Memories of Kilimanjaro

Got an email from Judy the other day. She is planning on going to Kilimanjaro and wanted to have some advice on what, where, when, and with who we went with in July 2009. It brought back so many memories of that fantastic trip to East Africa and even today as I page through Hemingway's "The Green Hills of Africa" it makes me want to go back. There is something in the way that he writes that captures a glimpse of those long rolling hills, endless spaces filled with wildlife, and this majestic lonely mountain that towers above it all. Anyone going to Tanzania needs to read a little Hemingway in my opinion.

In any case we flew direct from San Francisco to Dubai via Emirates Airline. The flight was 15 hours and flew over the North Pole. Sometimes, if you go up to the counter right before the flight you can ask for an upgrade to business class - which we got for $350 and was the best investment one can make for such a long flight. From Dubai we flew to Nairobi in Kenya and then on to Arusha in Tanzania. There are also some flights from San Francisco to Amsterdam and then down to Arusha which some of our travel companions did (shout out to Leonora!).

We went with an excellent travel company called Alpine Ascents. They took us up slowly to help with the acclimatization process and the post summit celebration and then the Safari afterwards was first rate. We actually stayed in lodges in the national parks themselves - where one could be confronted by lions by opening up their hotel doors.

Here is the website link for those interested:

http://www.alpineascents.com/

I recommend going for the Safari as no trip to East Africa can be complete without one. Also, I've added a video to my facebook page, but it is >100MB and thus can not post it to my blog page - here is the link for that:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=225661287773

- enjoy!