Lifelist: Mount Kilimanjaro

by Erik Olsen on

Folks, I’m going to resurrect our lifelist feature starting with the tallest mountain in Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro. In these lifelist features we hope to provide the How, What, Why, Where, etc. for doing spectacular things that will add to the quality of your life. Lifelist adventures are life-changing experiences that you specifically set out to do to add them to your personal list of accomplishments. Yes, that list is personal, but we are here to help.

So, first the WHAT and WHERE:
Mount Kilimanjaro is smack in the middle of Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania. That’s in Africa, for the less geographically-inclined. Kilimanjaro rises from the African plain near the Indian Ocean and, as I mentioned, is the highest mountain in Africa (3 1/2 miles high)…actually it is one of the largest free standing mountains in the world. Yes, if you are a climber or even an avid trekker, you must climb Kilimanjaro.

One thing about Kili, as some mountaineers know it, is that it’s not THAT hard to climb. The route is a long, often painful trudge, but it’s not highly technical, and so if you are physically fit, you can generally pull it off. The altitude may get to you, so if you experience headaches or the onset of sickness, then you may want to either rest or turn around, depending on the severity.

Most people probably don’t know that the mountain is actually made up of three volcanoes. Kibo, which rises 19,340 feet, Mawenzi which is 16,896 feet, and Shira which is 13,000 feet. Kilimanjaro is also a UNESCO World Heritage site and a lot can be learned about it by checking out the site here.

WHEN:
You can climb the mountain throughout the year, but if you want the best time, then head there in the first three months of the year. January, February and September are the best months, with July, August, November and December also good.

HOW: There are several outfitters at Kilimanjaro, but in clicking around, I found that Kilimanjaro Adventures is one of the top dogs. According to their site, they have been leading climbs since 1990. In 2004, they led approximately 7,000 climbers up and safely down the mountain. Not a bad record.

If you want to read more about climbing Kilimanjaro, give this piece from Away.com a read. it gives a nice overview and delivers a stirring narrative of the climb. And, of course, you can always take a look at the ever-informative Wikipedia page.

WHY: Because it’s there. Duh.

Further reading:

GORP’s Look at Kili

The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

Some fine photos

Kili Travel Guide

Riding Tanzania

by Erik Olsen on

There’s a fine story from last year that I can’t remember if I blogged about about taking a trip in Tanzania by bike. This is a nicely done, pretty unconventional piece with some superb visual elements including a photo gallery and audio slide show. The rider deals with lousy roads and legions of bugs, but there’s no question that the trip is worth it. Locals gawked at the author and his friend as they rode by random villages on their tandem bike. Pretty neat. There is nothing quite like seeing another country at 15 mph.

Inside Africa Vol. 1 & 2

by Adrienne Wilson on


TASCHEN books are some of my favorite to collect. If I had hundreds of dollars to blow I could easily do so on their website, but for now I’ll have to place some of these titles on my Christmas wish list or refrain from doing so much running to and fro’ to buy a few more. Of the more recent releases I’d like to take a peek at the Inside Africa titles. The two volume set puts the diversity of African living in the reader’s face. I’ll be one of the first to admit (and this is very sad because I have so many African friends), but when I think of dwellings found in various African places I don’t think modern for the majority. I see mud, clay, and earthy homes with wells and without running hot water. SO WRONG. While a good portion of countries may have tribes and villages with housing of this nature there are tons of luxury lodges, artist studios, minimalist houses, and so-forth. These two sets claim to have a good mixture of both and more, but with the eye-popping ink and paper stock TASCHEN uses I’m sure anyone flipping through the book would want to stay in a clay hut. Deidi von Schaewen is the photographer and it took a period of four years and fifteen countries to make it these Inside Africa volumes happen.

Countries featured include Egypt, Kenya, Botswana, Morocco, Réunion, Seychelles, Tanzania, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, and Senegal to list only a few.

Word for the Travel Wise (08/06/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

As if traveling within the four time zones in the United States doesn’t get confusing enough telling the time in Swahili is something else. For starters Swahili time runs from dawn to dusk. Most of us operate on time from midnight to midday, but Swahili times makes both of these six o’clock. For example: 7 a.m. becomes hour one morning and so on. Just imagine the disorientation this could cause when traveling in countries like Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda.

Today’s word is a Swahili word used in Tanzania:

asubuhi – morning

Masai-Mara has a section devoted to useful Swahili and Kenya Travels has a similar list, but to catch the missing words between the two I suggest looking at them both. The Kamusi Project is the internet’s only living Swahili dictionary which has been suspended due to funding issues. Sad, seeing it seems like one of the best sources to learning the lang, but the if you’re willing to donate a few dollars you can help keep the website alive. To learn basic background facts about Swahili check out Wikipedia. Did you know the name Swahili comes from the plural of Arabic word sahel (singular) or its plural sawahil meaning “boundary” or “coast?” Just one cool fact I discovered during the first lesson I taught.

Past Swahili words: unasemaje, simu

Apesville

by Grant Martin on

Communing with apes has always been a lifetime dream of mine; every once in a while I come across an article or guidebook explaining just how it can be done.

An article from Sunday’s LA Times is the latest clipping I’ve filed away with this in mind. Journalist Diane Haithman traveled to Tanzania’s Mahale Mountains where she stayed in a posh resort and climbed into the hills every day to observe a band of chimpanzees eat, forage, fight, and lounge about.

Her modern day Planet of the Apes adventure didn’t feature a collapsed Statue of Liberty on the beachhead, but it did include so much ape-spotting that she was eventually able to recognize a few of the simians by name. Over 700 chimpanzees live in the mountains, but not one of them has learned to speak English yet. So, I guess we still have a few more years before they take over the planet.