“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
(John Muir)
July 9, 2017
I woke up to beautiful summer weather on my first morning in Africa. After taking a nice hot shower and preparing myself for the day I decided to take a walk around KIA Lodge before breakfast. During my short investigation while walking through the grounds at the lodge I saw and heard several different types of birds chirping and singing. The fresh air was cool and the light breeze felt great. The sparsely cloudy sky looked beautiful. The view below is just a short snapshot of this gorgeous morning.
The images below are pictures I took of my room, the lodge facilities and the gorgeous view of mother nature surrounding the property.
After exploring the lodge grounds it was finally time to eat breakfast. The KIA Lodge served a wonderful breakfast that included eggs, bacon, muffins, fruit and almost anything you could imagine. I thoroughly enjoyed my first breakfast in Tanzania.
Breakfast was my first opportunity to meet a few members of my group that I would be hiking and climbing with for the next several days. I sat and ate breakfast with Steve, who I met when I first arrived at the lodge the night before. He was very friendly. We both shared similar excitement for our adventure that was about to begin. I also met Laura and her brother, Matt.
Soon after breakfast all fifteen members of my group met for orientation. At orientation we broke up into two separate groups that consisted of seven members in one group and eight in the other. I was selected to be in the eight member group. The other members of my group included Steve, from Canada; Sawsan, from the Congo; Laura and Matt, from New Hampshire; Marc with a “C”, from Boston; Mark, from Los Angeles, and Jim, who was from Boston as well.
After we divided into our two groups, we broke the ice by introducing ourselves. Shortly after we all were acquainted we finally met Edward, our head guide. Edward was very kind, and had a great sense of humor. He was an expert climber of Mount Kilimanjaro. Through out his climbing career, he has successfully climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro over 100 times. He was very knowledgeable, and he was able to answer all of our questions. After he gave us a briefing on safety, he soon showed us a map of the route we would be taking for the nine day climb (seven days to get to the summit, Uhuru Peak, and two more days to descend to the final gate).
Pictured above: listed from left to right, clockwise: Edward, head guide (yellow hat); Steve, grey hat (on Edwards left); Jim (striped shirt); Sawsan (white shirt); Marc (grey shirt, middle of the picture); Matt (blue shirt), Mark (black shirt, with arms crossed); Laura (black shirt and black pants).
The briefing lasted about an hour. There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered and Edward did a great job at explaining everything very thoroughly. Soon after the briefing, we collected our rental equipment, organized our gear and headed to our next destination, the Ndarakwai Ranch.
We arrived at the Ndarakwai Ranch after about an hour drive, which was just at the foothills of the entrance to Mount Kilimanjaro National Park. We checked into our room (walk in tents), had lunch, and then prepared for our guided nature walk. And for someone who is a big animal lover who loves going to the zoo in the United States, I was very excited to go on the nature walk. The nature walk was a great opportunity to finally see animals in their natural habitat.
I saw many amazing and beautiful animals on the nature walk. I saw elephants, giraffes, zebras and other animals.
I really enjoyed the nature walk. I was in awe the entire time. I had never seen wild animals in their natural habitat before. I have only seen similar animals in zoos, behind a fence, or behind glass. This was the first time in my life I witnessed these magnificent wild animals roam free without any artificial boarders. For our safety one of our guides carried a rifle loaded with tranquilizers for obvious reasons.
Soon after I finished the nature walk, I went back to my room to get ready for dinner. The room was actually really nice. It had a full size bed, bathroom and shower. Below are a few pictures of my room.
After I settled into my room, I went to dinner. All fifteen members of our group ate dinner together. Dinner was excellent. And I really enjoyed meeting new faces and getting to know everyone. After dinner I called my family. This would be my last opportunity to speak with my parents and my sister before I started my nine day climb. After talking with my family and messaging a few of my close friends, I went to bed excited knowing that my Mount Kilimanjaro adventure would begin the very next morning.
Climbing To The Roof Of Africa 