Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

March 1, 2008 – Beautiful Sights at Mt. Meru

I’m now calling you after our adventure on our first day. We started our hike at Mt. Meru, the sun beating down on us as we walked through the small villages, past churches where the Sunday services were taking place. This is quite the culture experience.

On our way up we stopped for a picnic lunch on a grassy null. We could hear the singing coming from a church across the field. While we sat and enjoyed our lunch, Julia told us that her school, St. John’s Kilmarnodk, raised $300.00 for BBBS on their Civvies Day Fundraiser. We then walked up and down beautiful, lush rainforests with the redman mahogany trees towering over us. We got to the creek and at the bottom changed into our water shoes. From there made our way through a mystical creek that was green mossy with flowers and heart shaped leaves. Passing through a curtain of vines brought us to a windy canyon with the tallest waterfall most of us has ever seen.

As we made our way back up the steep canyon Julia mentioned that it was a good thing we were hiking up the slope while it was dry. As soon as we got to the top the rain started. It rained hard and for a long time; the whole way back. Thunder all around added to our adventure of the day as we carefully and “pole pole”, made our way down the last slippery slope. Daryl began to sing an old time classic of Paul Simon, Slip Sliding Away. Fortunately none of us slide away! We made it with the help of our guides safely back to the car at BAI headquarters.

We went back to our hotel and had hot showers and started our final packing for tomorrow’s start up Kilimanjaro. Talk to you again soon!