Kilimanjaro - any tips?

“Hey all, I don't think I've posted here since the patriot act, but anyway...

Has anyone been to Kilimanjaro in August? If so, any tips?”

“Let's see, you should at least have your Masters by now.

Didn't they have internet connection while you were in undergraduate school?

Stew (who you should remember as MDS Hiker should be able to help on this)”

“LOL, no, I downloaded to much crap from Limewire and the banned me from the interweb.”

“http://www.athikerstew.com

:)”

“Hey Ice Tea

What are you doing there. You going on an organized trip or going on your own? You looking for a group when you get there?

Most of the stuff in that part of Tanzania is organized out of Arusha.”

“One suggestion: do it before all the snow melts.”

“I'm going w/ Outdoor bound, a NYC based outfitter. Yeah, I'm somewhat embarrassed that I'm doing this w/ an organized group, but I just didn't want to deal w/ the extra stress of planning it myself.”

“don't get kidnapped or shot up.”

“Your grammer and spelling is a hell of a lot better.”

“You going to next year's F.Y.A.O. ?”

“As Stovie posted.
Stew AKA MDShiker did Kili a few years back. He doesn't post here that much anymore but drop him a line and I'm sure he'd be glad to talk about it with you.”

“Some old posters lurk from time to time, but they're still around...Hey Michael!”

“????, HPM.

Hi tea!
Hi Stew!
last edited: 8/11/09 7:53:20 AM”

“Yep, I lurk here from time to time...although rarely. I'm still hiking A LOT and having a good time.

I can answer your Kili questions...email if you wish.

See ya”

“Hey Stew! I smile every year I hang the Christmas ornaments you gave on the tree.”

“I must be going blind.
Stew posts his link and I read his name as Stovie.

~sheesh~”

“Stew, thanks for the great report. Sorry you didn't make it to the top.

I'll be sure to bring tissues and cough drops, two things that weren't on my list.

The food sounded great.

Chili, maybe my grammar has improved but my spelling is just as bad. I'm just using Fire Fox as my browser with a spell checking add-in.”

“That thing doesn't say a word about you climbing Kili. It says you climbed Socialist Peak 8)”

“I thought socialist peak was in Ann Arbor?”

“Hi tea. Good to see you again. How goes your quest to become president of America?”

“Euro was just on the Dark Continent. Seems she carried a spear and clicked her tongue occasionally while speaking an old form of Low Swiss. She did fine.

Carry lots of one dollar bills, too.”

“Yeah...I don't know the complete history but the summit of Mt. Meru is called "Socialist Peak". I was told that Tanzania was communist for a short period of time and they kept the name of the summit afterwards.

If I had the whole trip to do over, I would climb Mt. Meru and take a walking safari. Mt. Meru is located in Arusha National Park and it's an awesome park. I'll probably never return to Africa so I felt like my time would have been used more effectively on Mt. Meru and safari. Just my opinion.

Anywho, yes, take lots of $1 dollar bills. My first day there I tipped someone $5 for carrying all my gear to my hotel room and the guy almost had a heart attack. The front desk clerk was a young girl and she lectured me on tipping too much. LOL US dollars and Euros are widely accepted there.

$1 US ~ 1000 Shillings

So, do the math before you pay for something. 500 shillings is a decent tip, so I was told. The one thing I missed was "junk food". I did take snacks to eat on the trail but I missed all the things I take for granted everyday. The soda pop has different recipes so be warned. The bottle looks the same but it doesn't taste the same. I ended up drinking beer and water the entire trip because I couldn't drink a soda pop. The African beers are good and cost less so give those a try. Take your favorite junk food too.

see ya later”

“Tusker Lager isn't it?

Take Imodium too.”

“Oh, and take some time to go to the Ngorongoro Crater. That's worth a couple of days. And I'd also head out to Zanzibar if you make it to Dar Es Salaam. There should be a ferry that'll take you across in a few hours. It's worth the trip over. The old port is stunning, though falling apart. There's a great market there by the ocean.”

“Thanks all for your tips, too bad I left the US on the 13th so I missed the tips about tipping.

I found having a wad of 20s to be a real pain. Next time I leave the US, I'll pack lots of small bills because while everyone will accept a 20 bill, they screwed me on the exchange rate.

Thankfully, I remembered my trip to Egypt and was sure to pack lots of American junk food, so I was set there.

