The evening before setting out to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
Rivertrees Lodge, Tanzania
Monday 25th January, 8:00pm
Hi Everyone!
Once again, we’re sitting down to dinner and I have a few minutes to update you on our first full day in Africa.
Today was a day both to recover from the long flight and to prepare for starting the climb tomorrow. Our guides from Thomson Safaris - Frank, Mus and Hashim - took us out to Arusha National Park for some wildlife viewing and a short hike to a waterfall.
Probably the most exciting part of the morning was a glimpse of Kilimanjaro across the plains. Most of the middle of the mountain was covered in clouds, with the snow-covered top just peeping above the cloud layer. Hopefully an auspicious forecast for our climb!
We saw quite a range of animals in the park: two troupes of baboons scavenging in the woods; black and white Columbus monkeys just hanging out in the trees; a few blue monkeys; a herd of Cape buffalo; plus giraffe, warthogs, zebra, and various antelope on the “Little Serengetti” area of the park.
As we headed out for our walk to the waterfall, we crossed an open grassy area with three giraffe grazing right by, who all seemed more interested in our progress with the wheelchair than anything else!
Our pre-climb briefing was at 5pm and we met out head guide, whose name I cannot spell, so will tell you tomorrow! We went over the specifics of the hike. The number of porters we will have (35!), what to wear, how to pack and so on.
The we all headed back to our rooms for the difficult task of trying to get everything into one bag weighing no more than 15kg or 33lbs. The reason we have more porters than usual is so that we have more hands to help us carry all the gear - extra parts for the wheelchair, film equipment, an extra prosthetic leg for Tara, etc etc. It is still a challenge to get all the personal items into 15kg or less - we are all doing a lot of bag juggling to get it to work.
Now we’ve finished eating, I am off to help Erica with her bath and then to have a welcome shower myself - the last for eight days!!
‘Till tomorrow,
Penny
About me
We are headed to Africa to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with two challenged athletes. Our goal is to raise awareness for individuals with physical challenges so they can participate and compete in the sports they love with portions of the proceeds to benefit the Challenged Athletes Foundation. By providing opportunities and resources needed for active lifestyles, CAF enhances these individuals’ self-esteem, independence and quality of life.In January of 2010, we start our journey from Los Angeles International Airport and head towards Tanzania, and we would like to invite all of you to follow along!
Here we will frequently be keeping you all up to date on our progress before, during, and after the climb.
Keep checking back!
