Happy Family Cottage Hostels Kilimanjaro National Park

... I was feeling ill and threw up on the crater rim, mainly due to dehydration from the humidity and heat.

Ate dinner in the largest A-frame hut with all the other people who had started their own Kilimanjaro climbs. For just the 2 of us we have a team of 9 people - 2 guides, 1 cook, 1 waiter and 5 porters. Took my first Diamox pill on advice the of Harold.

Day 2 - Today we are walking towards Horombo Huts at an Alt. 3780m and 11.7km ...

... of them and will go again if the opportunity presents itself. One tip, it is common for safari companies to stay in camps near the town of Mto wa Mbu on this itinerary. The popular camps here, Twiga and Figi both offer camping and inexpensive indoor acommodations. I advise the indoor option. The camping is done in an inclosed area next to the camp's swimming pool. It is basically backyard camping and does not cost much more to stay indoors, self ...

... had just enough time to unpack and repack with fresh clothes. We will meet up with our luggage again in 48 hours. So the break was spent figuring out what was still clean and what dirty clothes we need to take along to have cleaned during our next two-night stay.

At 4 pm we went out for a game drive. WHAT A BUMMER. We saw no new animals, although we were able to get photos of a few things we had seen previously but hadn’t ...

We spent one day on our trip hiking to the first rest stop on the mountain with our "Agape Buddies".  They were Tanzanian High School students who hosted us during our trip.  Although they were high school students, they were actually around our age, they just have a different system.  

It was definitely not one of the easiest hikes I have done. Us silly Americans felt so out of shape compared to the students we had been ...

... only consolation is that the guys I'm with are having as hard or harder time with it and my poles are really helping but it's not much consolation. Each time I would ask our guide how far and he would say just past that hill and then we would get to the top and with no camp site in sight I would ask him where to and he would tell me just past that hill. I hate these friggin hills and want to just slide down the stupid rocks. Finally got to the base camp of the mountain ...

... in climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in an effort to raise money for the Mission to Seafarers in the UAE, specifically for a charity called the Angel Appeal.

The Angel Appeal is a charity set up to pay for the running costs and operating expences of The Flying Angel. The Flying Angel is a project conceived by The Reverend Stephen Miller, Director of the Mission to Seafarers (MTS) in Dubai, UAE - an organisation that cares for seafarers regardless of race or religion in ...

... new husband in a second marriage refused to support the previous marriage's children, or for one of many other reasons. The home gave them a place of stability, fed them well, educated them and generally looked after them. The impressive part for me was the 'after care' once the child was 'reunified' with the family, regular checkups to ensure the original problems didn't return.

It's the done thing for a ...

... the past. Let's be serious - I love Africa, but know that amazing things are still on the horizon. The continent of Africa has been on this planet for quite some time, I have a feeling it will still be in the same place when I return in the future (and I AM returning). I have truly fallen in love with this place and its people have crept right into the center of my heart. So! For the moment many of you have been waiting ...

... t have that... and the bathroom door also didn't have a seal at the bottom. It took me about 10 minutes into my full blast shower to realize this (I'm lucky I did at all) and when I did my entire hotel room had already been flooded!!! Just perfect, of course this would happen the night before Kilimanjaro! Amazingly everything was either in a waterproof bag or ziplocked and all of my electronics were off of the ground! I spent the next hour, dripping wet and soapy (I stopped ...

... or Julie, Sophie and I at least, Joe and John
were practically RUNNING the mountain) did not have. Eventually we
walked through the rainforest to a sort of marshland area, that was
about to turn into forest. It leveled out a LITTLE, so I was able to
look up, and then found a tiny chamelon on the ground that I picked up
and named Oliver, and carried the last km to the hut. Oliver distracted
me from the fact that I was out of water, my legs ...