Entries By Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
There was plenty of debate last night as to whether the tent fabric of our accommodations at Balloon Camp would keep out leopards and lions. But nobody showed up for breakfast this morning with visible scarring. In fact, we each slept quite well in the deep quiet of Tarangire National Park at night. We got going at first light today, with Francis and Ibrahim taking the Toyotas down by the giant marsh on the Eastern border of Tarangire. We covered a lot of ground along the edge of the wetlands. At times, there were no animals apparent and we had to settle for the physical beauty of the place itself. At other times, we bumped into four hundred skittish Cape Buffalo, galloping along -raising a dust cloud- and looking warily about for whatever might be chasing them. We saw plenty of good eagles and even a fascinating set of Eagle/Owls -a mom and her offspring- eating their breakfast on a tree branch. We looked everywhere for big cats but failed miserably at that, having to content ourselves with wall to wall elephants and giraffes, wildebeest and zebra along with majestic baobab trees. We’d made our way to the main gate of the park by 11:15 AM and had to tear ourselves away from Tarangire and get on the road back toward Arusha. We stopped at the city’s edge to check out the cultural heritage museum and shop before cruising through Sunday traffic to the Arumeru River Lodge. There was time then for showers and repacking and a pleasant early dinner before we boarded a bus for the airport. Most of the team started their journey homeward tonight. We said fond farewells as we diverged. I -for one- am sticking around for round 2, another climb and another safari, but that will all begin soon. For now I’m still thinking of the adventure and the challenges of the past two weeks and the fine team we became in enduring (and enjoying) it all.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We made a couple of stops along the route from the Plantation Lodge in the high country to Tarangire National Park down in the Rift Valley. We checked out a Maasai village where we saw traditional dances and chanting. The tribesmen showed us their method for building fire without matches and took us into their small huts to answer questions about the traditions that they follow. We then drove down to a busy afternoon in Tarangire. We began seeing elephants, right form the start. Herds of them... big family groups and gangs of bulls. Impalas, zebra and gnus were everywhere. We developed an eye for lilac breasted rollers and for vultures and snake eagles. Although we roamed over miles and miles of twisty, turny dirt roads, we didn’t see cats today... no lions, no leopards, no cheetahs. All the animals we did see had no problem whatsoever with the lack of cats though. As the sun began to sink, we pulled into Balloon Camp where our room assignments were “tent cabins” and where we needed to request an armed escort to get over to the lobby and dining area. We are still within the park and there aren’t any fences. There is a good deal of natural beauty though. Just after sunset, we watched “bush television” (a campfire) and gazed up at the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. Then we laughed through another fine dinner together and got ready for a final night in Africa.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We bounced along rough dirt roads in the Landcruisers as sunrise came on. It was the rare clear and dry morning up on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater and we were thrilled with the views into the giant caldera. The air was crisp and cool as we made our way down in, fully on the lookout for critters. We began to see countless Cape buffalo, gazillions of gazelles, and absurd numbers of zebra. We saw a set of lions getting frisky between catnaps. Big solitary bull elephants marched to and fro in the distance. Hippos were relatively hyper, moving from one mud bog to another and performing barrel rolls in the soup. Ostriches and Kori Bustards strutted about. We saw hyenas and jackals, wart hogs and a few thousand gnu. A picnic lunch and some French pressed fresh coffee prepared us for a final flurry of game viewing. We saw a lone and distant rhino to make it a “big four day” (elephant+lion+Cape buffalo+rhino = The big five minus a leopard) and then Ibrahim and Francis expertly piloted the Landcruisers up the steep switchback road to the 8,500 feet crater rim and we headed back to the tranquility of the Plantation Lodge in late afternoon.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hi DAVE,
We are back at it!! Ready for safari!!
