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.