Arrival in Africa - Day 1

August 9, 2009 - Arrival

I arrived in Africa after a relatively painless red-eye flight on a Kenya Airways 777. I'm not sure why I expected my flight to be an uncomfortable ride in an old airplane but it was anything but. Thus died the first of many stupid misconceptions about East Africa.

On my arrival in Nairobi I had a lengthy wait for my commuter flight to Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania. Seats were at a premium in this airport and I soon figured out you have to divide your time between walking around and staking out a seat that looks like it may be vacated soon. At first I was irritated with my long wait but as I looked around there were people everywhere sitting on the floor, reading and generally settling in for their own long waits. The stopover did give me the chance to take in my new environment as a spectator and do some people watching. My first gaff of the trip came when I went to one of the currency exchange counters and changed a bunch of US Dollars into Schillings. After receiving the wad of notes from the teller I started packing them away in my various travel wallets until I realized that I had just purchased a bunch of Kenyan currency which would be all but useless in Tanzania. I sheepishly went back to the currency counter and exchanged the bills for Tanzanian Schillings.

In due course I was on my flight to Kilimanjaro airport. The captain came on the PA and pointed out Mt. Meru on our right - the 2nd highest mountain in the region. People frequently climb this mountain as well and I looked at it's craggy peak soberly. A few moments later the captain came on again to announce the Mt. Kilimanjaro was coming into view to the left. After looking at Mt. Meru it's safe to say the Kilimanjaro left me a little awestruck. In contrast to Meru's black unattractive features, Kili was majestic with its glacier crown and cloak of white clouds. I was taken aback by its sheer size and for the first of several times I wondered whether I was in way over my head.

Soon we were on the ground and getting processed through customs and immigration. For the first of many times my preparation paid off. My documents were completely in order and I breezed through quickly to find all my checked luggage intact and my tour representatives waiting for me outside. I joined several others who were headed to the same hotel and I had my first taste of driving the roads of Tanzania. The plain was incredibly dusty and dry. Every kilometre or so we would pass one or two young boys coaxing a herd of goats along the side of the road.

The Springland Hotel in the town of Moshi is run by Zara tours and it essentially caters to the many people arriving every week from around the world to tackle the Kilimanjaro climb. Our van drove through the iron gates that quickly closed behind us and for the first of many times I would notice the disparity between the everyday world of Africa and that which is enjoyed but those visiting from other countries. Outside was dust and the smell of cooking fires on the side of the road, animals both alive and dead and ramshackle huts in various stages of completion. Inside was a lush garden with tables set under the shade of palm trees. Around the corner people were lounging by a brand new swimming pool. Before long I was situated in my room, all checked in and reasonably organized. I sat on the end of my bed and tried to get my head wrapped around where I was. With an effort I shook offer the sense of disorientation, grabbed my journal and walked out into the garden to have the first of many Africa beers. There is an excellent selection of good beer in Tanzania, ranging from Tusker, Safari, Serengeti and of course, Kilimanjaro beer. I later learned my favourite was Serengeti.

One of the many pleasant surprises of my trip was how easy it was to meet others and generally socialize. I spotted some people who were on the van ride in and soon we were drinking beer together and discussing our expectations of the next few days.

We had a while before we were scheduled to meet our guides and have the pre-climb briefing. When I arrived I was greeted by a pretty cool Maasai guy who served as a kind of bellman and general helper. If you needed something he was only too happy to help you, in exchange for a thank-you of a few schillings. The Maasai, I would learn, are a tribe native to Kenya and Tanzania who remain fiercely loyal to their traditional ways. For the most part, they continue to life a nomadic life, herding cattle around the countryside. Even those like my helper who have chosen a more urban life continue to wrap themselves in brightly coloured blankets. This unmistakable clothing visually sets the Maasai apart from everyone else and their sense of pride is obvious.

I needed a new SIM card for my phone so I could send text messages home without huge roaming fees. To my surprise he was well versed in this procedure and, despite the language barrier, was able to get me set up with a new SIM and 20,000 Schillings worth of pre-paid phone time on ZAIN, one of the local carriers. (I was amazed at how pervasive mobile phone technology is in Africa - more on that later.)