I live the facial hair Brian!!❤️
Posted by: Aunt Vicki on 8/3/2018 at 6:08 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
In short order, we went from walking uphill in snow to walking downhill in mud to riding in comfort in Toyota Landcruisers. First day of Safari went just fine. Breakfast and packing at our Usa River Hotel was easy and familiar. At 8 AM we loaded up with our safari driver/naturalists, Ibrahim and Francis, and got out of town. In truth, we actually got a little more into town first, driving through the outskirts of Arusha to get out west into the wide open Tanzanian countryside. Gradually we came into Maasai country and began to see more and more of the tribe known best for their adherence to traditional ways of living. After a few hours, we entered Lake Manyara National Park and began seeing monkeys and baboons, and eventually Cape Buffalo, Hippos, Zebras and Wildebeest. We saw egrets and ibises, storks and eagles. We saw plenty of signs of elephants having been in the area, but we didn’t actually see the big pachyderms or the lions hiding in trees that Manyara is known for. Even so, it was a fine, relaxing day of exploring exotic forest and lakeshore terrain. By the hot part of the afternoon, the animals were sleepy and shy, so we left them and drove up out of the Great Rift Valley to the highlands near the town of Keratu and found our way to the gardens of the luxurious Plantation Lodge. Folks then hit the swimming pool or simply relaxed in comfy veranda chairs as the sun set. We met for the evening in the splendid bar and dining room of the lodge and talked of the possibilities for wildlife encounters tomorrow in Ngorongoro Crater.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
It started to seem like we’d get fog and rain for the rest of the trip just to pay for the sweet summit weather we’d been granted. But when we woke today at Mweka Camp, we were under blue skies and high above the white clouds. After breakfast, we enjoyed a gathering of the entire staff for the traditional tipping ceremony. We expressed our great thanks and the guys serenaded us with a few more memorable sing-alongs in the bright sunshine. Then we shouldered packs and hit the muddy trail downward at about 8:30 AM. It was just a few more hours of careful walking in slippery conditions to get down through the rain forest. We stopped at one point to see a couple of colobus monkeys high in the tree canopy, but mostly we paid attention to the treacherous track and to where we were putting our feet. At the Mweka Gate we were down in the clouds again and had a brief rain shower just after signing out of the park. A short walk in the deep dirt of a road construction project took us to our lunch venue and the bus parking lot. We enjoyed a fine picnic and a round of Kilimanjaro and Serengeti beers along with Savanna ciders. Two hours on the bus through the Tanzanian countryside got us back “home” to the Arumeru River Lodge. Showers and a few shaves made the team presentable by evening. We finished with a delightful victory dinner out on the veranda and discussed just how much the climb and our interactions with each other and with the staff have come to mean for us. We are excited to begin the safari tomorrow but we will miss our climbing buddy Tim who will begin flying toward the States and home.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Congratulations to the team! Thanks for everything DAVE! I feel like I was there in spirit! Enjoy your next journey!
Aunt Vicki
Posted by: Aunt Vicki on 8/1/2018 at 4:07 pm
We are back down in the forest at 10,000 ft. Mweka Camp. But not that long ago we were up at the highest point in all of Africa Our wake up target last night was 11:30 and after a light midnight breakfast we got walking at 12:40 AM. Against all odds, it was a perfect night for climbing. After so much cloud yesterday and swirling gusts blowing the tents around for the last couple of nights, it was a surprise to have such a calm and clear sky as we got climbing by headlight. The stars and planets and the moon were awesome, but we really didn’t have time for stargazing... there was a lot of uphill work to be done. The team was absolutely up to the challenge. Nobody seemed to mind the cold all that much (and it got good and cold before sunrise at 19,000 ft) and everybody kept right in step with our local guide Philbet’s good and steady rate of ascent. There was plenty of snow on the upper part of Kibo from storms a few weeks back and the track was consequently a bit trickier than it might have been. But that didn’t stop us from hitting the crater rim at Stella Point by 5:45 AM. The sun came up through a lower cloud deck as we were midway around the crater on the way to the summit. The colors of the first rays and the Kibo shadows cast in the western sky had us mesmerized. As we marched to Uhuru, the high point. We reached the top at 6:50 AM and spent just over a half hour on the summit. Things warmed up nicely for our descent. We did our fare share of scree skiing as we rapidly dropped altitude. Our guides and staff were a huge help to the team on the trip down. We came back to Barafu at 10:40 and enjoyed a sumptuous brunch in the dining tent. While we were in, clouds came over camp and a rainstorm began. None of us minded the prospect of a wet walk down to Mweka after we’d gotten so spectacularly lucky on the summit weather. We packed up and got walking at 12:40 PM in full rain gear. Sure enough the trails below 12,500 ft were slimy and treacherous, but we kept making careful steps down the rocky track until we came into Mweka Camp at 4 PM. Things are damp down here, but the air is thick and we’re all looking forward to our last dinner in the dining tent and a good rest through the night.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Listen to Dave's call from High Camp after returning from the summit.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from High Camp after summit.
