In the two weeks before Christmas, a friend from work and I went to Kenya and Tanzania to have a safari on the Serengeti and to climb to the highest point in Africa, Uhuru Peak on Mt Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet for those keeping score at home). The scenery on the mountain was spectacular and we saw tons of animals on the safari. I have a few pictures in the post and more on-line at the link at the bottom of this post.

The hike was the first part of the trip, we chose the slightly longer Machame route, seven days on the mountain, to allow for more time for acclimatization to the altitude. Even with the extra days my friend still got sick and was not able to continue after day two. That said, I was not too lonely on the mountain as I was accompanied by the guide, cook, and eight porters. At first I couldn’t figure out why it took so many but then the first day at dinner I saw them setting up the steel table and chairs and it became a little more clear. Other interesting items that were packed: large LPG cylinder for cooking and boiling water, four dozen eggs, and a watermelon (consumed on day 5 on the mountain).

One of the interesting things about Kilimanjaro is that it is a free-standing mounting (extinct volcano) that rises out of the equatorial rainforest of northern Tanzania. The morning you start about 2000feet and then drive up to ~5500feet to the start of the train. Then over the course of the hike you go through several different climate zones from rain forest to high alpine desert.

After five days of hiking you get to the final camp before the summit, Barafu camp (15,400feet), in the late afternoon and have an early dinner so that you can get to bed early also. The reason for the early bedtime is that the summit hike starts at approx. midnight on the beginning of the 6th day. The goal is to leave camp in the middle of the night and hike 6-7 hours in the dark and cold (~ -10 F at the summit) so that you can arrive at the peak for sunrise. The hike is not that long in distance but it is up-up-up and the thin air forces you to take slow, small, deliberate steps all the way to the top. After reaching the summit, you take the necessary pictures and the take off back down the mountain since it is so cold at the top. It takes about 2 hours to get back to the Barafu camp and then after a brief rest, it is 3 more hours of descent to the final camp of the hike at Mweka at a relatively low altitude of 9900feet.

The Kili hike was one of the things that I really wanted to do while I was in Doha since it is so much more accessible than from back home. The altitude on the hike was really challenging as was the cold (especially for a boy who has only ever lives in Tucson, Houston, and Doha) but it was worth it to see some of the amazing views and the unique occurrence of glaciers on a mountain so close to the equator.

After a week on the mountain, the first night back in a lodge with a bed and a hot shower was wonderful. Feeling revived from the shower and bed and reunited with my coworker, I started safari portion of the trip the next morning. Over the 5 days, we went to Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and Lake Manyara, seeing lots of great animals in each location.

For the safari we had a drive/guide who took us all over the parks in an old Toyota Landcruiser with a pop-up roof so that we could stand up to take pictures of the animals. In contrast to the week on the mountain, there was not getting out of the car and strolling around the grassy plain lest one become a tasty snack for a lion (above) or a leopard (below).

After so many days riding around in the back of a Landcruiser over dusty and bumpy African roads, the bath the elephant was taking looked pretty good. Fortunately, even though the days in the car were long, we always had a nice lodge (or luxury tent camp) to sleep in at the end of the day so I did not have to fight the elephants for access to the water hole.

It was a great trip from start to finish and there are way too many pictures and stories to put on this site. I have a lot more pictures on my photo share site that are split between the climb and the safari sections of my trip, the links are shown below. This trip to Africa will definitely be a highlight of my trips from Doha.

Kilimanjaro climb
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=5p42e5n.6mo08u53&x=0&y=xlsj9t

Safari
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=5p42e5n.c0y47oxj&x=0&y=-md7dxh