After my phone was configured he offered to take me into the nearby forest to catch a glimpse of the somewhat rare Colobus monkeys. After some hesitation I agreed and he took me on a very pleasant walk across some rice fields and into the forest where we eventually spotted the elusive monkeys. It was hard to get good pictures of them and soon I was content to just watch them with my own eyes. My guide was having none of this and eventually grabbed my camera and proceeded to burn up a huge amount of memory with endless pictures and videos. When we would get a particularly good look at the monkeys my guide seemed immensely pleased with himself and giggled like a little boy. They he would rest is chin on my shoulder and watch from behind me, not hesitating to physically turn my head with his hands if he didn't think I was looking in the right place.

Later that evening we were back at the hotel and being briefed by our guides about the schedule and generally what to expect. Their English was reasonably good but it regardless it was obvious they had done this many times before and immediately I was comfortable that I was in good hands. We finished off the evening with some dinner, another beer or two and then bed. I fell asleep to the sound of a crazy group of South Africans partying by the pool, ecstatic for having completed their climb of Kilimanjaro. I looked forward to feeling the same way.

Trip Log - Departure Day

August 6, 2009

The big day finally arrived. There was much to think about beforehand. The company I work for has its fiscal year end on July 31. As a salesman this is a busy and somewhat stressful time of the year as we work towards meeting quotas, achieving bonuses and taking full advantage of year end financial incentives. Gladly the year ended well and after a little year-end celebration I as able to turn my attention completely to my trip. On the final days my apartment was strewn with clothing and gear, some items not yet even removed from it's packaging. On the eve of my departure I stood and surveyed this mess and wondered how I would ever get it all packed. I did manage to get the lion's share of it tucked away but there was a lot of stuff - probably too much. This fact would haunt me in the days to come.

Brenda drove me to the airport with plenty of time to spare and I crossed my fingers that I might luck out and score a business class upgrade on my flight to London. I hate long flights and I had deliberately saved my Air Canada upgrade coupons for this trip. An upgrade from Vancouver to New York is a pleasant perk. An upgrade from Vancouver to London is a gift from God. Sure enough, my upgrade came through and no time I was sipping champagne and perusing the menu trying to decide between the beef and the lamb, and between the Chianti and the Bordeaux. The trip was off to an excellent start.


The next morning I arrived at London Heathrow. I had decided early in my planning to break up the flight to Africa into two segments. I had never been to London before and this was a great opportunity to explore a little bit and spare myself a gruelling 24 hours in transit without a break. So I settled conveniently into the Hilton at Heathrow terminal 4, snoozed, showered, and headed out to explore. There was direct access to the London Underground from terminal 4 and it was a straight shot on the Piccadilly line directly to the heart of London.



I had time for two trips to the city before my departure for Africa and I saw most of the mandatory sights including the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and just for fun on Saturday morning, Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It was all good fun. The only frustration came on Friday night when, after hours of exploring, I desperately wanted a cold beer and some dinner at a pub. Given the millions of pubs in London this hardly seemed like a problem but to my surprise every pub on every corner was bursting with people just finished work. Not only were the pubs full inside but people were crowded outside on the sidewalks with their beers. It was a bit of work getting my pub dinner that night.

Vaccinations and Visa

There are a couple of details I haven't been thinking about that I finally attended to last week. First, I paid my first visit to a travel health office. This is like a one-stop-shop for vaccinations and other travel-related medical needs. I am fortunate not to have any medical issues or allergies to contend with so the questionnaires were pretty painless. I ended up with 4 shots that covered a variety of ailments such as Yellow Fever, Hepatitis, rabies and others. I also received a prescription for anti-malaria pills. This seemed like the most serious medication of all, complete with rumours of bizarre side effects that my travel nurse assured me I would not succumb to.

4 needles and two prescriptions later I'm all set. There were no side effects from the shots other than a bit of a sore arm on the first day.

The other thing to get done was my Visa. I hadn't worried too much about it before now as I was told you can get one upon entry to Tanzania. I had just about decided on that path but I called the Tanzania High Commission in Ottawa to get some advice. The lady who answered the phone was friendly and practical. She reiterated that I could get the Visa upon arrival but that I still had plenty of time to apply in advance. She insisted that either way was fine but naturally an advance application is safer. Best to find out about unforeseen complications before I get on the plane.

