July 10, 2014 - Happy Birthday Connor!
 |
| Happy 15th Birthday Connor! |
We woke at the Mrefu Mountain Lodge and were excited for our climb! It happened to be Connor's 15th Birthday! We brought him some cards and candy, and had a bigger surprise for later in the day!
 |
| Emily holds up the fried bananas! |
 |
| Fruit, fried sweet potatoes, beans/bananas |
It was my turn to lead devotions and that went well. Breakfast was 'traditional Africa'. We had coffee with beans from the farm and many traditional foods that we had not tried yet.....beans mixed with bananas (reminded me of refried beans), fresh cows' milk, chai tea, cereal, bread, fried sweet potato sticks, fried bananas, fruit, peanut butter, fresh honey, porridge, nutella, and fresh juice. After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and headed out.
We stopped to see David's church and he explained a project they were working on there.....putting in a new walkway around the church.
 |
| David's church |
The drive to Mt. Kilimanjaro was not long. We had hired 3 guides and rented poles for our trek. There are many routes to take to the top on Mt. Kili, and we would take the Marangu Route to the huts, first stop. There, we would eat lunch, walk around to see the different views, and hike back down. It takes approximately 3 hours to get to the Mandara Huts. Along the way, we saw so many things! We saw black/white colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, dik dik, and waterfalls. The area reminded me of a rainforest, full of green trees and healthy vegetation. Every once in a while, we would be passed by porters. Porters are hired by people climbing to the top of the mountain. Porters carry the gear of the climber (and their own gear) including clothing, food, and sleeping gear. It can take someone 5-6 days to make it to the top - that is a lot of gear to carry. Porters climb the Mt. with gear on their backs and heads! It's a difficult job.
 |
| We are anxious and ready..... |
 |
| And we are off......3 hours to go...... |
 |
| colobus monkey - dik dik - blue monkey |
 |
| Beautiful scenery |
 |
| Porters |
 |
| Balancing act! |
We made it to the Mandara Huts in about 3 hours. We had each packed our own lunch to eat once we reached the huts. At the huts, we took lots of photos and surprised Connor with a big Happy Birthday sign (When we got to the bottom, everyone signed it including our guides). Some of us decided to take a few extra minutes and hike 1/2 hour further to the Maundi Crater rim to see the view including neighboring Kenya.
 |
| We made it! |
 |
| Happy 15th Birthday to our boy! |
 |
| Mandara Huts |
 |
| Enjoying our lunch! |
 |
| Inside the huts...those hiking to the top rest here! |
 |
| Walking across the crater rim.... |
 |
| The view |
 |
| Colobus Monkeys |
 |
| Success! |
The hike back down took about 2 hours. We had to hustle, because we had to be out of the park by a certain time or they would close the gate.
 |
| The boys with our guide! |
 |
| Thumbs up - we made it! |
Our drive back to Arusha was long, and it was dark. Driving in Tanzania in the dark is an experience. There are random speed bumps every so often. And people don't always stay in their own lane. The driving speeds vary and needless to day, our ride home was often scary and bumpy. We didn't eat dinner and had some snacks to share with each other. We did stop at a roadside store to pick up some snacks, and we bought ice cream cups for Connor's birthday. We were all very tired and ready for our beds when we got back to the Lutheran Center, but what an amazing day and accomplishment for all of us!!! Per my Fitbit....we had 35333 steps, 321 stairs, 14.6 miles!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment