Kilibound For Real

Arusha, Tanzania

Let the adventure begin! We hauled ourselves out of bed (or off the floor) in Nairobi this morning and find ourselves in Arusha, Tanzania tonight with a long walk up a large hill looming. 
We endured a dusty day of driving while folded into the "luxury liner" shuttle from Nairobi to Arusha. I managed to score the wheel well for the first three hours, which I happily traded for a flip-down jump seat with leg room at the Tanzanian border. It was a hot and dusty haul through desert-like conditions. The landscape was dotted with goats, cows and their colorful Masai herders.

We pulled in to the Outpost Lodge in Arusha just after 3:30 and were absolutely starving from our day on the road with no food stops. We quickly placed an order at the restaurant and then waited an African jiffy (70 minutes) for the food to arrive. We followed dinner with a brisk walk into town to stretch our legs before returning to the Outpost for our pre-climb briefing which was to start "promptly" at 6:00 p.m. At the appointed hour we were back at the lodge, dangling our feet in the pool, waiting to meet our guide. In another jiffy, he arrived promptly 45 minutes late (I'm sensing a pattern here),

"John" will be our head guide for this little climbing adventure. He talked us through the basics of the itinerary for our seven day adventure and went over multiple precautions for altitude sickness. Basically it came down to, "Drink lots, walk slowly, eat and rest." Sounds simple enough. He neglected to mention all of the vomiting and headaches that lie ahead, but I appreciate his positive outlook.

After John departed with a promise to pick us up "promptly" at 7:30 tomorrow morning, we set about packing and repacking our bags again with the added items of sleeping bags and climbing poles. I think all that remains to be done is to climb.

Testing the equipment

Africa, thus far, has failed me on the iPhone cracking front. Barring a small miracle tomorrow morning, it looks like we will be out of contact for seven days. There will be many adventures to write about from the beaches of Zanzibar when we return. Until then, think warm and positive thoughts for all of us. We'll be thinking of you!

If you would like to follow our climb (a small red dot that follows our group up the mountain), check out the link below. If the dot stops early, Kelly ate a peanut. If it stops later on, it means things are not pretty. If it keeps on moving (pole pole - go slow) all is well!

If the families/friends of those climbing want to follow the progress of the group on the TK Google Map, please see the link:

http://www.teamkilimanjaro.com/track-a-kilimanjaro-climber.html

If they scroll down the page and find the map, and then look for the respective climb reference on the left hand side of the screen under ‘Track a Kilimanjaro climb’, they will find the climbing group listed as CHWI. If they click on the name CHWI, they will be taken to the latest recorded location on the mountain for the group. If those checking the map use the slider bar on the left edge of the actual map, they can zoom in to the exact location of the last reported position.

Where the guide provides any comment on the progress of the group, I will detail this in the commentary box and also on the blogspot : http://www.teamkilimanjaro.com/live-climber-reports.html.