I am naturally a pretty decisive person, but in light of recent events I have become somewhat insecure I guess about my decision making. This decision has been the first I've made in a long time that I feel 100% confident about. Dar is a large city, but it is the safest in all of east Africa. In Dar I will be able to experience the true culture of Tanzania. But imagine you came to America and visited only New York City, you would never see the beaches in south Florida or the Mountains in Colorado. So I decided the best way to get a taste of both worlds of Africa, the nature and the culture, is to travel to Arusha after my internship is complete. The intention of this being to climb Mt.Kilimanjaro.
Speaking of Mt.K, here's my Granda's story of his trek:
"I had made my way to Nairobi, Kenya. Locally, I booked a 10-day, camping safari to see the wild animals. When we got close to the Tanzania border, I left the group and hitchhiked across the border to a town near the foot of Kilimanjaro and booked a guided climb up the mountain through a local agency that provided some warm clothing, a couple guides and a place to sleep for two nights before the climb. I stayed at the agency lodgings for two nights. In our group there was a Japanese journalist, a British biology teacher and a family of four--parents and two teenage boys. The guides carried all our stuff. I carried a water bottle, a hilking stick and a small day pack. The climb took three days. We slept in small A-frame huts that had 4 bunks each night The guide prepared all the meals in open-air pavilions near the huts. There was nothing technical about the climb, and there was no arduous claming until the last bit. We arrived at our overnight stop at about 1630 on the third day. We turned in right after supper as reveille was at midnight. I was to fired up to sleep. We began the last of the ascent at 0015. The guide carried a lantern and led the way. The footing was in loose scree (lava gravel). It was steep, and there was a tendency to slide backwards with each step--stout hiking stick is a must. Because of the surface, the steepness and the lack of oxygen the pace of the guide went like this: take three steps, stop, lean on stick for a 30-second rest, repeat. The goal was to get to the top before dawn (about 0600) to see the sunrise. By 0900, it clouds over every say and you see nothing. When we got to the top, I was exhausted. I sat do a big boulder and took a 30-minute power nap. The view was awsome. The Brit and I bounded down sliding through the scree and stepped lively to the overnight place. We spent only one night on the way down.
I
managed to get to a town where I could get a bus back to Kenya. I took
one to Mombassa on the east coast of Kenya. I made my way from there
up the coast to an island called
Lamu, which was a very pleasant place to visit for a week. I bummed a
ride in a two-seat piper cub back to Mombassa, then flew back to Nairobi
in a real plane. From there I hitched a ride to the foot of Mt. Kenya
to climb it. Save for the fact that I celebrated
my 53d birthday on top of Mt. Kenya with two Brit soldiers, two
Canadian school teachers and a U.S. ex-pat, splitting a Cadbury
chocolate bar in lieu of a cake as they sang "Happy Birthday" to me. "
