African Safari

The day after reaching Moshi, Sandy and gang proceeded on the Safari while we decided to rest for a day. We lazed around Moshi and also used the time to find a Safari operator. We met one who led us to his hole-in-the-wall office to sign the deal. We backed out after he introduced us to his "guide" who would barely speak and seemed drunk. We finally found another operator we felt we could trust - Kindoroko Safari.

We signed on a deal for a five-day USD 1,200 tour, which would give us a Van for ourselves, a driver and a cook. After a week on the mountain eating relatively bland food, we were hungry for spicy Indian food and Kindoroko arranged a cook ("Happy" or Hepi) that knew some Indian recipes. We accompanied Happy to an open-air market in Arusha and Aradhana helped her buy vegetables and other ingredients needed for Indian dishes. My main contribution was to insist that we have a lot of Mangoes for the trip.

We planned to visit four parks - Tarangire, Ngorongoro Conservation Park, Serengeti, and Lake Manyara, with a stop at Oldupai on the way.

Celebrations



That night we had a celebratory dinner at the Indo-Italian Restaurant close to our hotel with a few Serengeti beers and some Indian food. Sandy and Sharat thanked the support team on behalf of all of us, Paul and Adidas too addressed the group. Finally Paul handed over our eagerly awaited Gold certificates for having summited.

We were joined by Daniel here. When we had camped at Karanga, Daniel had proceeded to Barafu, continued to Uhuru peak, descended to Barafu and went on to Mweka camp and then Mweka gate, all without camping at any of the points - having arrived at the gate much before expected and finding that there was no car waiting for him he had proceeeded to walk out of the natl. park all the way to the roads and hitched a ride back to Moshi - so he had got from Karanga to his hotel in Moshi in one stretch!


Subsequently, we returned to the Hotel to offer tips to the support team - I think we contributed $35 to the guide/asstt. guide and $25 to each of the porters and cooks. Sandy had brought some Tantra T-shirts as gifts for the guides and porters. We also gave $10 extra to the guides and one of the porters that had helped Aradhana on the way down the scree.

Once the ceremonies were over, we walked over to the comfort of our rooms having completed a most amazing adventure and looking forward to our African Safari.

Descent

The descent was rough. While we had finished the last stretch of the summit bid on adrenaline and determination now we had to descend on an empty stomach and depleted energy reserves to Barafu camp, a good two and a half hours away, before we could have some food and rest. The initial part was very steep and made harder by the slippery scree.

After I had had a couple of falls slipping on the scree (the rubble had no sharp edges and cushioned my falls,so no injuries), Adidas handed over a second hiking pole to me and I soon figured out my own technique to get down - both hands in the air with the poles poised to come down to break a fall if needed and running down the slope letting my shoes slide down the scree - it made for a rather rapid descent. If only I wasn't dog tired it could have been a lot of fun.

In any case, we finally made it to Barafu camp around 1:00 PM, completely exhausted and covered in dust. We crashed into our sleeping bags and slept soundly for an hour before we had to get up, have lunch and proceed to the next camp a couple of hours away at Mweka camp. Aradhana wasn't feeling too well, so we hurried down to ensure that we reach the next camp at Mweka before it was dark and she could have a good night's rest. The camp was in the fringes of the rain forest and hence much warmer.

We had a light dinner - by this time we had both lost our appetites and just could not have the food being served - we craved for some spicy Indian food.

Day 7: From Mweka camp to Mweka Gate and Moshi



The next day we woke up refreshed to find the porters getting ready to sing a song - in praise of Kilimanjaro and the climb. The song was a modified version of a popular Swahili song
(the original version is played all the time in curio shops in Kenya and Tanzania) with references to Kenya replaced by Kilimanjaro and the names of its camps all the way to the peak, so the last part went -

Shira, Hakuna Matata
Barranco, Hakuna Matata
Karanga, Hakuna Matata
Barafu, Hakuna Matata
Uhuru, Hakuna Matata
Kilimanjaro, Hukuna Matata

Basically translating to "no problems on Kilimanjaro". There were some lyrics which translated (roughly of course) to .. "oh, snake on kilimanjaro, why do you come to bite us" - referring to the curving trails which look like snakes from far, and how tough it was to climb them (Pratima recorded this on video, will see if I can link to this section.) The singing was so good that we requested and got an encore!

