What does one do after the exhilarating but exhausting experience of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro? 3 days of Safari of course! What an exciting opportunity to explore the amazing animals of Africa. Standing up in the safari vehicles with the wind in your hair (and the dust in your teeth!) binoculars at hand waiting to see what animal is around the next corner. Our drivers, Edson and Ibrahim, were amazing, keeping an eye on the bumpy road while keeping an eye out for animals hiding in trees and tall grass.
This was my second time on safari in Africa (the first followed a medical mission trip in Kenya in 2009). Growing up in Asheboro, home of the N.C. Zoo where we developed one of the earlier natural boundary habitats, the first animals were from Africa. I’ve always loved these animals. But to see them in their natural environment is powerful. As I’ve said before, even the birds of Africa have the most magnificent feather colors. Our birds look shabby compared to the Lilac Breasted Roller or the King Fisher or my favorite- the Superb Starling.
We visited three different National Parks and by end of day 2 here were our highlights:
-Monkeys, monkeys everywhere! Baboons jumping on our hood, blue monkeys peering into our top, and black faced monkeys watching from a distance.
-One of my favorites are the giraffes. So tall and gangly but with the sweetest eyes and long eye lashes. I love their faces.
-Packs of zebras where multiple times they were right beside our car eating grass or trying to figure out how to cross the road. Each zebra’s stripes are different so everyone one of them are beautiful, unique creations by God. As hard as I tried I never could get one to bark (our safari drivers work for Barking Zebra Tours!)
-The elephants were wonderful to watch. We saw several babies hanging close to their mamas. So big and powerful yet they spend 18 hours a day eating up to 300kg grass a day! We never saw one not eating!
-Wildebeests or Gnus were in abundance. This was a first for me as they had migrated last time I was here. Some say these animals were designed by committee because they are so unusual looking and have characteristics from the buffalos, zebra, lion, and gazelles! I kind of liked their mushed and fuzzy faces and weird shapes bodies.
Wildebeast and zebras hanging together at the water hole
-The lions were spectacular- one day we saw 26 lions scattered throughout the reserve!
So this lioness walked right beside our car- I switched to video which I will share later. Amazing!
-Of course we saw a variety of the gazelles and impala. We saw lots of ugly little Pumbaas (warthogs)! We saw Cape Buffalo and hippos and jackals and mongoose and hyenas.
-We saw one lone rhino from a distance
It was the last day when we were one short of the Big 5. These are the hardest animals for a human to hunt on foot. They are the Cape Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Lion and the Leopard. We were on a furious search for a leopard or even a cheetah that had alluded us so far. I’d been looking up in trees far from the truck for 3 days! Our drivers got word over their cb that there was a leopard sighting and were zooming across the reserve when our first vehicle in front of mine came to an unexpected grinding halt. Sure enough as we came up behind them to our immediate left was a male leopard sitting up in a tree right next to the road. It was early morning and he was scoping out the swamp area for breakfast- some lone animal coming to the swamp for a morning drink. But it was skittish and we had spooked it. It was showing its teeth and hissing like an upset house cat! For a second I thought it was going to leap from the limb into our vehicle! Instead it quickly climbed down the tree, gave us one last hiss and wondered over towards the swamp himself. All we could see was his tail sticking up like a periscope moving through the tall grass. It was a lucky, lucky site to catch a leopard on the move! Not only that, 20 minutes later we found another leopard lounging in a tree further from the road. We needed binoculars to view her bathing and resting on a tree limb. Wow, our lucky day!!!
We also sadly saw a zebra that had been taken down by some lions and the vultures were cleaning up the carcass. By the time we drove back by that same spot only 16 hours later there was nothing but a rib cage and bones remaining! Efficient food economy on the Tarangire reserve!
Always grateful to see the variety and interconnectedness of God’s creation right before my eyes. The beauty and quirkiness of each unique species. The variety of colors and patterns of hides. The different strengths and vulnerabilities the animals exhibit. How often we saw most of the animals cluster together (not including the big cats, of course!) sharing the same turf and grazing from the same plants. Giraffes eat up high. Wildebeests eat the medium grass and the Zebra graze close to the ground. The Impala hang around the edges nibbling on anything. Elephants pass through grabbing anything green their trunks can grab hold of. They’ve figured out to get along in spite of their differences. Sure wish we humans could manage to figure this out as well.