So my application is now in Ottawa along with $75.00. I should see it back in a week or so.

Research

The Internet is a Godsend for anyone thinking of climbing Kili. There are so many great links to both professional sites and amature blogs like this one. One of my early inspirations was a book my ex-wife gave me. The author has since become something of an uber-expert on Kilimanjaro and has created a website, based largely on excerpts from his book. This is a great example of a useful resource, complete with suggested clothing lists, precautions to take and help with little details such as how much you should tip the porters. You can find it at http://www.climbmountkilimanjaro.com/on-the-mountain/index.html

More Gear...

I had an invitation to go on a quick kayaking and camping trip this weekend. I took it as an excuse to get back to the store and get more gear. Yesterday I bought my sleeping bag. As I mentioned earlier it was a bit of a challenge because the climb will take me through such a range of temperatures.

There are several issues to consider; Down or synthetic fill, barrel or mummy design, and more. What made it even harder was the fact that I may never camp in sub-zero weather after this. I don't want a bag that's too hot for everyday use if I can avoid it.

I ended up going with an all 'round bag using a barrel design and down fill. The barrel design isn't as warm but I think I'll get the jimmy legs with a mummy bag. I need some space to move. So I compensated with down fill which is warm and incredibly light. The only problem with down is you have to keep it dry. I told the lady helping me that we're almost guaranteed to get rained on. I already plan on buying a waterproof shell for my pack but just to be safe she showed me a waterproof compression bag for my sleeping bag. This serves to compress the sleeping bag to it's smallest possible size and keep it dry at the same time.

I also bought a compressible sleeping mat often referred to as a "Thermarest" (apparently the leading brand). The one I bought was Mountain Equipment Co-op, the house brand for the store of the same name I referred to earlier. Most of my gear is turning out to be this brand. I have to say that it doesn't seem to provide much cushioning. Which takes me to the camping trip...

So we kayaked out to this little island in Indian Arm. I had heard for years that you could paddle out and camp there and I looked forward to enjoying a more isolated experience than "car camping" would afford. Wrong. We arrived to find a troop of boy scouts had taken over the main camping area. Fortunately on further inspection we found some other less groomed spots on the far end of the island. It meant we had to hump all of our gear across the island from where we pulled our kayaks up but at least we had some privacy.

The little trip was fun but I have to say the sleeping mat wasn't much help. The spot we chose had a great view but was riddled with rocks and roots. So lesson learned: Sleeping mats will make a perfectly flat spot more comfortable but won't do much if your spot is lumpy to begin with. As for the sleeping bag, it was a little warm but then again it was quite a warm night. I'm confident it will be a good fit for Kili.

Gearing Up

I'm about to leave on yet another trip to Mountain Equipment Co-op to look at more gear. Gear is one of the big challenges of this trip. There are tough choices. For instance, what sleeping bag do you buy for a trek that takes you from 30 degrees Celsius at the start to potentially -20 at highest camp? Or how do you buy a duffel or backpack big enough to store gear for any weather condition but still be no more than 15KG full? Last time I was there I found a cool bag that looks like a duffel but also has a flap that unzips to expose shoulder straps so you can carry it as a backpack. Plus, it has a daypack that zips on the back of it. This is perfect because while I am responsible for carrying my daypack, the porters carry the bigger pack for me. So I can travel with the two attached but separate them for the trek. Oddly, I'm told the porters don't care about the backpack straps. They just carry it on their heads.

Other misc. things to buy include a headlamp (the final push to the summit is at night), gators (had to learn what those were) and synthetic underwear (no comment).

Booking the Trip

This is not so real-time as I actually booked the trip several months ago but I thought I'd mention a few things about it.