We started on the last part of our trek soon after. The trail went through lush green vegetation. We made a brief stop at the Ranger's office to register our names and then took another break on the way at the perfect picnic spot before reaching Mweka gate.



At the gate, we purchased some mementoes including the "New Map of the Kilimanjaro National Park" (which is a must-buy, more so before beginning the trek) and then got onto the minivan that took us back to Hotel Golden View in Moshi. After seven days on the mountain, using lukewarm water from a small plastic bucket in the open to freshen up, the hot water shower in the hotel was the best bath I have ever had! And after the hole-in-the-ground toilets, flush toilets - praise the lord!

Summit Bid

Day 5 Midnight and Day 6: Begin Summit Bid
We got up around 11:00 PM to have some coffee and snacks. Aradhana decided to continue, to go as far as she could. We put on all our layers - inners, wicking layer, fleece jacket/pants, sweater, two layers of woollen socks, wool cap/balaclava, gloves/mittens, hand/foot warmers - and started a steep climb from camp walking in the light of our Petzls/headlamps seeing only the back and shoes of the person in front. Amazingly, we could still see the lights from Moshi town 3,000 mt. below where people must have sleeping peacefully!

It was a long night, we were walking in single file at numbered positions, Suveer was behind me and we kept a conversation going to keep ourselves occupied. I sorely missed my iPod. We walked at a very slow pace set by Adidas, occasionally referring to Suresh's altimeter, which was always slightly off, but we still had to check to measure our progress. After around four hours of walking, Adidas asked me to step ahead. Without anybody to set the pace I went up quickly, this may have been a mistake since the golden rule for a successul Kili climb is to go "Pole Pole" ("slowly slowly"), I felt tired after a while and rested on a flat rock. The view from there, watching the sun rise over the horizon and Mawenzi was magnificent.



I waited on the rock, joined with the group and continued the climb. This stretch was extremely difficult, boring and monotonous. Finally one of the porters pointed out Stella Point - the second highest point before Uhuru at 5,732 m. We were cheered up for a while but this turned to disappointment since it seemed like we were walking forever and not getting any closer to the point. We were now walking up scree and needed to step down firmly to not slip. We were expending more energy given the altitude and the terrain, had had our last meal more than 12 hours ago and had been walking almost non-stop for more than six hours in bitter cold. We had to wonder why we were doing this - surely there were many better ways to spend one's holidays.

However, we continued with the climb and finally reached Stella Point. I was desperately tired. Sandy and Chetana, had continued ahead of us towards the summit despite having a bad cold - their high fitness levels probably helping them. Pratima had returned to Barafu camp at some point in the night, the altitude getting to her. Adidas asked us if we wanted to continue to Uhuru peak. I told him that we'd rest for a bit and then decide. Suresh and Sharat also joined us at Stella point.



We all complained about how boring and difficult this stretch was. I was willing to give up here but surpsrisingly it was Aradhana who provided some words of encouragement - its not far from here, we have come this far lets finish it, etc. That worked and we decided to go ahead towards Uhuru. She was walking strongly too. Suresh and Sharath also continued onto the last stretch.

I was extremely hungry now but didn't feel like eating the energy bar I had brought along - it had got hard in the cold and my appetite was nowhere like before. Also, I had miscalculated the amount of water I would need and was missing water - luckily Adidas had a spare bottle of water which he gave me. The thin air meant I had to rest after every few minutes of walking.

