After leaving Tarangire NP earlier this morning, we head straight for the Ngoronogoro Conservation Area. We won’t do another game drive until early tomorrow morning, but we stop for a couple photos of the crater on the way to the hotel. I’m so excited for this part of our safari. I can’t remember what I…
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Before I tell you about today’s game drive, let me show you where we stayed last night. At first glance, Maramboi Tented Camp seems like an average lodge located between Tarangire and the shores of Lake Manyara. But we were absolutely blown away by this place. I wish I could come back and stay for a week!…
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For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to go on an African safari. Elephants are my absolute favorite animal, and the opportunity to see them in the wild, as well as lions, zebras, giraffes and all number of African animals, is a big bucket list item for me. So when Amy and I…
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10:30pm. It’s dark. It’s cold. Fortunately there’s little wind. Amy and I crawl out of our warm sleeping bags. We get ready in our tent by headlamp. We slept in most of our clothes so we only need to add our top layers. After a quick bite to eat and some hot coffee, we’re ready to…
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Today we tackle the Barranco Wall! This is the Barranco Wall. It’s nearly 1000 ft of almost straight up climbing. More of a scramble than hiking, requiring us to use our hands to get over several obstacles. It’s one of the most challenging parts of the climb, besides summit night, especially since I agreed to…
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It’s day 4 of our 8 day climb. Today we head up to the Lava Tower at 15,200ft for an acclimatization hike, before heading down to Barranco Camp to spend the night. We’re up early to get a head start on everyone else headed this way today (as this is where the Lemosho Route meets…
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This is a pretty easy day for us. We cross the relatively flat Shira Plateau, gaining only about 1000 ft, most of it at the end. With views like this, how can you not start the day in good spirits? At one of our breaks, I take pictures of Amy and our guides. They are such…
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Day 2 takes us up into the moorlands of Kilimanjaro. It’s much longer (6 hours) and more challenging hike than day 1, so we get an early start. I didn’t sleep well the night before, and I realize it’s because I was still wearing the same sweaty clothes I arrived to camp in so I…
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Oh my gosh this is it. It’s here. Our first day of our climb up Mt Kilimanjaro! We’ve been planning and training for this trip for over a year, so it’s really hard to believe that we’re actually heading to the mountain to begin climbing it today. We’re meeting our guide Innocent at 830am, so…
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If you’re looking for a general overview of my climb up Mt Kilimanjaro, this is the post for you. I’m not going to go into too much detail here, or post a ton of photos, but I will give a brief description of each day, and a link to each post (eventually) for more detail…
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After 7 days of hiking, 42 miles covered and 13,000ft gained (total, not counting the ups and downs), we made it to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro! It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Amazingly, I barely felt any affects of the altitude, with the exception of how hard it was to breathe. Thank…
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Today we explore the town of Moshi, located at the base of Kilimanjaro. We stayed last night in the Springlands Hotel, which is owned by Zara Tours, the company we are doing our climb with. The rooms are basic and the walls are thin, but the grounds are beautiful and they have pretty much everything…
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