KILIMANJARO EXPANDED

Since my last post was so sketchy, I am expanding about my kilimanjaro trip post.

As I said it was fantastic. The airplane ride was 19 hours of flying time and basically 36 hours of travel time. I got to Kilimanjaro at about 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night, August 7 and met Scott there. We stayed in a hotel about 1 mile from the airport.

The next day we stayed in a very nice are where we saw some animals in order to try to get acclimated for the climb. Finally, on Saturday, we started our climb.



It was awesome. Both Scott and I were in really good shape to make it to the top. Of course

he was in much better shape than me simply because he is 22 and I am 53. Anyway, I think

both of us had a fabulous time climbing to the top.

We summited at 2:30 p.m. on Friday August 15. It was very emotional for me because I had spent such a long time getting ready for the climb and then being with my son was very important. I also thought about Tom and Scott when the joked about doing the 7 summits since Scott was a little kid. I really had little trouble reaching the top but was very tired and breathless.

It only took us about ten hours to reach the bottom but 1 and 1/2 days. We went through a wonderful rain forest with huge rainforest plants. Here are our guides and porters at the celebration at the bottom.

We then went on our safari which was also lots of fun. We stayed in permanent standing tents with solar lighting. Nice but not elaborate.

We saw lots of animals.

Hippos (and I mean lots of hippos and lots of hippo poo)

Lions (and the babies were soooo cute)

Baboons (so much healthier looking than in the zoo and their little babies were sooo cute too)

Elephants




So many more animals - rhinos, water buffalos, zebras, wildebeast, ostriches (and the ostrich mating dance), flamingos. It was absolutely awesome.

Finally, finished and back home through Amsterdam where I stopped off and visited the Rycks Museum and the Van Gogh Museum for a little western culture to add to the fantastic Africa Adventure!