In any case, we continued - now encouraged by folks returning from the peak - telling us Uhuru was just 2 minutes away, or 30 minutes away, whatever. We also met Sandy, Chetana and Suveer, on their way back after having successfully had successfully summited. The last stretch was beautiful with amazing views of glaciers at the peak - so much better than the trek from Barafu to Stella. We finally reached Uhuru, the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, at around 9:45 AM on Dec 23, 2005. We were now standing on the roof of Africa!



We spent 10-15 minutes around the peak, taking pictures, enjoying the fabulous views of the glaciers and the pit, and savoring the moment we had prepared for for three months.

Climbing Kili: Day 1 to Day 5

Day 1: To Machame gate and Machame camp.

We reached Machame gate around 10:00 AM in the morning after a bumpy ride from Moshi. After finishing the formalities, we began our first day's trek.



We were joined by Daniel, a doctor from San Francisco - he had missed his group by a day and hence joined our group. We went from ~1,900 m at Machame gate to Machame Camp at 2980m, a distance of 18KM, walking through lush rainforest. It was a pleasant hike, Jakob walked along with us for a long stretch explaining how he moved from working in a restaurant in Arusha, to joining a training academy for guides and eventually becoming a guide on Kilimanjaro. We also walked with Daniel for a stretch exchanging notes on how expensive real estate was - him representing San Francisco and us, Bangalore. We reached camp while there was still some light.



We had trekked the whole day with a single layer of clothing since it was fairly warm. However, it got cold later and I couldn't sleep well since I had underestimated the warm clothing required for the night. The next day Daniel, who had covered himself with multiple layers immediately on reaching camp, revealed his thumb rule that its always easier to stay warm than to recover from a cold on the mountain - made a lot of sense and we followed this rule religiously after that.

Day 2: From Machame camp to Shira camp

This was a steeper climb - from 2,980m to reach Shira camp at 3,840m, after hiking a distance of 9KM rising from rainforest to heather with sparser vegetation. This was a much more scenic route, we took several breaks, aradhana photographed many flowers and we enjoyed the hike. We kept crossing paths with Suresh and Sharat who were also walking at a slow pace. Suveer, Sandy and Chetana were ahead of us, going at a faster pace which they maintained during the rest of the trek.

We were much smarter on reaching camp this time and immediately covered ourselves with inners, wool cap, and warm jacket. The view from camp was spectacular - we could see Kibo behind us and the jagged peaks of Shira, one of the three volcanoes on Kili, in front.



Day 3: From Shira camp to Barranco

We started the day by climbing the Barranco wall, a wall of rocks 250m high.



This required some rock climbing and was great fun - breaking the monotony of walking the past two days.



This day was a very long trek, around 18KM I think and tiring. However, this day helped in acclimatization - the rule of acclimatization is to "climb high and sleep low" - and we went from 3,900 m to about 4,400 m and came down to camp at 3,950m, in the valley at Barranco. I would have a mild headache come on at times but it would disappear after I took a few sips of water. Proper hydration is extremely important in coping with the effects of high altitude. While Aradhana adapted well to the altitude she was quite tired at the end of the day.

Barranco valley had curious cactus-like plants which the "New Map of the Kilimanjaro Natl. Park" (which is a must-buy) informs me are Lobelia and the giant Senecio Kilimanjari which grew up to 3-4 m were all around.



Day 4: From Barranco to Karanga

This was a shorter trek and we went from 3,950m to camp at ~4,200m. Adidas accompanied us for a long stretch and entertained us with stories about his previous climbs, how he started in this profession, etc. He was trying to convince us that climbing Kilimanjaro is made to seem tough but its actually not - it was just a ploy to make others think you have done something great!



We did not camp in the Karanga valley, since Adidas felt it would get very cold in the night with the wind blowing into the valley and hence we camped slightly higher.
Some of us in the group had begun to feel the effects of altitude - lack of appetite, headache, etc. I felt okay but Aradhana was losing her appetite and that was cause for concern since the remaining stretch would be in high altitude where the body would really need the energy. Pratima too was having a tough time. In terms of appetite Suveer turned out to be the real surprise - revealing an amazing and everlasting appetite not apparent in his slim appearance.