On The Map
congrats!!! and happy birthday Heather
Posted by: joe duty on 8/2/2018 at 8:32 am
What a spectacular adventure and accomplishment! And you think we do fun trips ... LOL!
Enjoy the rest of the your experiences. We may have to plan a trip to CO to hear about it.
Posted by: Bob & Sandy Amory on 8/1/2018 at 1:02 pm
Things were a little different when we woke up at Karanga Camp today. It was cloudy below, cloudy above and cloudy most places in between. But after some coffee and breakfast, things began to look better... as they often do. We were walking by 9 AM in any case. it wasn’t particularly cold or unpleasant, we just didn’t have views of the upper mountain as it was cloaked in cloud. Pretty soon we were above any plant life and into the alpine (translation: rock) zone. We made great time and pulled into Barafu Camp, High Camp, in just 2.5 hrs as light snow began to fall. We took shelter in the tents, but the snow didn’t amount to much and the squall passed quickly. Our afternoon was full of resting, relaxing, lunch and a team meeting to discuss the upcoming climb. The clouds finally dropped below us and Kibo was revealed -gloriously- in late afternoon.
We ate a big and fine spaghetti dinner which was followed by a surprise birthday cake and several rounds of singing, dancing and clapping in honor of Heather’s big day. She’ll have another one tomorrow, as we all will. We’ve planned an alpine start and so everyone has turned in early this evening.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Dave, It looks really rocky where you’ve pitched your tents. I hope you all could sleep comfortably. Best to you my friend. Stay high.
Carl
Posted by: Carl Gilmore on 7/30/2018 at 9:11 pm
Happy Birthday Heather! Love ya! Sounds like an amazing climb for all of you!
Posted by: Lori Orman on 7/30/2018 at 8:07 pm
The normally intimidating Barranco Wall wasn’t so intimidating for my team today. We cruised up it. Perhaps it was because we all got pretty good sleep in Barranco Camp last night. Or it might have been Bruno’s outstanding 8 AM breakfast. Maybe we were energized by the staff breaking into a spirited singing and dancing session in honor of our 9 AM departure. In any case we set off up the network of lava ledges and gullies and none of the team seemed the least bit concerned with the drop-offs and consequences for mis-steps. Nobody puzzled over how to pull up onto the next ledge or on how to let porters with loads squeeze by in such tight spaces. We were up the whole thing in 90 minutes and joking about going back down to do it again. The morning had started out clear but we were in familiar clouds from the top of the wall all the way to Karanga Camp which we reached by about 12:30 PM. Our crew blew us away with another excellent lunch and a well-built camp for us to relax in at 13,100 ft. The clouds fell away just before sunset, enabling us to see Kibo shining and majestic with recent snow. The winds got going a little around camp as we ate dinner and sheltered in the dining tent. With it a little on the cold side, we were inclined to linger a bit longer over hot tea for an after-dinner storytelling session before bed.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
First thing in the morning at look up what your doing. Feel a little like we are
there with you. Stay safe.
Posted by: kay and dick seubert on 7/30/2018 at 7:38 am
Kevin: We are enjoying reading about your journey. Hope you are having the trip of a lifetime. Enjoy and stay safe!
