these boots are made for walking

**BTW thanks to everyone for checking on me yesterday as if i was on suicide watch. yes sucked the steelers lost, but i promise i'm not crying in the corner or unable to eat. trust me on that one!***

i full on admit i did a shitty job packing for this part of the trip. i totally blame it on my fiery hatred for said task, and the fact that i did no research and paid only a passing bit of attention to the suggested item list. i ended up continuously throwing "just one more" thing into the suitcase, because honestly you never know when you might suddenly NEED to wear a hot pink tank or desperately wished you had your cozy fleece pants.

fast forward

so monday morning comes and we are kind of running around the hotel courtyard not sure exactly what we should be doing but not exactly doing anything that needs to be done. there will be 6 of us climbing together. and just cause i feel like it, i will now do a little profile of those involved: (and hope to god they dont read it).

ME: the lone chick. the one who thought that being a recreational triathlete would translate into success in oxygen deprived situations. also the one with a smart ass response to anything. (have you met me?)
BOBBY: the one who made a rash decision 5 years ago "for better or for worse". he's the moderately tempered, easy going, sometimes cynical guy, who YES does wish i would shut up (sometimes)- but he's been around the world with me and i THINK enjoys it!
BRIAN: the contest winner (you may remember this whole trip was the result of my company running one). he's a mild mannered HS math teacher. and probably one of the just plain NICEST people i've ever met. he brought a pink bandanna to wear because one of his daughters insisted he take it. he's 6'4". big huge guy.
SHAUN: brian's brother. a 3:20 marathoner who was at first a bit quick to point out the shortcomings of the african culture (WHAT?!?! no oatmeal?) deathly afraid to fly, he made his first journey across the atlantic. that takes balls. he was also the one who succumbed to the porridge..
MIKE: the intellectual one of the group, as evidenced by his choice of scrabble words. he was quiet, thoughtful, and easy to coerce into posing for promo shots.
MACON:kind of the ringleader and celebrity guide if you will.. this was his 18th kili climb. he's bold, and sarcastic and blunt.

*disclaimer* we also had about 12 porters with us. who carried the cooking stuff, tents, food and a little of our stuff as well. these guys were amazing. let me say that again. amazing. they climb about 2-3 times per month and when i say climb i really mean RUN. they huff it up so fast you wonder if they actually are catching cabs or something. the hike was so good and positive and soo much easier because of them. just didnt want you all thinking i was huffing 90 pounds of gear up this sucker. more like 40, but still....

so we had a heck of a morning. trying to shove all of our gear into this truck and then well all of us (we had two guides). it was kind of like when you were 7 and going on the annual family vacation to the beach. if you were like me you were put in the WAY WAY back of the station wagon with your little brother to share about 2 cubic feet of space along with bags that would dangle precariously and then fall at maximum speed onto your head, that you would then have to shove (using your puny 6 year old arms) back to their original spot. over and over and over...


thats brian walking back toward the camera.. and me carrying the HEAVY duffle.. thanks bobby....

so off we go.. sort of.. errands - lots of errands. someone needed a paper. someone was dying and needed a coke. (a warm coke...) someone wanted bananas. at long last we made it to the gate and started our trek (note that there are actually 6 different routes to the top, so you can choose your poison.) ours was the road less traveled. we saw only 2 other groups along the way. i was happy to avoid the "kili freeway" as some paths turn out to be. it made the journey that much cooler to feel like you had the mountain all to your self. it was kind of odd though starting out. no fan fare. no photo op (think disney). no big gate you cross under that says "point of no return". just a little trail that you might miss had you been moving too fast.

