June 16, 2007 – Our First Few Days on Kilimanjaro

BAI camp at Lava Tower

Hello this is Jim Tanis calling from Mount Kilimanjaro.  This is our 5th day and we are at the Karanga Camp at about 13,000 feet (3960m).  Sorry we did not get a transmission through before this time.

Today we trekked up through the rainforest and saw a number of black and white Colobus monkeys.  We saw a lot of evidence of elephants but did not see any of them.  The second day we got up into the heath and moir vegetations where we saw evidence of elans.  At the end of that day we were up on the Shira Plateau and saw people for the first time above us.

On the third day we trekked up the valley to the Moir Hut where there was an interesting combination of volcanic rock and glacial erosion.  The next day we hiked up to the Lava Tower where we set up camp early and in the afternoon we scrambled to the top of the tower at 16,000 feet (4875m).      

Our group greets us at camp with song and dance

Today we hiked parallel to the mountain front below the Western Breach across a number of ridges and valleys which was all very interesting.

Each day when we enter camp we are greeted by the porters with song and dance and we try to join in with them.  It’s hard to believe we are dancing at 16,000 feet.  This is Jim Tanis signing off.

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