Entries from Kilimanjaro
Today we visited the famous
Ngorongoro Crater, believed by many to be the 8th wonder of the world. It is a two million year old collapsed caldera that is home to more than 25,000 large mammals, and has a dense population of lions.
We spent nearly the entire day driving around looking at all the animals and waiting at times for either the wildebeest, or zebras to get out of our way. We saw about a dozen lions, a far off black rhino, thousands of pink flamingos and many others. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great day.
We finished off the day with a quick visit to a working Maasai Village to see how this semi-nomadic group of people still live the way they have for thousands of years.
Hopefully tomorrow we'll catch a glimpse of a cheetah and leopard to round out the safari.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On our first day of safari we headed south to
Lake Manyara, which is know for its colorful flamingos and tree climbing lions. It wasn't long before we spotted our first of many elephants to come. In fact we stopped just short of a mother and her baby and watched them cross between our two safari vehicles. It was surreal to see them so close and feel as if we could almost touch them, while they barely noticed us. We then headed off to our normal lunch spot but had to find another place as several lions had beaten us there. We think we counted 5 all together, two young males and a few females, but it was a little tough to tell as they were trying to stay cool in the bush.
After a nice hot meal provide by our traveling chef Michael, we headed off to see other animals and a quick visit to the hippo pond. Along the way we spotted a huge Monitor (giant lizard) in a creek and spotted many zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, bush bucks, and a few warthogs too.
All in all it was a pretty rewarding first day on safari.
We are spending the night overlooking the lake in a nice tented camp called Kirurumu. Everyone is doing great and excited for what tomorrow might bring.
RMI Guide
Casey Grom and Crew
After a short hike today we finally arrived at the exit gate of
Kilimanjaro National Park and meet up with more of the Dik Dik staff who had prepared a wonderful lunch for us. It took about two hours to reach the Lodge where we greeted by all of the lodge staff outside awaiting our arrival singing and dancing. It was a very warm welcome and left everyone with big smiles.
As you can guess there were hot showers for all and a few naps too. We finished the evening with a celebration dinner and handed out summit certificates to everyone.
Now it's time to enjoy the success and do a little animal watching!
Safari starts tomorrow!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
9/10/13 6:49 am PT
Hello all -
The team has finally made it all the way down to Mweka camp situated around 10,000' and are resting after such a big day.
We had a wonderful day for climbing today with clear skies, moderate temps and very little wind. Everyone did a great job of taking care of themselves the entire day and really impressed me by making the summit in a little over 6 hours. We spent about a half hour taking in the spectacular views and getting the obligatory summit photos, then headed back down to high camp. After a brief rest we packed up and headed further down valley to tonight's camp.
Everyone is doing well and I'm sure will sleep well tonight.
Looking forward to hot showers and clean clothes tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
9/10/13 3:10 am PT - Success!
Our entire team reached the summit of
Mt. Kilimanjaro today.
We have safely returned to high camp and are getting packed up for our descent.
We'll try to update this evening.
On The Map
Hello again everyone.
Day 5 and we have arrived at
Kilimanjaro's high camp, 15,000ft!
The team once again did a great job of getting to camp in just under our 3-hour target time. It was another nice day here this morning and now we are sitting in the clouds, which will make for perfect napping temperatures.
We have just finished another enjoyable lunch and have discussed the plans for our upcoming climb. Everyone seems excited and as usual, a little nervous too.
Our plan is to wake up at midnight, have breakfast at 12:30 p.m., and hopefully start our climb around 1 a.m. If all goes according to plan, we should reach the summit somewhere around 7 - 9 a.m. EAT (5 - 7 a.m. PST).
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Hello all.
It was a beautiful day here on
Kilimanjaro today. Clear skies and relatively warm weather made for an enjoyable day.
The team easily climbed the 1,000-foot high and intimidating
Barranco Wall on our way to camp today. We made our way via a series of broken ledges and small steps and we were in awe of how easily the porters climbed this wall while still balancing their loads on their heads.
We are currently resting at Karanga Camp, which sits above the great Karanga Valley and has views of the towns far below.
Everyone is doing well and we are in good spirits!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Jambo everyone!
Day three here on
Kilimanjaro was a little windy and cloudy. But those conditions allowed us to make good time on our hike by keeping us cool but not cold. We hiked up the Shira Plateau for a few hours and reached our high point around 15,000' (new heights for some) at a place called Lava Tower. We stopped and took a nice break and enjoyed the limited view then easily descended down into the
Barranco Valley to camp. Along the way we saw some of the unique vegetation that only grows in this part of the world. The giant Senecio trees that look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, groundsels,and lobelias.
We are all currently relaxing in camp either taking naps or playing cards. Everyone is doing great and having a good time!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Once more into the breach, dear friends. Today was a shorter hiking day, but I thought much more technically challenging. We ascended 2500 feet, ending up at tonight's camp sitting at 12,500'. The road to the camp was dusty and narrow. I personally found it difficult to maintain the pace of the group due to some stomach issues, but Eric, one of our 40 porters helped me out by carrying my sack for a spell. I'm happy to report that I feeling much better. The group is working very well together. Peter and Fatima brought a high end camera and are on charge of high end shots. Heidi and Jami are heading up the bunch and in charge of the "walking" photos. Heidi has dual duties, in that she has to give distance and altitude reports. Rosa is in charge of local PR with the porters. Rick, who wanted me to give a special shout out to his two girls at home, is in charge of culinary spicing. Kendyl and Dan are in charge of fact verification and chocolate supplies. Me, I'm comic relief. And Casey, he keeps us all in line and moving toward our goal. In short, all parties are necessary and I'm glad they are here.
Looking forward to tomorrow,
Dawn & The RMI Team
Hello everyone or as they say here in
Africa, Jambo,
The gang is finally all here after their long flights. Today we had our official team meeting where we did a round of introductions and had an overview of the Kilimanjaro program, shared a few stories and discussed all the gear needed for this adventure. Most of us spent the rest of the day relaxing here at the peaceful Dik Dik Lodge or snuck off for a quick nap to help adjust the nearly 12hr time difference. And just so everyone back home knows, we are about a 1/2 day ahead of you. Everyone seems excited and ready to go and we finished the evening off with another delicious 5 course meal.
Stay tuned,
RMI Guide
Casey Grom and Crew
Sorry about the delayed dispatch. We were literally off grid and out in the African bush.
It's been one amazing adventure from start to finish and yesterday our last day on safari didn't disappoint. We spent the day in
Tarangire National Park which is home to more elephants per square mile than any other place on earth. The elephants were plentiful as were many animals, but the highlight was seeing not one, but five leopards! We first came upon a male who had just killed an ostrich and then just few minutes later we pulled up on a mother and three cubs. Needless to say everyone has enjoyed the trip and are looking forward to getting home and sharing a few photos.
Happy 25th birthday Jess! Glad we were all able to share this with you.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Words cannot describe my envy, but so happy at the same time for these experiences for you. Love and miss you (and Gig ‘Em)!
Posted by: Tasha on 9/14/2013 at 7:34 am
WOW. Just like on Wild Kingdom. “Jim, jump down and get that lion”. ( showing my age here). Waiting on giraffe pictures.
Posted by: Tracy O. on 9/13/2013 at 8:44 pm
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