As I head to the airport and prepare to close out this amazing chapter in my life I’m feeling grateful. Grateful to be coming home. Although home is a new place for me, I have thought often of Boone and missed it terribly. And that made me feel more settled than I realized I actually was. I’m grateful for new friends from various parts of the US. I’m feeling grateful for good andkind people all over the world who share this amazing planet we live on. To look at our world only through the “American” lens is a huge mistake. We are not the biggest and the best. We are one among many as I heard voices from around the world climbing Kili and going on Safari. I’m grateful for showers and beds with mattresses. I’m grateful for my dear husband who when I was feeling far from home texted me words of encouragement. I love my sweet Greg. I’m grateful for God’s great big world and the reminder that I’m just one small part of a big, beautiful plan. And finally I’m grateful for the many lessons learned on this adventure. And I for the ones I haven’t even figured out or recognized yet.
How do you climb to the top of a really tall mountain? One small step at a time. And that is literally true. The Swahili phrase said over and over is Pole Pole (Po-lay) and it means slow or little by little. I learned this when I was in Kenya several years ago. East Africans approach many things in this way. But it has a whole new meaning to me now because it originated from the Mt. Kilimanjaro approach- small, slow steps. The Tanzanian Guides would observe our hiking technique and advise us to take smaller steps. Dave Hahn, our experienced American Guide, would tell us if we are taking a large step causing us to really reach with our legs then we probably missed a small step in between. Taking large steps uses lots of muscle and energy that you will need later, higher up the mountain. The more energy you can conserve on the easier parts the more gas you have in the tank for later. They were always looking at the end game and not just that day’s hike.
We spent 5 days hiking around this massive mountain in order to try and prepare for summit day. Part of that was to try and sleep as many nights at high altitude as we could fit in. 5 nights into it and we were as ready as we could be in such limited time. Interestingly enough we were told to bring Diamox, a medicine to help fight altitude sickness. Everyone I knew who climbed Kili had taken it. Dave said taking it prophylacticly was old school medicine and that modern climbing medicine protocol was wait and see how you feel and use breathing techniques first to get rid of a headache. Then use Advil. Then if symptoms persist start taking the Diamox. So I never took a single pill.
The other 5 hikes we did were nothing compared to summit day. We did an alpine start so we finished dinner by 6:30, crawled in bed around 7:00 PM. Some people actually slept but most of just rested until 11:30 PM. Then we got up, ate a light breakfast, and hit the trail about 12:45 AM. We started walking straight up with Naimen as our lead guide. We were all in a perfect row behind him stepping in time with each other, pressure breathing together. We walked about an hour and 20 minutes and then stopped for a break. About 2:15 AM we started again. The wind was picking up at this point and since it was still dark outside we were using headlamps but obviously did not have our sunglasses on. It was sometime during this walk that I began to notice some blurry vision. Once again my right eye looked like someone poured a glass of milk into it. Slowly my vision in my right eye got blurrier and blurrier until all I could see was the light of my head lamp but nothing specific on the ground. I hesitated telling Dave because I knew this was not going to go well but I finally called him over and shared what was going on. He told me to protect my eye from the wind. By this time it felt like the wind was blowing about 20-30 mph and it was really slow going for us. We should have made it to the summit by sunrise at 6:20AM but we were still hours away from the top.
Breaks are critical stops where we would quickly bundle up to keep from getting cold. We would eat some high calorie food and drink some water. We would use the bathroom on the side of the mountain if needed (at that high altitude most everything is slowing down so that was not an issue for me.) We took 4 breaks walking up the mountain and arrived at 9:00 AM to Stella Point which is the rim of the crater from where we approached the top. We then had an hour more hike to reach Uhuru Peak where we arrived at 10:00 AM.
This is an alpine start at 12:45 AM- ready for the mountain.
My problem at this point was my stupid eye had thrown me off my rhythm. I essentially climbed 2500″² on summit day with only one pole. At one point Dave told me if I didn’t protect my eye he would send me back down. I was having none of that. I handed him my right pole and held my right hand over my eye and used only one pole the rest of the way (a total of 5 more hours).