We had a fun time in the mess over dinner discussing all sorts of things including the Indian arranged marriage system, Sandy's not having been to "foreign" despite traveling all over Europe (in Bangalore, unless you have been to U.S you are not considered to have traveled to a "foreign" land, and traveling "to foreign" is important especially in the arranged marriage market for the prospective groom :), and .. Suveer's appetite. A typical dinner menu consisted of leek soup, some vegetables, vegetable curry with rice, crepes, bread, butter, peanut butter, poached eggs, (chicken some times) and fruits (pineapples, mangoes, bananas, or oranges).

Here, Daniel, strong and well acclimatized having already climbed Mt. Meru (alt. 4,560 m), consulted with us and proceeded further to the next camp without stopping at Barranco, taking a guide and a porter with him. We eventually missed this extra guide since on our summit bid we had just one guide for our entire group.

Day 5: From Karanga To Barafu Camp

We proceeded on day 5 from Karanga (~4,200m) to Barafu (~4,600m), walking through a remote and desolate landscape. This was Alpine desert, no vegetation, no life anywhere, not meant for human inhabitation. We were kept company by Adidas and then Pratima, who was having a tough time with the altitude but was bravely soldiering on, and Suveer, for whom this was almost a walk in the park.



Incidentally Barafu camp is named after "Barafu" or ice in Swahili which is very close to "Baraf" meaning ice in Hindi. We could see Mawenzi and the Marangu route on the east from Barafu camp.



As we reached camp, Aradhana vomited due to the altitude and her appetite was non-existent. She didn't seem confident about continuing but decided to take a final call later. Sandy and Chetana had contracted a cold but Pratima's condition seemed to have improved. We all needed a good sleep to get ready for the summit bid to start around midnight and retired early just as the sun was setting.

Journey

Nairobi

We departed from Mumbai to Nairobi around 6:30 AM. The seat next to me was occupied by a teenager from Tanzania who was studying in Bangalore. He had successfully climbed Kili on the Marangu route - didn't make the task seem any easier since he was also the Tanzanian natl. TT champ. We reached Nairobi around 10:00 AM in the morning after a six hour flight.

Arriving in Nairobi.
Standing: Aradhana, Chetana, Pratima, Sandy, Ravindra, Suresh, Sharath.
Sitting: Suveer.

View of Policemen on horses as we drive through Nairobi

The weather in Nairobi was great - just like Bangalore! It was summer, bright and sunny, but the temperature was ambient probably around 25 deg. C. Paul had sent a minivan to drop us at the "Park View" hotel, facing the Jamnajee Park(?) in central Nairobi.

After checking into the Hotel we walked around the market area, visited the Nakumat super market. Aradhana bought some local handicrafts including rose wood carvings of Maasai tribesmen. For lunch, we had our first taste of the staple East African food - Ugali and some curry. The Ugali was kinda rubbery to eat and did not soak in the curry well - basically, that was the last Ugali we ever had and switched over to rice after that. In the night, Chetana, Pratima and Sharat got their hair braided so they could now almost melt into the crowd. We considered seeing a Swahili movie but there was no theater nearby, so we postponed this for another day, maybe in Moshi.

The next morning Aradhana and I preferred to sleep an extra hour while the others went to see the local market early morning. Around 8:00 AM, the bus that would take us to Moshi was waiting outside the hotel. We had a continental breakfast before leaving. The bus ride gave us our first glimpse of a sight typical of the region - unending plains as far as the eye can see with a lone Maasai herdsman coloring the bare landscape with his distinctive red and blue shuka.

On the bus, Suveer struck up a conversation with this lady from the Netherlands. It was strange to see him suddenly break out in an alien language and seemingly making sense. Suveer had apparently spent many years in the Netherlands and picked up Dutch while there.

