly he pounded on my door and told me... this meant.... Game 5???? The Giants were .... still in it? And WINNING game 5??? It was a sweet day.

I decided to dedicate my climb to my Grandmother. I didn't plan the trip for our summit day to coincide with the same day she passed away, it just happened. Some things in life are strange? She had spent time in Northern Africa during her duties for World War II. She also always made sure I wasn't studying too hard and enjoying life during my high school years.

Africa: Summit push (Oct 14)

And now the test. I'd gone over in my mind a hundred times that my "progress marking points" would be: William's Point, the trail junction with the Third Cave route, Hans Meyer Cave, Gilman's Point, then, if fortunate, Uhuru Peak. And I was hoping the return would just feel like autopilot. I'd also planned out my iPod mini playlist. Back in the US, it was October 13, the same day my grandmother passed away 11 years before.

Summit  (Oct 14)

The calm before the storm at Kibo

We awoke (awoke being a loose term, it was hard to get any real sleep that night) at around 11:30 pm and entered our food tent for a snack of tea and cookies. We made our final pack preparations, donned our appropriate layers for extreme cold, and reasonably packed our porter bags for the return trip knowing that we'd have much less energy when we returned to Kibo. I also attached my Team In Training Safety tag to try to be a funny guy. I distinctly remember being mildly annoyed that we didn't actually start moving until about 12:35 am. There is a bit of control freak in me :)

Our pace was nice and slow. Pole Pole. I readjusted my Camelback a few minutes in, then realized that doing so left me slightly out of breath! I also turned my Garmin GPS on as I had done for the first 5 days of the hike, knowing that seeing the elevation on the watch would be a great indicator of our progress and a valuable tool for keeping me sane (and also draw some jokes at my expense from Yitzhak.) Before too long, my watch reported we had reached 16,700 ft and had gone 0.8 miles. Something was wrong, according to that elevation we should have been rapidly approaching William's Point, the first marker, yet the trail was 1.2 miles to there according to the map. To further obfuscate things, a rock on the trail had "16,500" painted on it. Something was awry. Things were either going smoothly thus far, or I was in for a REALLY long day.

Then five minutes later we reached William's Point. GPS elevation was CORRECT, but the distance measurement was off, as apparently was the rock painting also. PHEW. I'll take it. The William's Point sign was surprisingly underwhelming. I'm not sure what I was expecting, though. We continued our slow and steady pace. I worked out a system for drinking from my camelback : one sip, 2 breaths, repeat 4 times, then blow back in straw to prevent freezing, and 2 more breaths. It froze once, but unfroze within a few minutes. Yitzhak asked us how we were feeling, and our responses were a mildly hesitant yet convincing "fine, we're good to keep going." Things were okay. We climbed on to Hans Meyer Cave.

Calvin at Hans Meyer Cave

The Cave was also underwhelming. Not really anything more than a rock about as big as the one we encountered on day 2. Nevertheless, this marked our first real break and a significant progress point. And by this time all groups climbing the Marangu/Rongai summit route were on their way up so there was significant company (maybe about 30 people total.) We snacked a bit, sat down to rest, and before long got up for the last stretch to Gilman's Point. In the back of my mind I was thinking about how Yu-Kuan had said he was NEVER going above 18,000 ft again and that became sort of a point of fear for me.

The trail got steeper, but not as bad as our acclimatization hike on Day 4. I got a rhythm going in my mind where I would repeat the number of 100ft left to climb. There were about 1400 ft to ascend between Hans Meyer Cave and Gilman's Point, so it went something like.... "14.... 14.... 14.... 14.... THIRTEEN....13....13...." etc. Something to focus on. Also to focus on was the sounds our bodies would occasionally make as we acclimatized. A source of humor, yet perhaps not something to focus on any further in my blog. Finally, to focus on, was my obsession with finding the Southern Cross and whether or not we saw it on the last stretch was a point of contention. I claim we did. I did NOT however end up needing my iPod to help me focus. At last, Gilman's point was reached.

4:50 AM. 18638ft. We had made it to the rim of the Kibo crater. The hard part, in theory, was done. It was dark, and the views were not YET spectacular, but we felt a sense of accomplishment. We also knew at this point we would make Uhuru Peak, and by sunrise. We took a legitimate break, got ourselves together, and put on our last few layers of clothes as it was very cold. And then, "Twendai" or "let's go." And from this point on the elevation on my watch was useless.

Gilman's Point

The walk along the crater was fun, but VERY up and down and not exactly short. I was mildly annoyed not being able to know what our progress was due to rising and falling elevation, but before long we hit Stella Point, where the climbers from the Western routes reached the crater. Then it was again a steady climb, and I at least could measure our progress with the elevation. But there was no need to. The sun began to rise and we were able to see the sign of Uhuru Peak! And I was feeling okay enough to enjoy it!

