Monthly archives: January 2010

17 posts

Kili Day 2: More Rain, More Climbing

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.

Once More into the Belly of the Moist Beast

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.

Moving Mountains in One Day

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.

Peak Time on Christmas Day

I just realized that this post coincides with Christmas Day for all of us in Africa! As you might guess, we actually didn’t really have a good sense of the dates while we were hiking. However, this was a day that we had to at least be aware of, right? After all, there was the small matter of a Secret Santa to take care of later that day. However, before that, we had to carry out our full assault on Socialist Peak, the highest point on Mount Meru, sitting at 4,562m. As per usual, before you get to the hard work of slogging through all of my banal thoughts of the day, head on over to the map that I made, as well as the folder of pictures up on Flickr. Once you’ve satisfied yourself that I actually made the trek that day, come on back and read the rest of my recollections.

Many Stairs and Many Raindrops Later…

Good evening my friends. It’s that time once again. Gather round the glowing LCD and let ole ActiveSteve share another travel tale with you to while away some time. My post today takes us back up to Mount Meru, where Team Cantrailia was about to tackle our second day of climbing towards the peak. On the menu for today would be climbing from Mariakamba Hut at 2,500m up to Saddle Hut, located at 3,576m, and nestled at the foot of the Little Meru peak (smaller peak in the region). Once again, you can start out by checking out the custom map that I’ve put together, as well as the set of photos that have been uploaded to Flickr. I’ll try to keep things light and breezy for this post, as the heavy work is all about tomorrow… summit day! 🙂 Read on fans.