Category Archives: Kilimanjaro

Nairobi Wow, what a journey!  I’ll start with the ending – we made it safe and sound with all of our bags and are settled into The African Tulip, our hotel in Arusha.  We arrived at 2 AM local time after our 27 hour journey from Chicago.  We travelled on BA from Chicago, to LondonContinue reading “Nairobi”

Today we said our goodbyes to the kids and dog, and we’re on our way.  Behind these smiles we are nervous and a little scared, Not gonna lie!   Yesterday we had the best day celebrating  Tim’s birthday and I was so happy that we were prepared and packed enough that we could spend theContinue reading “This is really happening!”

    The reactions I have gotten when I tell people we are climbing Kilimanjaro, have been everything from “Wow!”  to “Why would you do that?”. Although I grew up close to the beach in Southern California, I have always been someone who is more mountains than beach.  As a kid I enjoyed the lifeContinue reading “Why do people climb mountains?”

Packing On a good day, packing for any trip is a stressful task for this serial over-packer-always-plan-for-the-what-if’s-I-like-to-have-choices, traveler.  Now, our trip to Tanzania brings some added twists including a strict 33 lb weight limit for our trekking bag.  This is it, folks.  This includes sleeping bag, snack food, toiletries, clothing for a 5 climate zones, firstContinue reading “Packing and Preparation”

So many have asked how I am training for the climb.  The best way to train for Kilimanjaro is to hike.  Up mountains.  In high altitude. Unfortunately, the suburbs of Chicago offer no such mountains, so one has to resort to other means. Tim and I did do a ‘training’ hike in September,  up Mt. HumphreysContinue reading “Training”

Our trip begins June 12th when we depart from Chicago to Kilimanjaro via London and Nairobi, concluding with a short hop (on I’m sure a very small plane) to Kilimanjaro, approximately a 20 hour plane journey in total. The first part of the trip is our trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro.  We are going with our guideContinue reading “The Itinerary”

Why climb Mt. Kilimanjaro? I was inspired back in 2013 by Paralympian, Chris Waddell who journeyed to Africa to become the first parapalegic to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro unassisted. Chris spoke at a BP event on March 20, 2013 and told of his incredible ascent up Mt. Kilimanjaro. Read more about Chris and his One RevolutionContinue reading “Inspiration”