The big decision is who to book with. It seems there are innumerable adventure tour companies offering Kilimanjaro trips. I noticed some people actually just booked their trip to Tanzania and then signed with a guide at the last minute. No way I was doing that. There are two adventure travel companies that heavily promote themselves here in Vancouver, Trek and Gap. Both of them hold regular travel shows where you can watch slide shows, etc.. I went to one by Trek on Africa and to my surprise there was a sea of grey hair in the audience. Aside from the fact that I'm turning grey at 44, I found this alarming. I soon figured out that most of them were interested in luxury safaris.

I ended up booking with GAP for no reason other than I happened to drop in one day and got a very friendly rep who had lots of time to spend with me. I have since noticed so many more around North America including some really impressive looking ones such as Tusker Trail (check out www.tusker.com - they have a very cool video).

I am flying Air Canada from Vancouver to London and then Kenya Air from London to Nairobi, Kenya and on to Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania. Booking the flights was a bit different than booking a standard business or personal trip. They had to wait for days to confirm availability and pricing, mostly because the flights and various tours I was taking all had to be coordinated and that can't be done on the spot. So you let them know what you want and wait for them to confirm.

I won't comment on the cost of the trip other than to say it is expensive. I justified it partly because I knew I was going to receive a 10-year bonus from my company which took a big chunk out of the cost. Also, it is clearly possible to do this trip for less than what I paid. In addition to Kilimanjaro I have a week on "safari" and a week in Zanzibar, both of which are going to be in relative style. (Picture enjoying a gin and tonic at sunset on the Serengeti while you're watching a pride of lions)

One other point: I never figured myself as being a stickler for detail but I was a little uncomfortable at first with the number of details that aren't nailed down before you leave. You just have to wing it when you get there. I'm ok with it now but if you're used to business travel where you have control over every detail, this took some getting used to.

Introductions

Greetings. My name is Doug and on August 6, 2009 I leave Vancouver, Canada on a 3-week trip to Tanzania. I will be spending a week on safari and a week in Zanzibar but this blog is primarily focused on my attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.

I've been thinking about making this trip for over 5 years but it was 2008 before I started my research and planning. During my research I was pleasantly surprised to find a ton of blogs published by others who had gone before me. Many of these have been very helpful. With this in mind I've decided to make my own contribution in hopes that my experience might be of some use to others who are considering making the trip. I welcome your questions, comments or pre-trip suggestions. In addition to being potentially useful they will let me know that someone has read and possibly appreciated the effort. At the very least I'll have provided updates to those friends and relatives who are interested in what I'm up to.

A little background...

Many of you have already suffered through my thoughts on why I'm doing this, ruining what would have otherwise been a very enjoyable beer. So suffice it to say that I've always wanted to visit Africa and Kili seemed like a cool way to experience it. I will spend my share of time staying in lodges and being shuttled around to view wildlife but the Kili experience will be particularly real. This was always important to me but in 2006 my marriage of 21 years ended. Now the Kili trip is somehow even more important to me.

How important is it to summit?

As I mentioned, I started out just looking for a more interesting way to see Africa. But over the course of my planning I have come to realize that Kili is a much bigger challenge than it was portrayed to be in the books and films hat first inspired me to do it. My research uncovered stories of triumph, surprise, disappointment and even death. Yeah, death. Turns out that the ascent of Kili gains far more altitude per day than the normal benchmark that climbers would use for say, Everest. This is because Kili is considered a non-technical climb. That is to say, no special skills are required, you pretty much just trek straight up, so any dumb-ass can attempt to climb it. (That's where I come in.) For this reason, the true challenge of Kili seems to be how you adjust to the altitude gain. For some it's an apparent walk-in-the-park and for others it can mean hitting a wall and turning back. For a foolish or unlucky few it has meant injury and occasionally death by pulmonary or cerebral edema. For anyone interested you can find a primer on this at ww.indigoguide.com/kilimanjaro/edema.htm

While I'm not too worried about dying, Kili has somehow evolved into some kind of symbolic challenge to be overcome. What started as a different angle on Africa has now become something much more. The books all say, remarkably, that physical fitness has relatively little to do with whether you summit. It's more about willpower and your ability to adjust to altitude.

So, is it important for me to summit? Of course it is. But it's not about impressing anyone or even proving something to myself. It's about exploring my limits, challenging my assumptions about myself and setting a new benchmark for phase II of my life.