DAY ONE: we had a moderate hike though some pretty dense vegetation. for the first hour we had three little tag alongs who lived in a hut..





it was a nice easy day. we stopped only once to rest and refuel. that was our first into to the facilities provided along the path. as we would later learn, they are quite primitive and likely to smell worse than death. it quickly became evident to me that my best bet was to find a little spot amongst the trees.



we spent the day chattering about topics i cant remember and remarking (probably too often ) that we could not believe where we were and the task ahead. we reached camp late in the afternoon. just that first time we were all pretty polite about which tent to choose. "you pick first", "oh it doesnt matter".. etc.. later in the trip we would be tossing our stuff into the first (and closest to the meal tent) and possibly muttering "sucker" under my (errrrr OUR breath).



because i had not been camping in oh about 5 years, it was a bit of a challenge to figure out what to do while IN the tent. lesson number one was to keep your boots outside... EXCEPT at night. morning dew on your boots, well sucks. the other fun and exciting part was sleeping. on a hill. the trick was to position yourself that would allow the least amount of blood flow in the wrong direction, while simultaneously keeping your oh so slippery sleeping bag atop the mat. oh and this all had to be done by scooching yourself around in the dark with no hands - it was COLD out and not worth and blasts of cold air to exude an extremity from the depths of a warm sleeping bag. i'll be honest. i did not master this. ever. from about the second night forward, i was cold. and damp. and sleeping at an angle on hard ground. but that was just something to deal with. no biggie.

we were treated to real popped corn (not the redenbaucher stuff with the fake butter) for a little predinner treat.


you would have thought we had just been handed a gold nugget. we were that happy. but the REAL winner of the trip turned out to be this stuff: MILO

it was kind of like nestle quick, but you had to put a heaping load of sugar into it. BUT at 9000(and above) feet, when you are cold, and hungry, and well cold, this was heaven. so good in fact we went through both our canisters in 3 days and had to barter for another.

so we are in good spirits. enjoying the climb and the company. shoes are holding up well. no malfunctions to speak of. the night was probably the crazy part. its DEAD quiet. and then well you hear rustling... and i swear i herd grunting... some buffalo? and the stars. well the stars are just wild. for the first time in my life i saw the milky way clear as well day, and thought i could reach out and touch it.

you learn quickly there is little you need to be comfortable and be well here:



Day two. i think we all kind of woke up with the sun about 6 am. you learn that if you want to see the mountain you gotta play by its rules. there is about 20 minutes in the morning when the sun is just coming up that you can see it (otherwise its covered by clouds). so eager to see how much closer we had gotten we all got up to take a look. crap. still soooo far away.. but man it looks good.



we had our first breakfast on the mountain:

eggs, toast, butter (how the hell they got butter up there i dont know), milo, tea, porridge (not shown here, but an interesting concoction.. you wonder how goldilocks really ate the stuff...). and we got our stuff together and back on the trail for anther day of hiking.

one really neat thing was how the vegetation changed as we went up. officially you go through forest, moreland, alpine desert and then ice cap. quite drastic. and the weather changed so quickly. one minute its sunny, then cloudy (like you are IN the clouds), then precipitation - hail, sleet, snow..(closer to the top) or other things i had yet to encounter in all my years. but sure kept things interesting. ever so often our guides would stop us and point out things, animal tracks, ant houses, flowers, plants you could steep for tea, etc.



little side note about our guides. have i used the word amazing lately? Joseph was about 55 years old and insisted i call him papa joseph. like your grandpa. he would sing and tell us stories and make these great accompanying noises and motions that made me feel like a little kid. he was so fun. as the hike went on we all kind of looked out for each other, joseph included. always asking how he was, did he want a cliff bar, etc.



Edwin was the leader.we'd be hiking up and i'd hear "KAAAAAAARI". in this rough gruff voice. its him. we soon learned to just yell back "ED-Weeeeeen". part way through the trip he started calling bobby "simba". and he also is the reason i made it to the top. but thats later :)

so anyway, day two ended up at camp in pissing rain. it was miserable. we all crawled into tents and just tried to get dry! once it finally stopped we got out and explored around camp a bit. there were some cool caves.



we got this great view just at dusk.. mt munzi



the best part so far. nothing had been hard. yes we walked a long time, and up some steeper patches, some rocky parts, some heat waves, some freezing winds. but nothing too crazy. i think we got a bit of a false sense as Macon kept saying how hard this climb was. we were like whatever old man. we were eating pretty good. sleeping ok. no sickness or injury. i thought we were sitting pretty... HA. HA HA HA i say to stupid me on the mountain at 12000 ft. just wait.