Kilimanjaro--pictures coming shortly...

We flew to Tanzania and met up with Ross! Even though he must have been jet lagged, because of the shortness of our stay, we arranged to start our climb the next morning. Which turned out to be mid afternoon. Hakuna matata (no worries, in Swahili).



where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are in front of the highest mountain in Africa. Rising 5895 meters, this is the highest place you can stand in the world without oxygen. I understand this is because it is so close to the equator, and the atmosphere is thicker here. It is also one of the largest volcanoes in the world. This is Kilimanjaro.

With 15 porters, 3 cooks and 4 guides, our small party set off into the rainforest. I felt a little like those images of the British royalty going for a picnic. The first day was a steady climb, with a gradual grade, for about 5 hours. The scenery was beautiful. Kim took pictures of every flower growing in the jungle, but we still made it in time for tea in our mess tent. The first night we were very pleasantly surprised by the wonderful dinner, which was thankfully to be true for the entire trip.

We stayed in tents for the entire trip, and each night grew colder, as we ascended the mountain. Days varied from 3 hours of hiking to 11 hours on the second to last day. We had beautiful weather and unbelievable scenery. We climbed from cultivated land, through the rainforest, to the moorlands (which looked a lot like Scotland), into the alpine desert (which resembled our southwestern U.S. states) and finally into the arctic region near the summit. At times, it seemed as though we were hiking through the mountains on Mars.

There were many other groups, similar to ours, except no other children. We made friends with 4 men from Finland, a couple from Canada and another from Denmark. The final day of ascent, we were awoken at 11 p.m. and started our climb by midnight. It was cold, windy and steep!

Siena started to have symptoms of hypothermia (laying her head on a stone and saying she just wanted to take a short nap was troubling) at 5 a.m. and she and I headed back, but Ross, Ethan and Kim made it! The three Beattie men stood on the roof of Africa and watched the sunrise over Tanzania. It was an amazing experience for all, and especially for Kim, who had been dreaming of this for almost 20 years.



Best wishes to all of you and my apologies at how long it has been without a post--no fast enough internet, I am afraid!



Merisha Merafu! Cheers, in Swahili

The Beattie Clan