6:10 AM 19,341 ft. And there we were. On top of Africa. The dream of almost 4 years realized. We took in the moment, got a heartfelt congratulations from Yitzhak and Julius, snapped some beautiful pics and recorded a panorma of the vista, and visited with the other summiting trekkers. Calvin made fun of me journaling and told me a picture was worth a thousand words so he would journal with his camera. In light of that comment, here are some of the best pics I got.

Yitzhak, Matt, Pat, Calvin, Julius

Africa: Acclimatization at Mawenzi and approach to Kibo (Oct 12,13)

Were we really only 2 days away from our summit push on Kibo? The summit push I'd been going over in my mind for about the last year? Things had been going smoothly so far, but the big test was closing in. By this point we'd seen Kibo many times on the trail, yet our rate of approaching the base camp seemed ever so slow. Pole Pole!

Acclimatization at Mawenzi (Oct 12)
The day trekking to Mawenzi camp was pretty mellow, and the day we spent there was even easier. We slept in for a while, then slowly got up and began our routine breakfast. After, we decided we'd go on an acclimatization hike, and it looked like we were on our own to figure out where to go. We started to trek towards Mawenzi peak following a different path than we'd taken in our hike the afternoon before. We got about 20 minutes in to our hike when Julius caught up with us and started leading us, much to the fascination of Pat.


Pat had slowly been developing an intense admiration for Julius's ability to carry a load of about 50 lbs on his head while traversing rocky terrain both uphill and downhill. Once Julius caught up, he lead us at a very Pole Pole pace, which was necessary since we were on a steep gradient and approaching more serious altitudes. He lead us to the Baranco Wall, and then a bit farther. We took a few pictures and enjoyed the beautiful rolling clouds as well as some waterfalls, then proceeded up even a bit higher. Our Swahili phrase for the day was "Uzuri Sana" or very beautiful. And these sites certainly were. After resting a bit at about 15,100 ft, we descended back to camp and enjoyed another hot lunch.

Our afternoon was pretty simple. It involved throwing a few rocks at targets, reading, and watching Pat and Calvin play Final Fantasy IV to pass the time. Dinner arrived pretty quickly and afterwards we had a talk with Yitzhak, again. He told us that we were looking just fine, and that the path up to Gilman's point (the ridge of the crater of Kibo) was not as steep as what we had just trekked. My thoughts were a very conservative "okay this is good" followed by a "PLEASE don't be lying!". But I did start to feel optimistic about our summit chances. It looked like a successful acclimatization day. We were quite a ways away from summiting yet, though. I took this glimmer of optimism along with feeling about 95% over my cold to be a good sign, and slept quite easily.

Calvin, Julius and I

Crossing the Saddle to Kibo (Oct 13)
Time to head to base camp! We woke up a bit earlier for breakfast on this day, as we had a solid 5-6 mile trek in front of us, longer than anything we'd walked the past 2 days. I was looking forwards to this saddle hike, as apparently you could see views of both the Tanzania side and the Kenya side of Kili from the ridge. That is, on a clear day. Instead, the sky was saturated with mist! So we had very little visibility. We did manage to see the wreckage of a plane whose passengers did not meet a happy end. I figured it was bad karma to do anything but walk past the fuselage.

Approaching Kibo Camp

Julius guided us for about an hour on the trek, until Yitzhak came and took over. The trek ended up being quite uneventful and in my opinion a great base camp approach day. It was a reasonably long yet very gradual hike. Just enough to get the blood flowing in our legs but not enough to tire us out. And on a clear day the views would have been breathtaking. We arrived at Kibo in reasonably heavy weather. The weather ended up staying with us until dinner time. We caught up with the Canadian women who had all managed to summit and reach Uhuru Peak. One of them was feeling quite ill though. Afterwards, we took shelter in our tent and organized our gear for the summit push that was to take place just 5 hours after dinner! Try not to think too much Matt, just prepare! Preparing meant gathering all possible layers of clothes I would wear, removing anything from my day pack I would not need for the summit, having all 5L of water carrying capacity I owned filled with freshly boiled water, and putting together a bag of energy food for the push.

We ate our dinner and had our last briefing from Yitzhak. He told us we were still looking really good and he expected us to reach Uhuru Peak by sunrise. This delighted Pat who had already made that his goal, while Calvin and I were figuring we'd be happy to reach Uhuru at ANY time. We appreciated Yitzhak's faith, felt good, and had confidence, but we still had a 3800ft climb ahead of us. We did our best to sleep until the 11:30pm summit push awakening call. 

Africa: Journey to Mawenzi via Simba and Kikelelwa (Oct 9-11)

It was time to begin our trek, the main reason for those 25 hours of travel, months of training, random pills we were taking, and endless ups and downs with the planning. Nerves and excitement were abundant, but at healthy "adventurous" levels, and we were as reasonably prepared as we could have been.

