Tanzania here we come!

Well, the day has come! We are set to fly out to Tanzania in East Africa so that we four crazy ladies can attempt to climb Africa's largest summit, Mount Kilimanjaro. It is also the tallest free standing mountain in the world. Yikes! Not sure why we are doing this, but to give all of you a taste as to why, I'll cut and paste an e-mail that I sent out last weekend which describes how this trip came about...

Hi Everyone – it’s about time that I actually inform many of you (hopefully not most of you) of some upcoming plans of mine. To cut to the chase, exactly one week from tonight I’ll be spending my first night up on Mt. Kilimanjaro! What the heck am I about to do you ask yourself!! I’m about to attempt to climb Africa’s highest mountain (19, 340 feet…but who’s counting?)!! Yep, call me crazy!! Right now, as I haven’t even started to pack, I would have to agree with you, crazy is the name of the game.

I’ve only recently started mentioning this to people in passing (note to self, to bring this up to the Dean of your College a mere 2 weeks before your departure…probably not so smart), so I know what questions are likely running through your mind. I’ll do my best to answer them. Let me also start by warning you that this e-mail is coming from ME…the one who does NOT have the ability to make things quick. If you’ve got something else to do, by all means go do it and come back to this little ditty when you have an hour or two free. Actually, if you truly do have a free hour or two, could you pop over and get me started on PACKING??!!

Question #1 – “You’re going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro?? It must be on your bucket list!” Nope, it sure isn’t. I don’t actually have a ‘bucket list.’ In fact, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve managed to do thus far. So, how did this come about? Well, a dear old friend of mine saw an article in the
paper almost 2 years ago now, about some company where they led hiking expeditions up Kilimanjaro. She called me. I believe the conversation went something like this…”Mary, we’ve got to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.” Me, “Yeah, right.” Click. I get a call again, “Seriously…there’s this write up in the Star Trib…I’ll send it to you.” Me, “Lavache, I’m afraid of heights. I’m not climbing some mountain.” Click. The calls keep coming. She’s like a terrier and won’t let go. I agree to go down to the U with her (in the dead of winter in frigid temperatures, mind you) and listen to this guy speak. I admit it’s intriguing, but I’m still not on board. She stops calling. Summer 2010, we have our annual Girls Weekend and this Lavache character starts up on it again. I enjoy my weekend (Ah hah, this is all Orn’s fault…he should NEVER have let me go on my annual Girls Weekend last summer!), and politely ignore her. After our weekend the calls start up again. Now she tells, “Tracy is on board, she wants to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.” I think to myself, “I’ve been ambushed! Tracy is a friend of mine from college! They will both expect me to go as I am the link between the two of them! I’m doomed.” I start to casually talk about it around the house. Orn pipes in with, “I think you should do it.” (Ah hah, it truly is HIS fault!). I continue to casually think about just possibly doing the trek and happen to mention it at our Christmas gathering down at my parents house. My sister in law Claudia hears me talking about it and she says that she wants to do it too! What? Now I’m going to have to commit! And so I did.

Question #2 – “Who are you doing this with?” The afore-mentioned women: my friend Lisa (known by me as Lavache) who has been a dear friend of mine since 7th grade, my college friend Tracy, who by the way, did not like me very much the first time we met (she may not like me again after this little hike), and my sister in law, Claudia. We are going to be grouped with another couple from White Bear Lake, such that our group will consist of 6 hikers along with the crew from our trekking company. We signed up with Destination Tanzania Safari’s, a company based in Arusha, Tanzania and Gibbon, MN (the website is www.detasa.com).

Question #3 – “When are you leaving and how long will you be gone?” We fly out of Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon (the 7th) and connect through Amsterdam, arriving at Kilimanjaro International Airport on the evening of September 8th. The actual trek will begin one week from today (the 10th) and last for 8 days. We will spend 2 nights in Arusha upon our arrival in Tanzania, and then another night when we get back down the mountain on the 17th. I will fly home on the 18th, while the other three (Lisa, Tracy, and Claudia are going to stick around to do a safari).

Question #4 – “How do you prepare for something like this?” Well…seeing as all four of us live in Minnesota, there’s not much we can do to prepare for the altitude, so each of us has done whatever we can to prepare for the trek itself. As for me, I always work out 6 mornings a week, so essentially I shook things up a bit by having my Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday morning
workouts be hiking workouts outside. So, for those of you who reside in and around the St. Cloud area, YEP, that’s me who you’ve seen tromping around with hiking boots on, trekking poles in hand, and a progressively heavier day pack on her back! Gunnar and Hans were horrified when they were in basketball camp earlier in August and realized that during the 2 hours that they were in camp I was going to be hiking around the area in all my gear. As Gunnar politely told
me one day, “Mom, you’re kind of embarrassing.” Little does he realize how much worse it’s going to get as he approaches adolescence! The main advice that we received from our trekking company was to buy our boots early and to get them really worked in. Apparently I took that advice to heart. Last Sunday after a 2 hour workout climbing up and down Calvary Hill (the boys sledding hill in the winter) I came home to take off my boots only to see that the bottom of my right boot was literally FALLING OFF the boot! This, a mere 10 days before our departure. I could write a 2 page essay describing my effort to find a boot repair person in the greater St. Cloud area, but I don’t want to relive that. Suffice to say that there is a guy by the name of Ron who has my boot and who is aware that I MUST HAVE IT BACK BY WEDNESDAY. His shop is
closed until Tuesday at this point, so say some prayers for me if you could.

So, that pretty much summed up how this trek came about and how I prepared for it. Let's hope that I prepared well enough! I'm happy to report that I am wearing my boot as the Shoe Repair Guy (my new BEST friend) got it fixed for me in the nick of time. He asked that I bring him back a rock from the summit...rock? I'll bring him back the summit for what he did for me!!