| Introduction: |
Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa. It is one of the free
standing mountains in the world. Kilimanjaro is an extinct volcano
reaching a height of 19340ft. Why did I decide to climb Kilimanjaro?
Well I wanted to do some thing little bit strenuous and adventurous
and Kilimanjaro came to my mind. I started talking to some of my
colleagues about this and Jesse and Bruce seems to be very much interested. I guess
Jesse had no clues about what he was signing up for. Then I met Girish on
a Hike to Mt. Shasta and he decided to join us for the climb at the
last moment. So we were four people in the group.
Since summer worked pretty well for everyone we decided to climb
during the end of June 2004. And also the rainy season ends in
Tanzania by mid June, and also July 3rd was full moon day. So we
decided to be there on the summit on July 3rd. Initially we thought
of doing a 6 day trip but later on we decided to go for a 7 day trip
and spend an extra day in the mountain to get acclimatized. I think
that was a good decision, I don’t think everyone of us would
have made it without acclimatization.
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| Preparation: |
| I guess every one of us were preparing for the hike in our own
ways. I joined a group who were attempting to climb Mt. Shasta. This
group was organizing some local hike and also thought that Shasta
might be a good hike to get some altitude. Mt. Shasta climb was
really tough, and unfortunately on our climb day the weather turned
out to be pretty bad so we had to turn back at around 9500ft. And I
was going to the gym pretty regularly (4days a week) and started
doing lots of cardio exercises, I guess that helped me a lot, at
least it gave me some confidence. Jesse is a marathon runner, he was
also hitting the gym pretty regularly at least a month before the
climb. And Bruce I guess he doesn’t have to get any cardio
exercise since he plays sports everyday (I don’t know how he
does that). I guess we were all in a decent shape. |
| Tour Company: |
| After doing lots of research on the tour companies, I found
out that all the companies which are based in US are really expensive
when compared to the companies in Africa. I mean really really
expensive, the US based companies are almost 4 or 5 times expensive
than the companies in Africa. I really don’t know why they are that
expensive, all I can think of is since they have offices here in US
they might have more operating cost. And also people feel little bit
more comfortable going with a US based company. After reading some
good reviews about Good Earth Tours, I decided to go with them.
They are based in Africa, I was really surprised by their service.
They were very professional, took care of everything for us, from
picking us up in Nairobi airport till dropping us back in Zanzibar
airport. I had no problems with them, and the entire group had only
good things to talk about them. I would recommend them to anyone. |