This summer, I went on a 23-day camping trip filled with service, hiking, and a safari in Tanzania with a group called Moondance Adventures. The group had 15 seniors from all over the U.S. and two leaders that were in college.
The first week, we worked for the Red Sweater Project, which is an education opportunity for kids that live in the rural village of Mto Wa Mbu. Also, we visited Maasai tribe villages that showed how they live their lives. They even welcomed our group by slaughtering a goat and drinking the blood in front of us; let’s just say it was a very eye-opening experience into their culture. Next, we started our climb on Mount Kilimanjaro, which is the highest peak in Africa and definitely the hardest part of the trip.
Day 1: This day, we started the beginning of hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro around noon and got to camp around 8 p.m. Within the first hour, we realized this was definitely not going to be easy... it was only the first day, in the first hour, that we were all looking at each other already saying, “Are we there yet?” and “How much longer?” We hiked through the jungle with monkeys all around us, and the terrain was muddy and very slippery. The hike on this day felt like walking straight up stairs...for eight hours.
Day 2: We're already above the clouds and making our way above the tree line. We walked rocky terrain all up hill, all day. Today was our shortest day hiking -- around six hours. In order to pass time, we described our favorite TV episodes, movies, and of course our favorite foods because at this point all we were eating were protein bars. This is what happens when you have zero technology.
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Day 3: The first picture above shows what we did for about two hours, which was scaling up cliffs. After that, we hiked up to 15,000 feet in order to acclimate to the high altitude. We stayed at 15,000 feet for lunch the hiked down to about 12,000 feet to our camp. The last picture was our campsite with the summit in the background. Most of our reactions were, “How are we going to get up that?”
Day 4: This is the day we arrived at basecamp. We were all FREEZING. Personally, I was in three pairs of pants and four layers of shirts/jackets. The temperature was so low that I would wake up and my water bottle would be frozen.That day, we hiked from 12,000 feet back up to 15,000 feet, and this is when the altitude sickness really started to kick in. Basically, every step got harder and harder to breathe, and every day your muscles get more sore. We all made a pact to not complain, and if we thought about complaining we had to turn it into encouragement for one another. This agreement helped tremendously with the hike -- we all truly relied on each other.
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Day 5, SUMMIT DAY: This was the hardest day of all. We woke up at 2:30 a.m., ate breakfast, then started the summit at 3 a.m. We were all struggling with altitude sickness, and every step took all the energy we had in us with only little light from a headlamp to lead the way. Our guides, Good Luck (this was his real name) and John, had summited this mountain over 200 times, and they encouraged us every step of the way. Each hour, you could hear Good Luck sing every song from "The Lion King," and honestly that helped us smile and laugh even though we were so exhausted and sick. The summit took eight hours to get up to, but it was all worth it when we saw the “Congratulations! You are now at Uhuru Peak” sign. We stood above the clouds at 19,341 feet, the highest peak in all of Africa, and rejoiced while treating ourselves to a Snickers bar on the peak. At that moment, we all agreed on how that was the best candy bar we will probably ever eat. We could only stay at the top for 10 minutes due to the lack of oxygen. We basically had to run down the mountain because it was so steep that there was no way of going slow. In all, this summit hike was 14 hours -- eight hours up and six hours down.This was truly the longest day of my life, and I would have never thought that getting into a sleeping bag would feel so great, but at that point it never felt better.
Days 6 and 7: We were all waiting for this moment -- going downhill. Our bodies were so sore and tired of going straight up hill for five days that downhill felt like a walk in the park. We got to the bottom and were greeted by all the guides singing Tanzanian songs and congratulating us on our success. I never in a million years thought I would make it up one of the seven summits. If you know me, you know that I am not a hiker, but with my group and the guides the journey was definitely still hard, but honestly so fun and rewarding.
Overall, this accomplishment compared to none other, and I will forever cherish the moments on this mountain with the group of strangers a week before who are now 15 of my closest friends.