Mt Meru looked cool, but our itinerary was set for months so I could get over there. The guides spoke highly of it. I also wish I had time to see Zanzibar.

Nigel, I gave up on that crap. I've become politically jaded for the most part.

Oh yeah, we did make it to Uhuru Peak. I'll post some pics later.”

“Woot !”

“My kili pics are up if anyone is interested:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kkellehe/Kilimanjaro082009?authkey=Gv1sRgCK_ZwM-d0NrQSA&feat=email#”

“Really great pictures! Sounds like a great trip and thanks for sharing.”

“That must have been a knock-out trip!
The pictures are beautiful and you all look so happy.

Tea, you have a smile like a movie star and you look good.”

“Wow, amazing pics man.”

“Holy Hemmingway, that's killer!”

“Wow! How cool is that?”

“Awesome!

On the pics you took from Shira Camp I could see very little snow on the mountain. When I was there last summer there was a lot of snow that could be seen from camp. Any talk there about the lack of snow on the mountain?”

“Nice pics. Geez, its almost like we watched you grow up over the years on tt.”

“AWESOME!!!”

“great photos!!!!!!!!

'32oz”

“yah man! like the humor of the pills pic”

“Kewl Beans”

“Thanks all for the nice comments.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I would have felt so strong on the summit if I wasn't already training for the NYC Marathon. Out of my whole team, just two of us felt zero symptoms of AMS and I attribute my health to all the running I've been doing.

As for the snow. Yeah most of the guides made a comment one way or another about the melting glaciers. The head guide didn't say this to me, but he did ask another member of the group if he thought that American's would still come to Kili once the glaciers are gone?”

“Oh yeah, I also took 500mg of diamox per day (once at night)”

“I wasn't going to write a trip report but I just finished typing a monster e-mail about the trip to one of my friends that I went to Egypt w/..here:'s the excerpt:

People (Domestic): I went w/ a NYC based outfitter called outdoorbound. There were 9 of us, average age around low 30s and most people didn't have lots of camping experience. Like Egypt, the whole group got a long well and I think I made friendships that will last a long time.

People (Tanzanian): Very helpful, not like the Egyptians, were you felt that they were just helpful because they wanted a Bashish. Theses people seemed to actually care (within reason) I still had my guard up the whole time though. The guides and porters spoke reasonably good English and really took care of you. Basically, anyone w/ cash and a reasonable degree of athleticism, can climb Kili (Climb, not necessarily summit).

Ambience (Arusha (City)): We flew into Arusha and spent the first and last nights at a hotle there. I found the city to be way cleaner than Cairo (not saying much), but still seemed kind of slummy. IDK maybe this is just how non-major cities look around the world. Traffic was somewhat crazy, but again, nothing like Cairo. The people were friendly and always ready to sell you something. I didn't buy a single thing because most of their stuff seemed cheap and touristy. Kind of like the people selling crap at the Sphinx, you just know you could find the same stuff on Ebay back home.

Food: The food was good, but nothing great. They had a mix of cultured foods ranging from African, Indian and Japanese with American food at the tourest hot spots. Apparently, they have a large Indian population, so we ate a lot of their authentic Indian food. Good stuff, but I think the Egyptian food like the Pizza we had in Luxor had more unique-ness to it.

Ambience (Kilimanjaro): Once in the park everything changes from a Savannah to a rain forest and you hike your way up through 4 ecological zones until you hit the Arctic at the summit. This made for a wide display of scenery, from lush greens at the bottom all the way to just glaciers and rock at the top. The stars at night were unbelievable, too bad it got very cold at night and you could only stay outside for a few minutes before your contacts froze to your eye lids.

Food on the Trail: was mostly western-ish with a lot of fruits and vegetables. It's amazing what the porters will carry. Through to the last day they were serving fresh fruit with every meal, and I'm not talking apples. They carried heavy pineapple and watermelon through to the last day.

Overall: It was an amazing trip, but more of a personal achievement trip than a relaxing trip. I keep comparing it to Egypt because I don't have any other out of the US trips to compare to and my trip to Alaska was nothing like Kili. So I've been told by some of my world traveler friends, that have also seen Egypt, not to compare Egypt to other countries because nothing will really ever top it. Not even the great wall.”

“Excelente Tea!”