Moshi
We had to alight at the Kenya-Tanzania border to clear immigration formalities. We were ambushed by a horde of Maasai women selling handicrafts - one of the women forcibly handed off a trinket to Aradhana "for free". We didn't want to take advantage of her generosity so we paid her what we thought was fair and also got a picture taken with her (if you want a picture with a Maasai you have to pay, that's the unwritten but verbally enforced rule).

Aradhana with a Masaai tribeswoman, at the Kenya-Tanzania border

Immigration happened smoothly and we were back on our way. I think we were around a 100 KM from Moshi when we first saw Mt. kilimanjaro. We could make out its faint outline in the distance, its distinctive snow-capped peak rising over the white clouds resting on its slopes. Later, one of our guides told us that when the Chagga tribals first saw the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, they exclaimed "Kibo!", which means "Amazing!" in Swahili. This apparently caught on and the highest volcano on Kilimanjaro is now named Kibo.



We stopped at the Impala hotel in Arusha for lunch and then proceeded to Moshi. While Arusha is the safari capital of Northern Tanzania, Moshi is a small town with the tourist population primarily comprising of Kili aspirants. We reached Hotel Golden View around 5:00 PM. At the Hotel, we met Paul Roberts - our agent, Adidas - the guide for the climb, Jakob Xwatsolu - the asstt. guide and some of the porters. Paul gave us a primer on what the climb would be like, how cold it could get and what gear we would need. I asked him his opinion on Diamox (a medicine to counter altitude effects), he recommended against it - an opinion that the guides shared, they felt that Diamox would hide symptoms of altitude sickness and could make things worse for the body. It was best to descend rapidly in case of severe altitude sickness, a descent of 200m is usually sufficient to remove all effects of altitude sickness - however it could be fatal if one ignores the symptoms and proceeds higher.

Paul examined our gear and recommended rental equipment where needed. We rented hiking poles, a balaclava and the outermost warm layer - from Dunga, also called Dunga Boy. Dunga Boy was the most flamboyant in the group; he had the jewelry, attitude and swagger befitting a hip-hop style icon.

After an early dinner we retired for the night, anxious but excited about the climb to begin the next morning. We had a good view of Kili from our room.



The moon was out and the mountain was visible till late in the night. Though I was fairly confident about our fitness level, I was still apprehensive about how we'd react to the altitude during the climb. But I hoped that all of us would get to Uhuru, the summit.

Gear
Only 30 to 40% of Kili summit ascents succeeed. The rest fail either due to fitness issues (lack of preparation, altitude sickness) or lack of appropriate gear. It can get extremely cold on the mountain, sub-zero temperatures are routine in the upper reaches, hence you need to buy sufficient warm clothes.

Our major purchases were -

• Backpacks with waist support (SavanD and Techpak), Balaclavas, mittens, Nalgene water bottles, Sleeping bag liner - from Wildcraft, Residency Road, Bangalore
• Hiking boots - Hi-Tech from Getoffurass.com (INR 3,500), CMH Road, Bangalore for Aradhana
• Hiking Boots - Montrail GTX for me ($160), Sleeping Bags (Polar Pods from REI, ~$100 each), Chemical hand/foot warmers, Petzl "Tikka"s ($30 each), wicking shirts/underwear, fleece jacket, hiking liners and socks, binoculars, sun block/lip balm, mosquito repellant, energy bars and Gatorade, First Aid kit including painkillers - all from REI outlets in the SF Bay Area (visited three REI stores to get everything i wanted. First Fremont and then on the last day of my US visit, Premshree (another Yahoo!) and I rode down to SF and then to San Carlos and then to the SFO airport, just in time to catch our flight back to Bangalore. San Francisco was the biggest and best stocked REI store.)
• Note on sleeping bags: Though the sleeping bags we bought were rated 0 deg. F, I can only guess what that rating really meant, since we needed all our layers to feel reasonably warm inside the bag even when the temperature was above 0 deg. F. I found the sleeping bag liner to be an excellent purchase to keep us warm inside the sleeping bag but sadly, between the two of us we had only one of those since Wildcraft had run out of stock. Sandy had fashioned a liner out of an old silk saree and reported that it worked just fine. I strongly recommend a liner (but test before purchase, Aradhana felt it was uncomfortable).
• Inners, woollen gloves/socks - from Eastern Store, Commercial St., Bangalore
• Fleece pants, track pants, sun hat - (real cheap!) - La Bamba, Brigade Road, Bangalore
• UV resistant sunglasses - from Fasttrack outlets in Bangalore (Forum mall)
• We decided to rent hiking poles, the outermost rain-proof warm layer and anything else we may have forgotten from the agent. Other than items that touch your skin its a good idea to rent the rest of the gear which you don't think you will use frequently.
• Other Notes: Buy eatables to suit your palate, especially since appetite nosedives at altitude. The "chilli pickle" that we had got was a great hit in the mess.
  
