Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch
July 23, 2008 – Day Four and Doing Fantastic!
Father and son starting off on their adventure
Hello friends and family, we really miss you. This is Larry and Brad calling from Mt. Kilimanjaro, transmitting from Lava Tower. This is actually our fourth day of trekking.
Larry is doing fantastic as
he hikes up the slope
Day 1: We trekked through the rainforest to the Big Tree Camp at 2650 meters. The forest is really interesting. Day 2: We continued through the forest to Shira Camp at 3480 meters, which is located in the Moorlands. It’s more of a desert type terrain. Day 3: We continued up to Moir Hut at 4114 meters.
Today we are at the Lava Tower Camp at 4642 meters. We are at the base of Kilimanjaro and it’s really spectacular. Overall, I’m doing okay (transmission interrupted) 5 to 8 miles per day is not the main challenge - the elevation and coldness will really get your attention.
The food is excellent and the camps out here are outstanding. We should have telephone reception for the rest of the trip and some more dispatches to come. Miss you all!
Hello this is Brad. As Larry said, the elevation and temperatures are the only two things we feel the challenge of. This whole trip has been fantastic so far. Julius, our guide, and the rest of our staff are taking great care of us. They all have been warming up water bottles for us to keep us warm and the food is excellent. We will be coming back fat and happy.
We are currently standing on Lava Tower with the clouds below us and Kibo, the main volcano, behind us. The views are just amazing. In the rain forest we saw two different kinds of monkeys and elephant tracks. It was really spectacular! Lots of huge trees and ferns. All kinds of plant species.
Tomorrow we hike down; we are currently at 13,760 feet. We will descend down to Barranco Camp where we will have a chance to acclimatize some more. The next day we will climb up the Barranco wall and then onward, closer to our goal, the top of Africa.
Brad starts off on the trail