Archive - Jan 2010

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog posts from Africa in order to bring you the latest race report from ActiveSteve. It's been a pretty hectic weekend out in the frigid Ottawa region for me. Although the temperatures barely rose above -20degC all weekend, it didn't keep me from skiing, snowshoeing, skating, and just generally making the most of what we get here in the winter. It was also my 2010 race season opener, taking the form of a 10k snowshoe race. This was the 3rd of 4 races put on by Mike Caldwell as the Mad Trapper snowshoe race series. The course for Saturday was the 'combined course', which meant one lap of the infamous 'hilly' route, and a 2nd lap consisting of the 'flatter' route. There were actually a few tweaks to the course, which made it more like 9k, but it was still plenty challenging. I managed to capture some pictures and a couple videos, which I've posted on flickr, but not many. For the full details of how it went down, read on friends.

Hello again friends. As promised, I've split summit day into the climb to the top and the climb back down in the interests of making each post manageable. There was still far too much to relate about my New Year's eve after the summit, that you are now faced with needing to read a second post in one sitting (depending on your addiction to all things ActiveSteve :-). Of course, the map and pictures are the same as last time, so no need to review those unless you want to. This part of the story now takes you from the summit at Uhuru peak (way up there at 5,896m) down to Horombo Camp, situated faaaarrrr below at 3,700m. Yup, that's right we'd be descending over 2.1km in one hike! Read on to learn more about that.

Hello fellow adventurers! Strap yourselves in, because we're finally there. Summit day on Kilimanjaro. Today you will finally find out how Cantrailia fared on the roof of Africa. Now, admittedly, this post is likely going to run long. I'm just going to start writing it up, and see how lengthy it becomes. I may in fact decide to break it into two posts: up to the summit, then descending from the summit. That's just the way I roll. However, in spite of whether I split it, there remains only one map of the day's hike, as well as one set of pictures on flickr. But what a splendid map and set of pictures they are :-) For in those, you will see that we made it all the way to the top, at 5,895m AMSL. The roof of Africa. The top of Kibo, Uhuru Peak. Any way you slice it, and by whatever name you refer to it, there is no higher place in all of the continent of Africa, and it is the world's tallest freestanding mountain! Not a bad accomplishment I'd day. Read on to find out more.

So, we finally find ourselves getting very close to our objective on this trip: the roof of Africa. Yesterday was a relatively short day for Cantrailia, and it took us up to 4,300m where we slept and acclimatized. The goal for today was going to be to make our way to our final 'camp' on the ascent of Kili. I use the term 'camp' lightly, as we were really only going to sleep a few hours there before beginning our slow trip up the mountain. But of course, I'm getting ahead of myself in this introduction. So, rather than spoil the fun, I'll start like I always do. First, have a look at the satellite map showing where we hiked for this day. Also, check out the set of pictures on flickr. Overall, it was a good, if not a bit boring, day on the mountain. There's not that much to tell, but I'm sure I'll embellish it enough to turn into a decent little story for you all :-). When you're done checking out the goodies, come on back and read on.

Well howdy all! Welcome back for Day 3 of the trip up Mount Kilimanjaro. Hard to believe that there are only a few more blog posts left to write about our amazing African trip. I hope you've stuck with me through all the long days, and that you've all been enjoying these posts. It's sometimes quite a job to try and write up these stories, especially since life has moved on since then, but it's nice to re-visit these the adventure and try and remember some of the little details. Day 3 was another straight trekking day for team Cantrailia. Compared to day 2, it was much shorter, but at these altitudes, that's not such a bad thing. For starters, have a look at the map of the journey on day 3, as well as the set of pictures posted on flickr. Once you have a sense of the day, read on for the rest of the post.

Hello again, and welcome to the wet, wild African adventures of ActiveSteve and Cantrailia! The blog post title pretty much sums up the entirety of what this post will be about, but when have you ever known me to keep things short and sweet? Of course I have a few more things to share with you about the day, so you'll just have to read the whole thing anyway. To get you started, I of course once again urge you to check out the map that I made of the day's trek, as well as the set of pictures posted over on flickr. When you are satisfied that you have an idea of what we as a group were up against for this particular leg of the journey come on back here and read the rest of the post.

Good evening friends. For those of you who maybe checked in yesterday for the next blog post. My apologies. I took the day off :-) It was pretty full day for me, and I just didn't have the time to write a post. I started my day with a 21.1k run, then quickly had some soup and crackers before heading out for the afternoon to do snowshoeing. Once home from that, I had only an hour to get sorted and ready to head out with friends for supper and to watch a band. I was in no shape to write when I got home :-) At any rate, I'm back, and you all deserve to hear about the start of the next phase of our African Adventures. Day 1 on Mount Kilimanjaro taking the Rongai Route. My next week's worth of posts will be all about that, as it is how we finished our trip. Of course, you are invited now to check out the map of day 1 that I made, as well as the set of pictures to accompany that. Then, read on and let me tell you all how that day unfolded.

Well hello there loyal readers. Thanks for stopping on by. I realize that yesterday's blog post must have been a bit of a slog, but you have to understand that for me, it was as much a slog getting through that day, and then having to write all about it, so you'll just have to deal with it :-) On the plus side, I think I should be able to keep today's post to a manageable length, on account that it was more of a transition day for us. Yup, although we were still on Mount Meru, we had a relatively short hike out followed by a night in a new hotel to re-pack and prepare for the penultimate part of the trip: our climb up Kilimanjaro! That's right, no rest days in between, off one mountain, and onto the next one the following morning. Hence my post title. Clever, non? At any rate, to start the post off as I usually do, I invite you all to check out the map that I made of the days' hike, as well as the set of pictures posted over on flickr. Once done, head back here and read my narrative for the day.