• Some useful links: http://www.zaratravel.com/kili/packinglist.html and http://www.go-kili.com/clothes.htm
  
• All inclusive, we must have spent a little over $1,000 on the gear for both of us.

Tickets, Visas, Vaccinations

Besides the gear the other set of big action items were to get the tickets and visas, confirm reservations with the agent and plan for the safari after the climb. We also had to get yellow fever vaccination which is mandatory for Indian travelers visiting Tanzania (it is verified by Immig. on the return from Tanzania to India). We were all planning a visit to Chennai for this when Aradhana discovered that the vaccination was available right here in Bangalore and saved us the trouble. The details, quoting from her email, were -

• We need to take those injections atleast 10 days in advance of our travel
• They provide the injections every Wednesday starting 10 AM. Each shot costs Rs. 250
• We need take advance appointment (1 day earlier) with them.
• We need to carry 1. Passport 2. Yellow Card (This is provided by the travel agent)
• Address: Public Health Institute, Seshadari Road, Near KR Circle, Opp. SJP Polytechnic, Bangalore. Phone: 22210248.

Simultaneously Sandy blocked tickets from BLR to Mumbai, and Mumbai to Nairobi (AI is the cheapest - INR 22K all inclusive return pp), and also set in motion the process to get Kenyan and Tanzanian visas through his travel agent - saving us the effort. We needed a Kenyan visa since we planned to travel by road from Nairobi to Moshi, the base town for Kili climbs. The flight charges from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro Airport were prohibitively high (around INR 17K one way!!) and we had decided to go by road which was a ride of 6-7 hours through Arusha - that way we would see the African countryside too (and cost $20 pp one way). And we had no fears about the conditions of the road since nothing could be worse than traveling on Bangalore roads (including being dragged bare-back on sharp rocks by wild horses).

Fitness Preparations

Our fitness preparation primarily comprised of 30-45 minutes running on the treadmill 3-4 days a week, for around 3 months. The goal was to strengthen the leg muscles and build stamina/endurance. Towards the end of the training schedule I focused more on walking on a steep incline on the treadmill to place emphasis on the walking muscles which are different from the running ones.

We also did a couple of practice hikes around Bangalore - we climbed the steps from Sultanpet to the top of Nandi Hills with Nitin. We also did a wonderful night-time climb of Savandurga (highly recommended weekend outing from Bangalore) with Suresh, Sharath and their 7-year old daughter Kavya. During a work visit to the Yahoo! HQ in Sunnyvale, California, I did part of the PG&E trail in Rancho San Antonio, it was a good trek and helped me break in my hiking boots which I had purchased the previous week.

I think regular running/walking coupled with a few long practice hikes with a backpack are sufficient preparation though some websites recommend a harder regimen - http://www.mtsobek.com/features/Climb_Kilimanjaro/summit.htm.

The Beginning

Considering Options
Sometime in June 2005 Aradhana and I began to plan our next long vacation. The last time we had a good long break was when we went to Sri Lanka in Aug, 2004. We had a budget of around USD 6,000, wanted to do something adventurous and had around 2-3 weeks in December for the vacation. After much research and many discussions, we decided to go to Africa. The next question was - where in this big continent do we go and what do we do?