I was so glad when the sun came up because I was trying to keep my right eye out of the wind and was having a hard time seeing. I was not able to keep my typically military rhythm of rest stepping because my balance was off because of my altered depth perception and I was constantly adjusting to avoid the wind on my eye. So by the time we got to the top, I was more tired then I should have been. I had wasted more energy summiting than I would have normally. I still was feeling ok physically but my muscles were quickly fading.
Add to that it felt like I was moving in slow motion. My body kept moving but I didn’t have much control over my legs. With that strong wind, it was tough tagging the top. At one point Dave had me follow his steps to get me to the summit sign quicker. After taking our pictures I snapped a few more pics and then it was time to go. Because the ice channels on the top of the mountain were so tricky with the unusually high wind, Dave grabbed my hand and led me through the channels. He was moving fast and I was just focusing on keeping up with him!
Top of Kili- you can see the crater rim of the volcano
When we passed Stella Point and began our descent we were facing what is called volcanic scree. This is loose dirt and volcanic ash that you just slide through. Dave eventually grabbed my hand again and made me take giant steps to get me down faster. Apparently at this point most everyone was affected by the altitude in one way or another and Dave wanted us down as quickly as possible.
Dave eventually handed me off to one of my favorite native guides, Freddy. Freddy took my arm and just helped me walk faster down the mountain. So grateful for him!
Freddy ad Dave Hahn, my climbing angels!
To understand how fast we were going what took us 8 hours to go up earlier that day only took us 2 hours to go down! We were back in camp in no time packing up our stuff and having a quick brunch because believe it or not, we still had 4 more hours of downward hiking to go. Needless to say it was a quiet brunch and most of us barely felt like eating.
Off we went and 3.5 hours later at 4:30 we were cruising into our final campsite at 10,000 feet. Everyone felt much better regarding altitude side effects, just some sore muscles and lots of Advil! 12:45 AM start with a 4:30 PM finish involved 14.5 hours of the most difficult hiking I’ve ever done. Moving from snow and ice back down to tropical trees and high moisture was mind boggling! Needless to say I slept like a baby that night- 9 hours straight!
It was one of the physically hardest things I’ve ever done. Mentally I never thought once about stopping but there were moments when I just wasn’t sure I could will my body to do what it needed to do. But with some help, I accomplished the end goal.
Looking rough post climb but the T-shirt says it all regarding this climb!
Seeing the sunrise where the entire horizon turned a bright orange was beautiful. The joy of tagging the top was a lifetime memory our team will share. The sheer beauty in each of the eco-zones we traversed was magnificent all in one day! The feeling of accomplishment was satisfying in a profound way. The encouragement of others was life giving for all of us when we needed it most.
I give thanks for your prayer, your interest, and your curiosity about this experience. If you ever want to try high altitude adventures I strongly recommend using RMI to help you do it safely.
There is nothing that will ground your faith more than being on a serious mountain top and be reminded how magnificent our God is.
Have you ever had a life quest? Something you have wanted to do for a couple of years, or something you have thought about or worked towards for years? And have you ever completed said dream? I hope so. If you haven’t, sit down right now and mike a list and then pick something and work towards it, whether that is saving money to do something or planning the details, or physically training or intellectually studying something. Dream it. Explore it. Prepare for it. Do it. Life should have those ultimate experiences sprinkled through the years.
So one of mine happened this week. The first time the idea even creeped into my head was a couple on our Rainier climb in 2005 described their experience. Then after climbing Mt Rainier twice I thought I might try one other high peak. Which ultimately led me to this experience, at this time in my life with this particular climbing group. For me it was truly liminal in so many ways.
So here are several observations and my final point of reflection at the end.
⃠19,430′ is way higher than my previous height of 14,310′. My body felt it although I functioned fine until the summit.
⃠Acclimatization helps but when you are in anything above 10,000′ it is hard to breathe. The least amount of exertion and you are out of breath or a headache will onset.
⃠Pressure breathing is a technique of pushing out all of the air in your lungs and allows them to refill bringing in as much of the thin O2 as possible. This is the first line of defense towards altitude side effects.
⃠Living above the clouds for 5 days is indescribable. Looking down upon the clouds from camp each night was a humbling reminder of how small our worlds can become daily, even with massive amounts of connecting technology. If you love looking out your window in an airplane, this trip was living that perspective daily.
