Aug 17th 2008 Sunday, Arusha

Up by 8am, Justin (our lead guide from Detasa) came by for a briefing for tomorrow's start. We also met O and M our counterparts from Australia who will also be climbing with us. Justin went through all of our gear, just ensuring we had all the essentials for the climb.

At noon or so we went into town for a stroll, grabbed lunch at Dolly's and went to an art store and bought two Masai paintings ($135).

We can see Mt. Meru from Arusha's main street. It's the fifth highest mountain in Africa at 15,000 ft above sea level. Looks massive from this angle.


Back to the hotel by 3pm, Inocent (he owns and runs the tour company that we are using) came by at 5pm to meet us. All 5 of us had a chat for some time, clarified doubts we had regarding the climb, safety equipment, weather, AMS, diamox etc. Some last minute packing and then early dinner and off to bed.

We plan to leave tomorrow by 8am, it's a 4 hr drive to the national park gate. I think we are prepared, this is the time we've been planning for for all these months. We had all our questions answered; the key seems to be to take our time, hike slowly, drink lots of water, and to force yourself to eat as much as possible to maintain our energy levels. If we can do that, this should be like a hike in the woods!! Our bags are packed and batteries charged. Early night today, its just past 10pm.

This is surely going to be an adventure; quite an adventure. A bit of work and effort for sure but I think it will be a trip that we will never forget. It's quite a long journey and is going to take a lot of courage and strength to accomplish. After my 1600km bicycling expedition of southern India way back in 1990 and my 13,500 ft ascent of the Chandrakani pass in the Himalayas in 1995, this was surely the next big (or bigger) thing . I am looking forward to this, Jen has never ventured out like this before, will be quite a journey for her. She has put a lot of trust and faith in me and has taken up this challenge along with me. Moving to India itself was quite a journey, this surely ranks up there. She got quite a kick in trying the sleeping bags earlier, but tomorrow by this time we will be actually sleeping in one, on our first night on the mountain. May not be too cold yet tomorrow but as we head up higher we expect temperatures well below freezing, along with wind chill to some extent.

This is a journey worth doing, we will bond in ways like never before and bring Jen and me closer. Quite a week ahead of us and will have lots of stories and photos to tell our kids and grand kids one day. Good Night.