July 8, 2002 – Welcome from Arusha, Tanzania
Hi, this is Wally Berg calling from Tanzania. I would like to welcome you to the cybercast that Berg Adventures International is going to be doing, beginning today for the next 2 weeks from Tanzania, of our adventures on this Kilimanjaro climb and the safari afterwards.
This call is coming to you in the early morning darkness, in the cool, frosty, nice pleasant slightly cloudy morning, from Arusha, Tanzania.
Mountaineers get up early a lot. If you don’t know that you are going to soon know that, as a matter of fact less than one week from now this Berg Adventures expedition for Kilimanjaro will be up in the middle of the night literally at 15.700 feet to begin our attempt to climb to the top of Africa, Uhuru point, the top of Kilimanjaro.
A lot has being going on as we assemble. I am mainly reporting to you now that we are all together, we are happy, healthy, and I am looking at a very robust and enthusiastic team that traveled from North America. Also I need to begin to set the stage by telling you that out in the village of Morango, yesterday, a group of Chagga man that will be working with us under the direction of my good friend Nicholas Minga, began traveling to the Machame Gate where we will meet them today.
Back on our end, coming from North America two nights ago, Dennis and Becky Comfort, Richard and Katherine Waddell and George Carabetta showed up smiling and only slightly travel weary from their international flight to Kilimanjaro International, and yesterday afternoon, via private shuttle, Charles Martin and Deke in their journey from North Carolina, and Mary Bente and Karen all showed up. We got together yesterday afternoon and there was a lot of excitement about our goals. Oour goal being of course the climb of Kilimanjaro. For our group this folks beginning after that will fly out to Seringeti and what’s going to be in many ways an equally demanding safari experience. We will report our expedition to you as we go, our adventures to you as we go I should say.
The report right now is that this team has the sparkle in their eyes that I was hoping to see for folks that came here to push hard, have great rewards, learn and have success. We don’t know what the mountain is going to be like to us, the general report right now if you have been watching Kilimanjaro climbs over the years, it is dry, as a matter of fact those folks Charles, Deke, Mary and Karen, that I mentioned who drove down from Nairobi yesterday had the actually quite unusual experience of seeing Kilimanjaro base to summit, off to their left, as they drove down from Nairobi. A pretty inspiring scene to see this mountain the day that you came to climb off in the distance. Many of you who traveled here in the past know that generally Kili is in the clouds; I don’t know what is going to be like the rest of the day as we begin climbing through the forest but you are going to get the report, we will call you from each camp and let you know how it is going, and at this end everybody is excited, everybody looks fit and ready, the preparations have been going on for a long time, training back in the States, and logistics here in Africa. Here we go, we are looking forward to reporting to you daily as we go along.