Barafu Hut camp above 13,000′ above even the clouds!
⃠Seeing the stars at night was even more spectacular! The Southern Hemisphere revealed the Southern Cross which can’t be seen from home. (Looks like a kite in the sky.) We saw four planets in the sky at one time which was amazing to me- Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. The Milky Way was so vivid and stars actually twinkled since there was absolutely zero light pollution. Again, humbling.
⃠The down side to being so out in Mother Nature that happens to be the side of a mountain is nothing is level, including your tent. It took me until night 4 to figure out how to maneuver my stuff so I could push myself back up to the top of the tent in my sleeping bag!
My half of my tent. Home for 6 nights although it would be in s different camp each night. Always sloping downhill towards my feet
⃠Self inflating camping sleep pads work a lot better when you blow them up and actually tighten the cap. The first night I failed to do this and felt every rock underneath me. I bruised my hips from day one simply by being stupid. But it was one of many laughable incidents for me!
⃠When you have the right equipment and gear, you can manage the cold temperatures. I honestly never felt uncomfortably cold. However at night except at high camp we got hot water bottles to stuff in our sleeping bags. Oh my gosh was that an amazing gift.
⃠Barking Zebra was our local outfitter and Rainer Mountaineering, Inc was our climbing and trip organizer. We had 51 staff from Barking Zebra climb with a team of 11! They were amazing. 5 guides helped guide us up the mountain looking over us like shepherd dogs caring for their sheep. A team of 6 fed us- I’m sure I’ve actually gained weight the food was that good on the mountain, all prepared from one cooking tent that was picked up and hauled further up the mountain on several porter’s heads each day! And porter’s put our bags in water proof bags and hauled their stuff and ours up the hikes we made each day. They have a 50 pound limit by law.
⃠There were places on our hike where we were using two hands and scrambling around rock. It wasn’t horribly hard but when we saw the porters do this with 50 pounds of stuff on their heads and backs, it was mind boggling!
⃠While this ratio of support staff to climber seems excessive, these are good paying jobs into this economy and I was grateful for every bit of help we received.
⃠Going without a shower for a week feels and smells just as nasty as it sounds. It took three shampoo applications before my hair would lather. Do not take your showers/baths for granted!
⃠My hiking poles and hiking boots were the two best pieces of equipment I brought. No blisters from my awesome boots in spite of one day of 17 hours worth of hiking. And coming down was so very hard on my 48 year old knees. Poles helped soften the blow a bit.
⃠And finally, apparently my right eyeball does not like windy conditions. 2 out of 3 times of being in high altitudes my cornea has frozen. We had unusually windy conditions that made our ascent particularly difficult. Thankfully I felt physically strong but by the time we got to the top, I was in slow motion because my brain was a little out of it.
Our team summitinf! I’m on the first row on the far right. Orange parka
Just a word about the summit, I’ll write more later. 9 out of our 10 team members made it to the top. It was different from Rainier in that the final 45 minute hike from the crater rim of the ancient volcano to the highest peak was a walk through knee to waist high ice channels. It was a brutal haul in 35-40 mph wind gusts that could knock you into these ice walls. But it was at that moment that I felt this shedding of so much stuff in my life that has in recent times caused me to struggle internally. To look around on top of a mountain and feel almost triumphant was in a way liberating. But to become weepy when your tears freeze and your runny nose impedes your breathing is a little inconvenient!
But here’s the real catch in all of this. Two days before summit day as I was watching the most beautiful sunset I heard God say two things to me. First was very clearly, “You can do this.” However immediately followed by that was “But you can’t do it alone.” And that is exactly the way this went down. I did not climb Kilimanjaro. “We climbed Kilimanjaro.” And that “we” consists of my will and determination. It includes the 51 staff of Barking Zebra that fed, protected and provided places of rest for 6 nights and 7 days. It was the encouragement of my teammates. It was the specific assistance and guidance from my American guide, Dave Hahn. It was all of your prayers which I truly felt. It was the amazing encouragement from my amazing husband these past several months. All of this got me up that mountain and I’m deeply grateful and not too proud to admit that truth. Not “I” but “we”.
