Janet and Denise in a Dutch Tea Pot.
Almost 10 years ago to the day, I mentioned to the family that I wanted to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania Africa. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in the African continent and the highest free standing mountain in the world. It is 19,300 ft. I shared the idea with several people and many were very interested in sharing the experience. Over the past ten years, I would often bring up the idea and many were people would “join us”.
Boarding Pass
About 2 years ago, my oldest daughter Denise said, “Dad, we are going to Africa Christmas 2012!” Well, when one of the main women in your life speaks, I have found out through experience that it is wise to pay heed to one of the authorities in your life. The trip has always had three components; a mountain climb, a safari and a visit to an orphanage. We shared the idea with all the “tire kickers” and in the end; none of the others had the physical, chronological, or financial fortitude to embark on this escapade. Truth was, some of these folks were just “plain scared.”
Kilimanjaro Map of our route.
We had purchased a DVD 10 years ago and watched a team of people (ages 13-73) summit to the “roof of Africa.” My wife Janet had seen that and said, “Oh, I am never going to do that.” But if any of you know my wife, you will agree with me that she doesn’t want to miss out on anything, especially if it involves hanging out with her kids. If Denise and I were going, she wanted to come too. Her original thought was to be sitting at the bottom of the coffee plantation lodge, just being a “coffee drinkin’ momma,” sipping eggnog and pumpkin spice lattes while Denise and I climbed the mountain. This “coffee drinkin’ momma” idea was hatched when Debbie and Nancy thought it would be nice to go to Africa, but “why do all that work”
The climb involves going through 5 climate zones; Bush land (2,600ft -5,900ft), Rain Forest(5,900 to 9,200ft), Mooreland (92,000-13,100ft), Alpine Desert (13,000-15,400), and the Arctic (15,400-19,341). We booked a 7 day climb and here is our itinerary for the climb.
Date Camp Elevation in Ft Km to walk
27-Dec-2012 First cave camp 2,600 to 8,536 6.5 km
28-Dec-2012 Kikelewa camp 3,600 to 11,819 6.5 km
29-Dec-2012 Mawenzi Tarn camp 4,330 to 14,215 6 km
30-Dec-2012 Acclimation Day 4,330 to 14,215
31-Dec-2012 Kibo camp 4,700 to 15,430 9 km
01-Jan-2013 Horombo camp (summit day) 3,720 12,213 20 km
02-Jan-2013 Back to Marangu Gate/Arusha 20 km
Total distance walked 68 km
I suggested to Janet that she might as well climb the mountain with us and go as far as she can. That way she can hang out with her daughter more and experience some of the different climate zones. She agreed as she can always stay at one of the final climbs while Denise and I summit.
Yotel Entrance
Janet has a condition called Sarcoidosis which can affect different parts of the body. The most common places are skin, kidneys and lungs. Sarcoidosis is a condition that causes granulomas to grow on the affected area. For Janet, she seems to have it in her kidneys and lungs. If you would look under a microscope you would see the granulomas that would look like grains of sugar in her tissue. No one is sure, at this point, what causes it or how to stop it. Janet is doing well and 4-5mg of prednisone daily seems to keep things at bay. This condition has caused her to wonder if she is crazy for attempting the climb. I told her that she didn’t have to be crazy to be married to me…but it helps. Many of her friends do believe she is crazy and the fact she is doing it is only confirming the rumours.
Yotel – Janet and Denise on the bed folded up
So we left Sunday night, 23-Dec-2012 and flew to Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) for a 22 hour layover. We slept at a hotel in the airport called Yotel. Because space is an issue in Europe and airport space is even more an issue, to keep the costs lower, they had to get innovative with the designs of the room. These cabins are rented by the hour and we rented a premium room for 108€ for 18 hours.
Yotel – George and Janet. We are in the bedroom in front of the glassed walled bathroom.
The premium room sported a double bed that took up most of the floor space. In fact the bed was electric and when you arrived, it looked more like a sofa couch. When you extended it to be flat, that left 12” for you to get by the bed. The bed room was 2.5mx2.5m (8ft by 8ft) and the bathroom was 1mx2.5m. The bathroom was separated from the bedroom by a glass wall. The bottom meter was frosted and there was a curtain you could close but it was about 20cm too short…right about the height of the crouch area. There were also non-premium rooms to be had that were 1mx8m and had a bunk in the wall, but that clearly would not have worked for the 3 of us. Denise, Janet and I all actually slept really well in the double bed together. I am sure that the fact that we had taken a night flight and were tired, helped for a pretty good “straight-jacket” type sleep.
Yotel Regular Room taken through the window. The room is 1 metre wide and the bed is a bunk on the low side. The room beside it has the bed on to top of this bunk.
Despite the “smallness” of the cabin we really liked it and thought it was quite innovative. It also made for a few good chuckles together. Accommodations in Africa will be far from luxurious, so we might as well get used to it right off the bat.
In the evening, we decided to go out for something to eat but when we left our cabin the airport was very quiet. So quiet in fact that Denise quoted the Christmas line, “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” We did finally find a place where we could get a light, night Christmas eve snack that consisted of a “ heel lekker (very tasty) Dutch gebakje ” – almond treat. We were totally taken by surprise when we actually saw a couple of mice scurrying about on the clean floors. We mentioned to the server what we saw and he just mentioned that this was their home in the late evening and that they always showed up for gebakje morsels. They even had names he said Tom and Jerry. Apparently, these mice have been around for a long time and no matter what they do to get rid of them, others keep showing up. As the saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, let them join you” or something like that.
As we left the Yotel, we were wished a Merry Christmas and each handed a bag of goodies which included some Dutch biscuits, a huge organic chocolate bar, a mandarin orange and a bottle of cognac which Denise and Janet plan to toast with up on the top of the mountain.
We woke up Christmas day and are now sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Tanzania