Mount Kilimanjaro with G Adventures, March 2016

1- Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and one of the 7 Summits

2- I love interacting with local kids 3- All profits from The Stella Maris Lodge go to the adjacent school

4- The climb covers a wide variety of climate zones

5- The G Fighters do an amazing job setting up camp 6- Our tent is super comfy

7- The trail has some pretty steep sections 8- We had a great group

9- Summit day/night goes on for about 18 hours10- Reaching to Roof of Africa was AWESOME!!!

Upon arriving in Moshi at 2am, our G Adventures driver drove us straight to the Stella Maris Lodge where check-in was quick and easy. We woke to our first views of Kilimanjaro from our balcony. At 19,341 feet, Kili is the highest free-standing mountain in the world, meaning it is not part of a mountain range with other peaks of similar heights. Moshi has a population of about 185,000.

I always love interacting with the local kids. They love when you take their picture and then show it to them on your camera.

So happy to donate a bunch of new clothes and school supplies to Teddy for the Stella Maris School for orphaned and vulnerable children. I encourage all of you to bring as much as you can whenever visiting developing nations around the world. In addition to our donations, the hotel itself is a non-profit that raises money to fund the school. The income from the hotel pays for the teachers and food for the students.

The first day is pretty much rainforest the whole time. We only got rained on for a few minutes though. All of the G Guides are amazing; you can tell that they love what they do and their enthusiasm in infectious.

Upon arriving at each camp, we sign in so they can keep track of where everyone is and be sure we all have valid permits. Everything is already set up. Our personal belongings are in our tents and hot drinks and snacks are waiting in the dining tent! Two of us in each of the small tents, the bigger red one is the dining tent, and the green one is the kitchen.

Our home for the next 6 nights. Not quite the Four Seasons. While there is no room service, they do have “turn down” and “wake-up calls” when they bring us each a bowl of warm water to wash up each morning and evening

A fun section of the trail on day two. While this may look tough there are plenty of parts that aren’t as steep. I really believe that anyone in fairly good shape can make most of the journey. To be honest, summit day could be a challenge for some, but it’s all about the journey, not the destination, and the memories will last a lifetime no matter how far you make it!

We went polé-polé which means slowly-slowly in Swahili, and stopped every hour or two for a short rest, snack, and drink. This was also when you could go to the “business center” to “send a text” or an “email with attachment”. That is code for go to the bathroom. You can guess what each one means!!

The first 6 ½ hours were in the dark, with some fairly technical rock fields and very steep sections covered with shale. Here is where the G guides really shined. Ten of us went for the summit along with 8 guides. The five of us that were doing really well took off with one guide; that left 7 guides for the other 5 people. They took such good care them; going at a pace that worked for each individual, carrying their packs if needed, two guides each for a couple of them.

Such a great summit group. The 5 of us pushed through the night and were lucky enough to arrive at Uhuru Peak with nobody else there. We had the “Roof of Africa” all to ourselves for 10 – 15 minutes. After taking pictures, enjoying our beers, and basking in the moment, we started our trip back down after about half an hour.

Shoot an email to: doug@plazatravel.com if you have any questions or want more details about this, or any of my other trips!