And the powerful lesson I learned from God once again is that I am not in this thing called life alone. Even when I’m surrounded by perfect strangers and I’m feeling homesick and alone, faraway from everyone I know and love. Even when I’m challenged to my physical limits. Even when I’ve come out of a difficult season of life where some people did not act kindly or trust worthy. Even when you are the sole one responsible for a given situation, whether its managing yourself on the side of a mountain or managing yourself in your family or work life, you do not have to go through this alone. God provides support to get you through whatever you are facing. Look for the “porter” in your life that is helping carrying your load. Especially over the craggy, rocky places so you can hold on with two hands. Look for the “guides” in your life that show you where to put your foot to take the next difficult step and that form a human wall at the tricky parts to make sure you feel secure. They are there. I promise. See them. Thank them. And know that God has said to us, we can do it. Just not alone. “We”, not “I”.
Grace and Peace,
Lory Beth
(PS. Tomorrow I will describe the summit day in more detail if you are interested. Now I must go sleep in a level bed with a mattress!!!)
Jambo! (Swahili for hello!) And so it begins! Our team arrived over the past two days and we gathered for our first team meeting as we met each other and prepared for our pending adventure. We have a young couple from Seattle, a family of 6 from Iowa, a woman from Southern California (my roomie!) and me. Admittedly a little nervous, we listened to our guide, Dave Hahn, share itinerary plans, packing advice, cultural expectations, and encouragement in anticipation of Day 1 on the mountain. I climbed a viewing tower on the grounds of the lodge at sunset and gazed at the large mountain pushing up from the clouds. “Lord have mercy, what have I gotten myself into”, I prayed!
The day was spent mostly packing our stuff and resting. After an equipment check and weighing our bags to make sure we were not over the 33 pounds limit we then read, napped or whatever best helped our bodies overcome jet lag. The weight limit is because the porters who carry our bags are not only carrying their own stuff on their backs but they haul our bags on their heads! Thus the weight limit.
Surprisingly there are hundreds of people on the lower mountain with us. It will thin out the further up the mountain we go. There are about 5-6 routes to the top but we are going the Machame Route. It starts out on the west side of the mountain and then meanders along the south side and we will eventually summit from the east. But our first day we will climb for 5-6 hours and cover 4000″² of elevation ending at 9890″². It will be a nice slow pace.
Machame Gate entrance
Our outfitter is Barking Zebra and they are providing 50 local people to support us up the mountain! That seems like a lot of people for a team of 11 but these are good jobs that help the local economy out. I’m sure I will be grateful for every one of them by the time we are done! We will have 30-35 porters, 5 guides, 2 cooks, 4-5 camp guys that set up camp each night, 3 waiters that serve dinner and a poor latrine guy that carries and sets up 2 latrines at each camp. Clearly low guy on the totem pole gets that job!
But here we are this morning. The weather has been a little drizzly but rain coats are starting out in the backpack! But we do start in a rain forest so it is typical. After a hearty breakfast (which I don’t normally eat) and a 2 hour bus ride to the park gate we are ready to get moving. After registering our group on the mountain we are finally on our way!
I don’t know when I’ll be able to write again and adding pictures is a challenge so you may get word pictures along the way. But words fail me now describing what it feels like to actually be starting a dream in real life. My prayer that keeps pouring off my tongue over and over is God be with us! I have no doubt God will be.
7 day climb with a 3 day safariThis is the path we will travel with all of the camps along the way
It’s hard to describe my feelings right now. It feels like such a long journey to get to this place of excited anticipation. I leave Monday to start my adventure of reaching the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I can’t believe it’s finally here. I’m filled with a mixture of joy and excitement as well as angst and nervousness. Will I be able to reach the top? Have I packed correctly? Will I experience more pain than exhilaration as I test my physical and mental limits? What will it look like in real life? How will it feel at the top? Have I prepared enough? I have been thinking about this trip seriously for 5 years. I have been planning this trip for 3 years. It has occupied a great deal of mental space in my life and certainly an extreme amount of physical time and space!
Part of the sweetness of getting this close to departure is the agony I was feeling a year ago this time. As many of you know, I was scheduled to do this trip in 2017 and one week before departure I went on a final training hike and fell and turned my ankle severely. I had to cancel the trip and the disappointment was nearly unbearable for me. (And poor Greg having to deal with mopey me for several months!) Needless to say I have trained very carefully and I can honestly say that today, I feel no remnants of the ankle pain that plagued me for 10 months.