Posted by: Connie on 7/30/2018 at 6:06 am
Heather and Brian saw the Lunar Eclipse last night, just before midnight. A few of us ventured out between 2 AM and four, but it was a done deal. Nothing to see except a big moon and stars and planets and a mountainside full of glaciers and snowfields glowing in the dark. The light show continued when we met for coffee at 6:30 with the last of the moon in the West and the first bit of sun in the East turning Kibo’s cloudcap orange.
We got walking at 8 AM in excellent cool and clear conditions. The terrain was easier on this day, and the path was plenty wide as we gradually gained altitude. We kept track of the changing vegetation as we climbed, going from sage-like brush mixed with juniper in the heather and moorland zone to the sparse and spare grasses and mosses of the alpine desert zone. Philip led the team past their previous high points to set a bunch of new altitude records at the 15,200 ft lava tower. There, after a leisurely lunch right up close under Kibo’s steep cliffs and ice fields, we began our descent-ultimately into the extraordinary gardens of the Barranco Valley. Clouds overtook us for a time, but as we pressed onward and downward we earned clearing skies again and striking views of the giant mountain, the giant senecios, and the giant lobelias. Our staff treated the team to a rousing rendition of the beloved Jambo song as we came into our 13,000 ft camp. After seven hours on the trail it was time for some comfortable afternoon lounging in the tents. Chef Bruno cooked up yet another amazing mountain dinner and we ate like kings. We all stood still for a few minutes coming out of the dining tent to ooh and ahhh in the dark. The planets and stars were joined tonight by the lights from the town of Moshi, twinkling down below.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey, Kevin! Karie just let me in on your awesome adventure!!! Be safe and enjoy every amazing moment.
Prayers,
Judy
Posted by: Judy Papanek on 7/29/2018 at 10:02 am
Kevin
We are really enjoying following you on your adventure. Enjoy and stay safe.
Posted by: Dick and Kay Seubert on 7/29/2018 at 8:49 am
The clouds stayed with us through much of the night at Machame Camp, but it was a treat to wake to clearing skies and our first views of Kibo -Kilimanjaro’s central peak- rising to impossible heights in the distance. We set out at 8 AM on a steeper and rockier track than yesterday’s trail. It was as if we were on an endless staircase through a forest of giant heather. We could see a layer of cloud a thousand feet below us, stretching to the horizons, and there was some cloud up near the top of Kibo, but we were in the clear for big chunks of our journey. Our climb ended up being along the spine of a ridge radiating out -like a spoke in a wheel- from the central peak. We began a leftward traverse toward the Shira Plateau when the clouds caught up with us, making things a bit murky, but not as damp as our cloud-walking yesterday. At 12,000 feet, we began to pick out the giant senecios and lobelias endemic to Kilimanjaro and we got used to the large white-necked ravens performing crazy aerial maneuvers and waddling around on the ground to scavenge for food. By 1 PM we walked into our new camp at Shira at 12,500 ft and quickly got settled. Most enjoyed a good afternoon nap following lunch, but we all came out to watch the sunset and moonrise before dinner. Luckily the clouds faded away again and we could easily pick out Venus, Jupiter and Mars in the brilliant sky. Kibo was lit up magically by the moonlight. Word is that a lunar eclipse will occur between 2AM and 4AM tonight and several of the team vowed to take advantage of their lingering jet lag to get up and witness such a thing in this memorable setting.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Keeping my daughter and her husband (Heather & Brian) as all the team and guide in my thoughts and prayers daily! Safe journey as you continue in your assent !
Posted by: Jean (Mom) Lebo on 7/27/2018 at 2:33 pm
Sounds pretty fabulous!!
Be safe !❤️
Love Aunt Vicki and Nana
Posted by: Aunt Vicki on 7/27/2018 at 1:04 pm
Geez!!! What an excellent trip!! You are the best Dave!!
Safe travels home to the team!
Aunt Vicki and Nana and Shawn
Posted by: Aunt Vicki on 8/5/2018 at 6:16 am
View All Comments