To Simba Camp (Oct 9)
We woke up, took our breakfast, and handled last minute preparations. One of them being me realizing my mattress pad wouldn't fit in my duffel. Fortunately, it fit in Pat's duffel! We met with Yitzahk and our driver Jimmy, loaded the landrover, and began the drive to the Rongai gate. We stopped at a market to pick up food and met the porters on our way.

Upon arrival at the gate, we ate the lunch provided as the porters distributed the loads for the journey. We chatted briefly with 3 women from Calgary, Canada who had planned to take the 6 day Rongai Route (bypassing the Mawenzi camp.) They had fashioned an insulating device around their CamelBak straws to prevent freezing of the water at higher altitudes. Gamers. Before long, we were off and hiking!

Rongai Gate

The first 2 miles were not too special as we walked through some farm lands. Nothing super spectacular, but the hike did get more interesting as we traversed a forest the next 2 miles. Yitzhak showed us where he concluded an elephant must have crossed our trail due to broken down shrubs. Cool! We also saw a long haired monkey waiting in a tree. Occasionally, we caught glimpses down on the plains of Kenya. Before too long, we reached our camp at Simba and found a nice tea/popcorn break awaiting us. A few hours later we ate our "Chakula Kitamu" (delicious dinner), figured out how we'd arrange ourselves in the tent, and crashed as soon as the sun set. Gotta love the strict "awake with the sun" hours of the outdoors!

To Kikelelwa (Oct 10)
After our "cute" little breakfast (as described by the Canadian women commenting on our proper tea and egg sandwich table setup) we trekked to the "First cave" at a nice, slow pace. Our formal introduction to the "Pole pole" (slow) way of Tanzanian activity. The First cave proved to be entertaining, as Yitzhak showed us how to poke our heads through a hole in the cave and appear like gophers to a camera pointed to the top of the cave. See photo evidence. Yitzhak also introduced us to some local fried snacks and I introduced him and our assistant guide Julius to my Clif shot blocks.

Pat stepping on "gopher" Matt

We left the First cave after a brief break and arrived at the Second cave in a shroud of mist which later turned to a respectable rain. Geez, I thought early October was still dry season? And the Rongai route was the "dry" route? We took shelter in the cave, ate our lunch, and prepared our rain gear. We also chatted with some folks who turned out to be 3 related generations of Californians: a son, a father, and a grandfather. The father was an international US ambassador and was currently stationed in Tanzania. I WANT THAT JOB I WANT THAT JOB I WANT THAT JOB.

While a steady rain affords some eventually incredible views of snow covered Kili peaks, at the time I was not a happy camper to be wet as I was still dealing with the cold. We finished the day's trek and arrived at Kikelelwa camp, where I promptly took shelter in my nice 0F rated sleeping bag. I spent most of the afternoon and evening sleeping when I had the chance (most of the time other than our meals) figuring rest was my best friend. It was a fun day, and slowly I was getting over the cold.

To Mawenzi (Oct 11)
Sweet. A shorter day. 2000ft of climbing to a hot lunch, then an "optional" afternoon acclimatization hike. I was a bit nervous this morning though as I would surpass the highest elevation I had ever been (about 14,000ft in Nepal.) I was feeling better though, already. Our morning climb was nicely slow and steady (Pole pole) with some incredible views of the snow covered peaks, and I turned into a geek calling out our elevation to Pat and Calvin. Yay Garmin 310xt. We also had our very first "Kibo sighting" which turned out to be a rock at about 13,500 ft that Calvin mistook for Kibo in a glasses-less state. I made an announcement when we surpassed 14000ft. We arrived at Mawenzi camp and were rewarded to a hot lunch.

Being "done" for the day, we were free to chill, and we did! Pat and Calvin brought out their DSes. I convinced Pat to start playing Final Fantasy IV, and soon Calvin followed suit. I was entertained enough just hearing the music! And then I got sick of the repetitive battle music, but.... yeah. We did decide to take a short but long-winded acclimatization hike later on in the afternoon, and Yitzhak led us up to about 14,700 ft. We got to see the ridge/saddle between the peaks of Mawenzi and Kibo up close. The very same saddle I took a picture of back in Moshi. That was as high as we'd get for the day, and we returned to camp.

After our dinner Yitzhak came to chat with us about the next day. He is a very reserved dude, but we got him to talk more to us that night. He shared his opinion of Tanzanian politics and how he respected the first president's ability to find peace among the different tribes when Tanzania first achieved independence in 1961. A stark contrast to the Kenyan leaders who as of today have not been able to find peace with the warring tribes. He also warned us that Mawenzi would reach some of the coldest temperatures we'd face, which was hard to believe when we arrived at camp to a balmy 80F. He was right though, as we were treated to a wild post-dinner ice fall, lightning, and windy storm! Cool!