I have been asked several questions so the rest of this blog is an attempt to answer the most frequently asked questions.
How do you train to climb a mountain? It involves a regiment of intense cardio for at least an hour at a time 3-4 times a week. This includes interval training to maximize my body’s Oxygen intake ability. I have done lot’s of running on a treadmill where I could control my pace and push myself to run fast. And lots of time on a stair climber – the kind that actually has stairs that rotate so you are mimicking climbing upwards.
Training also involves strength training to help the upper body manage a 25 pound pack. Lifting weights and doing cross fit 1-2 days a week has helped me not neglect my upper body since so much attention has been given to my legs the other days of the week. This also includes core training every day to help with balance of both the pack and the upper mountain rocky path. Doing Plank is my friend!
Finally, a critical part of training is taking long hikes on Saturday’s that involve altitude to mimic a typical 5 hour hiking day on Kili. This also let me train going down the mountain which is equally important to prepare for.
The good news is the variety of exercise regiments kept the weeks of training from getting too monotonous. The hard part was it has been very time-consuming and quite honestly, it’s not a lot of fun to wear a 20 pound weighted vest on a stair climber for an hour. I was happy when this past Thursday I could retire my stinky, sweaty training vest! Hopefully my car will start smelling better, too!
Who are you climbing with? Unfortunately, my husband is not able to go with me on this trip due to some health issues. I am climbing with a company out of Seattle- RMI. They will provide an expert Guide (ours is Dave Hahn!) and hire porters to assist us on the mountain. There are 10 total people in my group – folks from Iowa, Washington State, and California. Yes, I am the only southerner! 6 women and 4 men. I am looking forward to making new friends and sharing this adventure together! However the only person I know on the trip is our guide, Dave. He helped guide me up Mt. Rainier the first time I climbed it and is one of the most famous western climbers in the world. So I’m stoked to have him as our guide.
How long does it take to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro? So the local phrase or mantra is Pole Pole (pronounced Polay Polay) which means slowly, slowly in Swahili. The peak is 19,341″² high and you don’t use Oxygen. Instead, you go at a slow pace and let your body acclimate. So we will spend 7 days climbing the mountain. I will start next Thursday, summit the following Tuesday morning, and be in the parking lot in time for lunch the very next day on Wednesday! Needless to say, you come down a whole lot quicker than you go up! But by climbing 4-5 hours a day and then making camp you let your body adjust to the decreasing Oxygen levels. However on summit day, we will be hiking for 12-14 hours starting around midnight Tuesday morning. That’s the day to pray hard!!! (BTW I will be 7 hours ahead of you in time.)
Will you be able to blog while on the mountain? Unfortunately, no. I’ll blog before and after but I will not have wifi while climbing. But you can go to this link RMI Blog and follow our group by reading Dave Hahn’s daily reports on our progress. It will include a map that shows were we are at each stop. Just look for Dave Hahn- Kilimanjaro to make sure you are following my group!
How cold is it? The weather on top of the mountain has been interesting of late. They have gotten more snow than is typical. The temps will range from 60 degrees at the park entrance at 5000″² to 19 degrees on the summit. Most of the upper mountain will be in the upper 20’s and lower 30’s.
Is this a technical climb with equipment? No. That is why I was interested in climbing this particular mountain. After doing Rainer which is technical and involves ice axes, crampons and ropes- that was my limit of the hard and scary stuff. Kilimanjaro is a trail most of the way up with a little bit of scramble over rocks and loose volcanic ash closer to the top. I will use my regular hiking boots and my handy trekking poles the whole way. It also helps that we only have to carry 20-25 pounds on our backs. Porters help haul our heavy stuff up to the next camp each night.
If you have any other questions you are curious about please ask and I’ll respond. Right now I am rejoicing at the fact that I managed to get all of my stuff into my main duffel and a carry on. Does it weigh over 50 pounds – well maybe!
This pic actually doesn’t include my boots, poles, back pack and sleeping bag!All of that stuff fit in these 2 bags!
Feel free to ignore my posts over the next few days if you don’t want to hear about this again! I truly appreciate all of your prayers and well wishes.
