The next morning we got up at 7am to get ready for our Mt Kilimanjaro day hike. I even splurged and wore a new pair of pants and top. It felt so nice to be clean. Arnold (our hike guide) and Limo (our driver) picked us up at 9am. It took us 30mins to get to the entrance of the trail. When we started we were all really ambitious and wanted to climb up there as fast as possible. Tina aimed to climb it in 2-2.5hrs (most people climb it in 3-3.5hrs), so the last few mins she ran up to make the time. In general we all made it up there the same time plus or minus 5-10mins.
Mt Kilmanjaro is the highest peak in Africa. It's the only summit that can be reached without any technical training, and it usually takes three days to hike up and two days to hike down. It is questionable on how many people actually make the full climb. On our way up, I bumped into a upper west side NYC girl and she said only 2 (she was one of them) of her group of 20 made it up and she was completely exhausted. Maybe one day I'll take the time to do it. She said it was a great experience and the key is slow and steady. Many people rushed up to the first two summits and over tired themselves to do the final hike which is 11 hours from base camp to summit.
Arnold said he has done the hike to the summit 80+ times already. He's been doing it since he was 15, and he is now 29. He finished college and now applied for a scholarship to attend University of Maryland for a Masters in energy engineering. His family owns a private safari, two jeeps, and a restaurant. In general we were rather impressed about how many educated people we met, but we are certain that's not a good representation of the population in Tanzania. Tanzanians are also extremely nice and friendly in general. They also always think we are Japanese...I guess to them all Asian people look the same.
Anyhow, after hearing the UES girl hiked to the top, we felt like little whimps only doing a day hike...but it was still hard...hee hee hee. We took the Marango route up, which begins at 1,980 meters and ascends through a rain forest to the Mandara hut at 2,700 meters. The rain forest was really green and damp, but got boring after a while. The most interesting thing we saw were blue monkeys and colobus monkeys. We thought the colobus monkeys looked like skunks because they were black with fluffy white tails. Very cute, and great photo opportunity. I snaped a few :-)
We also saw a lot of porters climbing up to the first summit with lots of thing on their heads and backs. They each can carry up to 15kg each...that is very heavy. We asked Arnold later how they do that, and he said it takes a lot of practice and balance. Most prefer carrying things on their heads over their backs, so even if they are carrying backpacks, sometimes they still put it on their heads. They are also great hikers. We saw a guy pass us while we were walking up the mountain and by the time we were walking down he was already doing his second trip up!
This makes me think, all the great climbers in the world would never make it if they don't have porters carrying all their stuff for them. Interesting point.
So I was dying hiking up to the first summit. It was extremely steep and Tina was hiking really fast with only a 5 minute rest stop. Even Arnold said we were walking really fast. I felt my heart rate beating so fast and holding my big slr and a liter or water was not ideal. Arnold saw that I was hurting...so he offered to carry my water for me. I was like no I got it. But I was seriously really tired. At one point I told Bernice that I'm just going to dump the water to lighten up my load, and she suggested that I should drink it instead. What a great idea. I chugged half a bottle in one gulp because I was so dehydrated...also no surprise that I had to pee once I got to the top. And two more times afterwards within 15mins. Once u break the seal...it becomes a disaster...hahaha.
When we reached the top, we ate our packed lunch. We, except Vicky, all had a chicken sandwich, capri sun, black currant juice, hard boil egg, cookies, orange, and three baby bananas. Somehow Vicky had a different lunch with two egg sandwiches and cake instead of cookies, and no capri sun...not sure what happened there. After lunch we took another 20min to hike to the crater.
Unlike the Ngorongoro crater, this was just grassland. It was pretty cool, we all took photos in it, and then walked across it. Vicky did a cartwheel on it.
By this point, I was so tired. My legs didn't want to move anymore. But I convinced myself downhill will be better...and it was.
Tina, once again was really ambitious and aimed to climb down it in one hour...but it took us two. It was really strange that it took us the same time to climb up and down....not sure if we miscalculated or took a longer route down.
On our way down, Bernice and I were leading. We walked so fast that we lost the group, and were alone hiking for a bit ourselves. It was all fun and dandy until we thought we were lost. We didn't recognize anything, but it could be a result of everything looking the same. We were a bit nervous, but I was adamant that we were not re-tracking because that would mean walking uphill again. So we kept on walking, and walking....and eventually we saw a group of people and hike guides that just finished climbing Mount Kili. They told us we were on the right way, so we felt better. We were so relieved when we reached the bottom.
So the total hike time was 4 hours and 10 mins for 10 miles. Our legs are completely sore. My butt, thighs, calves are crying every time I take a step. But I guess I shouldn't complain so much given it's the first time I had some exercise in days. All we've been doing is sitting and standing on the jeep.
Limo drove us back to Arusha that night. We stayed at the L'Oasis lodge, which was really cute. Our room was adorable with paintings on the wall and a private lounge that separated the triple from the double. We also ate dinner there. It was an open hut with a pot of coal burning to keep us cozy. It felt so nice to just sit there and chill with a glass...or glasses of wine and chat. The food was also really good, and we were all well fed for $12. The only issue was we waited over an hour for the food and we were starving. It was well worth it.
This morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and had omelets freshly prepared for us. Now we are heading to Zanzibar to chill by the beach. I can't wait, unfortunately I need to also do laundry there...boo to that!
I am exited to see Alan. He is meeting us today. Tina's sister - Jess - is also meeting us! That will make us seven! Yea!!!!
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