I hiked (not climbed) Kilimanjaro

Literally.

Last Saturday, Bekah DC and I got up bright and early to brave the roads of Kenya to day-trip to TanZANia. Destination: Moshi, one of the main starting points for climbers ready to brave the not-so-steep-or-treacherous slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The drive itself was quite an adventure, full of ghost elephants and trucks, long stretches of wiggity-whack messed up dirt roads, a suicidal donkey, a herd of babboons, and some other wildlife (goats). And since it's in the past, I feel like it's okay to paint a better picture for you...

Kenya drives British style - left side of the road, right side of the car. Tough to get used to under any circumstances, only we were drivng a big truck - like a dad-sized truck. I don't like driving cars that big when I'm familiar with the roads and driving norms, and in this case I was familiar with nothing. And since I'm not used to the dimensions of the car from the right side of the car, there's always that tendency to stray into the shoulder. Which we did, plenty of times.

The trip was a straight shot - we drove on the divided highway (more fun) from Mombasa to Voi, then headed west to Taveta, the border town. We had some great expanses of red-tinted dusty African landscape, we saw lots of baobab trees and pineapple farmland, and I got some glimpses of mountains - the first I've seen here. (They reminded me of southern Utah.) Voi to Taveta was 110km of pothole-infested, washboard-laden, unchecked dirt road. I think they tried to put down some gravel once, but it didn't work out too well. There was almost zero traffic, which was very good, because the entire time we were on that road, we were weaving all over it in search of the smoothest route. (Bekah took video. I'll try to post it later.) Basically, it required some heavy concentration.

Which reminds me, does anyone know how washboards form? I wondered that again and again during the 2-3 hours we spent clanking down that road, I just couldn't think straight enough to figure out the physics behind it. And now that I can think straight enough...I still don't know.

This was probably one of the most spontaneous trips I've ever taken. I realized on the way down that we had no idea what we'd do once we got to Moshi, or where anything was, or really anything at all. It was kind of a rush and a boost to realize that this didn't phase me in the least.

There were many African angels who helped us through our day...

*The petro station attendants at Voi that showed us the turn we'd just missed to Taveta.
*The Sergeant at the border who helped us figure out where to put our car when we learned we couldn't drive across because we didn't have the log book (still don't know what a log book is), and then kept the creepy dudes away who were lurking nearby, and then arranged for some piki-pikis to give us a ride for us across No-Man's Land, the 4-km stretch between borders.

*The guys at the police station who let us park our car there for the day (could there BE a safer place to leave a car?).
*The Tanzania immigrations guy who didn't put up a fight when I countered his request that we pay $100 for a visa, which is literally double what every foreign country besides the US pays for a visa (some countries like to do that).
*The guy we met on the matatu (or dala-dala, as they say in TanZANia) into Moshi who was kind enough to offer assistance once we got to Moshi. We didn't use his guidance, but it sure is nice to meet good people.
*Frankie and Mikey, the two dudes we finally found who were willing to charge us a halfway decent rate to take us on a hike 1/5 of the way up Mt. Kilimanjaro for a couple hours...

...which allowed us to see Materuni waterfall ($250 for a cab ride to a trail head? Uh...yeah, no thanks. I mean, I know mountain climbers are all prepared to drop a couple G's when they roll into town, but seriously?).


*All the little kids who decided to join us on our hike and pose in our pictures with us.

*And all the little kids who didn't.

*The guy we met on the dala-dala back to the border who convinced the driver to take us right up to the border since it was already dark (hey, cramming in and dropping off 30+ people and a mattress can take awhile).

Bekah took her turn at the wheel for the drive back. There are no street lights here, and we were basically in the bush for the first 110km, so it was DARK. Driving in Kenya is a team sport! The one not in the driver seat was responsible for watching everything on the periphery, so both of us were wound up pretty tight and giving 110% concentration to our tasks...which is why I wasn't so tactful in loudly and very suddenly announcing when an elephant popped up on the side of the road, literally right next to the truck. And it was BIG! From my seat, I had to look up at it to see the head, the tusks, the trunk...and then it was gone as fast as it appeared. I'm pretty sure I almost gave Bekah a heart attack when I yelled, "Did you SEE that?!?!" Luckily, she didn't swerve off the road and we survived the ghost elephant sighting.

Back on the main road...a word to everyone who may be driving at night on Kenya roads in the future: some semi trucks don't bother with the tail lights. So you may or may not actually see it until you're practically upon it (remember, no street lights). Beware of the ghost semis. BUT the lack of street lights gave us a fantastic view of the stars once when we decided to pull over and do a little stargazing. Living in DC, I don't get to see stars much. And a lot of the constellations we saw were exclusively southern hemisphere stars, so it was a double treat!

Home safe, glad I went, 17 countries down, 100+ to go.

Coming soon...buckle up for some safari adventures...