The question nearly everyone has asked since we returned from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in September is the obvious one: “Did you make it to the summit?”
We answer, and we try to explain. It’s complicated.
We were overwhelmed by the climb and the five-day safari in northern Tanzania that followed. In the days since we returned to Colorado, we have struggled to find words to describe the experience. Awesome comes to mind, transcendental.
There are the images.
Our first sight of the mountain late at night after we arrived at the Moshi airport was both thrilling and terrifying. The moonlight shone off the glaciers high – really high – above the clouds. We whispered to each other and to ourselves, “What the hell are we doing?”
In the morning we took a walk outside the gate of the lovely Springlands Hotel to see boys herding goats, men hauling enormous stacks of sticks on bicycles, women carrying babies on their backs and large bundles on their heads, children playing in mounds of dirt and dust devils swirling across the dry landscape.
There were the dewdrops on the delicate flowers along the hiking trail, the curtains of moss on the trees in the rain forest, the platoons of sinewy porters carrying all manner of gear – bags of potatoes, boxes of eggs and even plastic chairs – uphill on their heads.
There were the waterfalls, the black Lava Tower, the steam rising off the pots of homemade soup with dinner every night, the prehistoric-looking lobelia and giant senecio, the Mordor-like Mount Mweka in the distance and the black arcs of grit under our fingernails after days on the trail.
The sounds are harder to remember.
We still can hear our guide’s lilting, accented English, the chanting of the Maasai warriors performing their dance to celebrate a lion kill, the cheery “Jambo” from every guide, porter or waiter, and the ring of cell- phones in the unlikeliest places – above 15,000 feet on the mountain or deep in the Serengeti – and it still makes us laugh to remember it.
The smell of sweat, dust or freshly popped popcorn brings a flood of memories, and no beer will taste as good as that cold Kilimanjaro at the hotel the afternoon we finished the climb.
Emotions fleeting
The most difficult part, though, is to hold onto the emotions.
We were apprehensive about facing the challenges of a seven-day, 62-mile climb to 19,340 feet above sea level. Then, when the climb started, we found satisfaction in each step taken, each mile logged, each day’s goal met. We bonded with our traveling companions and our guides like a family. We savored the delicious sleep of those who climb high, breathe hard and curl into a sleeping bag to the sound of rain on the tent and nothing else.
We let ourselves relax into each moment and notice the chill of walking through the clouds, the glare of the sun, the icy wind off the glaciers, the thrilling sight of a pride of lions and a herd of wildebeest, the peaceful glow of a campfire in the Serengeti, the aching sadness of reluctant good-byes at the end of the trip.
The answer to the obvious question is yes, we all made it to the crater, though one in our party turned back at Stella Point after a particularly rough time with breathing problems. The rest of us hugged, grinned and posed for pictures at Uhuru Peak, the “roof of Africa.”
It was fine, satisfying, something to tell the grandchildren someday. But it was not a triumph that overshadowed everything else.
Looking back, it was but one lovely moment of many in a two-week adventure into a new country, a new culture, a new physical challenge and a new level of self-awareness.
Our boots are ready for the next trip. Meanwhile, the journey continues.
Staff writer Diane Carman can be reached at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@ denverpost.com.
The details
The climbing route: The seven-day Machame Route
The safari: Five days, including Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti and Olduvai Gorge
Accommodations: Two-person tents for the climb, hotels and luxury tents for the safari
Food: Excellent and well-prepared, with fresh vegetables and fruits at every meal
Water: From streams on the climb, boiled and filtered; bottled water purchased at hotels and on safari.
Language: Most Tanzanians who deal with tourists are at least bilingual, speaking English and Swahili. Many speak multiple languages.
The tour company: Zara Travel, based in Tanzania, with its U.S. representative based in Boulder.
The price: $2,240 per person, which covered meals, land transportation, park fees and lodging, including an extra day to rest from travel before the climb and a lodging upgrade for the safari, but not airfare or tips for guides and porters.
The reality check
Traveling to and around Tanzania is not for the frail or the unadventurous.
The flight alone is taxing, with a minimum of 24 hours of travel time each way from Denver to Moshi across nine time zones. The airlines lost all the luggage for four of us en route to Tanzania. Most of the bags arrived 24 hours later. Two of us waited three days before our bags arrived, and they were delivered to our mountain camps by porters. Two of our party waited two days for their bags to arrive on the way home.
A Kilimanjaro climb requires strength, stamina and conditioning. Even climbers in excellent shape often must turn back because of altitude sickness. Two in our party suffered mild to severe symptoms. We saw others with more severe symptoms being rushed down from the summit to lower altitudes. We passed others along the way who were forced to turn back after only one or two days of climbing because of illness, altitude sickness or poor conditioning.
Safaris most often involve long days spent bouncing over rugged dirt roads in four-wheel-drive vehicles with open tops. Flat tires and mechanical problems with the vehicles are common and unavoidable. Exposure to heat, dust, wind and blazing sun is constant. Bathrooms are few, far between and often fragrant.
The animals are real, wild, potentially dangerous and accompanied by many large and assertive insects. Our first day on safari, a baboon leaped into the open door of our Land Cruiser, parked outside the gate at Lake Manyara with us inside. We learned to close the doors after that. A short walk from our tented camp in the Serengeti we found cheetah tracks left overnight along with the evidence of a visit by a hyena determined to invade the mess tent.
Like the rest of Africa, Tanzania is a developing country. Those who require uninterrupted electricity, daily hot showers, air-conditioning, French wines and wireless Internet access may find a weekend at home with the Discovery Channel more to their liking.