We considered South Africa first - you could do the safaris in the Kruger, see the great white shark in Gansbaai, and just hang out in sunny Cape Town. Another option we considered was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro which is one of the 'Seven Summits' as the highest peak in Africa.

Deciding on Mt. Kilimanjaro and Tanzania

Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania in Eastern Africa, south of its border with Kenya. A Kili climb followed by a safari in Tanzania's famous national parks - Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara, Tarangire, etc. - seemed like a complete adventure vacation and won over all the other options we were considering.

Climbing Kili is a strenuous activity; the trek up and down is ~100 KM going from around 1,700m at the gate to 5,895m at the summit, taking five to eight days depending on the route, your fitness and how your body adapts to the altitude.

There are six or seven routes up the mountain - the two most popular being the Marangu and the Machame routes which require no mountaineering experience or equipment. We decided to opt for the "Marangu" route since it has huts along the way and, or so the argument goes, you can sleep better and are hence better prepared for the demanding climbs during the day and especially for the summit bid. This route is considered relatively easier and hence called the "Coca Cola" route. But "Coca Cola" notwithstanding, both of us had never been at such high altitudes or done a really strenuous trek before and I had my doubts about whether we should even try this climb. And reading articles on the web did not give me a tangible sense of how difficult the climb would actually be.

Luckily for me, Bharat, a batchmate from B-school who had climbed Kili the previous year through the Marangu route was in Bangalore. It wasn't difficult to set up a meeting with him (especially once the promise of a free beer was made :) Unbeknownst to me, another group from Bangalore was planning a Kilimanjaro climb in December, and were planning to meet him too. So we all met for dinner one fine day at a non-descript restaurant near CMH road in Bangalore. By the end of the dinner, I was sure of this - climbing Kilimanjaro is tough (no kidding) but not impossible, with fitness training of around 2-3 months and appropriate equipment it was within the realms of possibility. Bharat's pictures also brought alive the promise of a fabulous adventure - we had to do this!

We have Company

The other good outcome of the dinner was that we came in touch with Sundeep (Sandy) and gang, the other group planning the Kili climb. It was great to have somebody to exchange notes with and even possibly go on the climb with together. What was unreasonable though was the general fitness level of the group - Sandy and Chetana (who I discovered was a soon-to-be Yahoo! and has a photoset on the Kili climb here), Suresh, Sharath and Shesha - were all either marathon or half-marathon runners. This was a formidable group and I began to question if we, cubicle fat cats, should even be trying the climb. At this point Aradhana stepped in with some smart arguments - like you never know when you can do this again, lets just give it our best shot, etc. Convinced, I went ahead and contacted a few agents including Zara (who came recommended from Bharat) - to arrange the climb on the Marangu route. Zara quoted $780 for a six day climb of the Marangu route which seemed reasonable.

Sandy and co., however, were planning to climb along the tougher Machame route. Sandy had contacted Paul Roberts (a guide he had discovered on the Lonely Planet Thorntree discussion board) who quoted $720 for a seven day climb.

From Marangu to Machame

By early December we had almost everything in place in terms of tickets, visas and gear purchases but I was still in conversation with Zara trying to finalize the climb and safari. Around this time Sandy again posed the "why don't you try Machame with us" question. It was definitely better to climb with a group you knew and we were feeling a bit more confident too after having exercised regularly the past 2 months. So we decided to go the Machame way too. During the period since we met for dinner, Shesha had dropped out due to some work commitments, and Suveer (a cycling enthusiast) and Pratima (who was to become the official video documentary maker, her favorite question - "how do you feel now?") had joined the group.

And so it came to pass that all eight of our motley crew with our backpacks and climbing gear, assembled at the Mumbai Intl. Airport on Dec 15th, 2005 headed out to Tanzania via Nairobi, to get to the highest point in Africa - Uhuru Peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro.