Keg Spirit Foundation Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

August 7, 2010 – Team is on the Ground in Africa and We Are Underway

The team at Saturday morning’s briefing

At 10:35 am on Friday, Aug 6, David, Neil, Leo, Dan, Jamie, Doug, Rob and Sam took off from Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport on KLM bound for East Africa. They landed in Nairobi in the early evening where they were met inside Kenya customs by Leila Silveira. It was already dark in East Africa and the Berg Adventures welcome team was waiting at Kilimanjaro International Airport in Tanzania, a short flight further south.

We had a charter flight waiting to complete our journey, and their ground operation at the airport in Nairobi did a great job of transferring our duffel bags full of mountain gear on the charter while Leila and the team waited in the first class lounge in the transit area. Everything went smoothly and soon we were boarding our charter plane. It was a surprise and it was taken as a good omen when we saw that the call letters identifying our aircraft contained the letters KEG!

Shortly after 11:00 pm we landed in Tanzania where we cleared Tanzanian immigration and customs and where we were met by Angel Minja and the Berg Adventures Tanzania staff team. By just past midnight we were at what will be our home base in Arusha, Tanzania for this climb and safari adventure, the peaceful and surprisingly well appointed Arusha Coffee Lodge. Wally Berg met us and we were glad when he learned that he had told the food service staff that we might be hungry after our long trip from Holland. Our first hour here we enjoyed a nice meal and some “Tusker” and “Serengeti’’ beers.

Wally going over some details of our route

On Saturday morning we began our orientation right after breakfast. Excitement and a bit of apprehension about our upcoming challenges at high altitude on Kilimanjaro was the main topic of discussion, along with a sense of appreciation and wonder that we are really in Tanzania, where we are going to be working with and learning about wonderful people, whose culture is very different from what we know in our homes in Canada and the United States.

Tonight Hartley will arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport and he will join us here at the Arusha Coffee Lodge. Tomorrow we will go with in the BAI Land Crusiers to Londrossi Gate, the western entrance to Kilimanjaro National Park. Jussi is planning to fly in by chartered helicopter from Kenya at the park entrance. It is going to be another long day of travel on Sunday, but with luck we will all be going to sleep in our tents under African stars at 9,200 feet on Sunday night! Stayed tuned for reports as we move across Africa’s greatest mountain toward the summit!

Reported by Wally Berg, from Arusha, Aug. 7, 2010

Our charter flight to Tanzania

David and Angel

We were joined by some of our BAI guide team

Doug, Rob, Jamie and David attentive at the briefing

Wally Berg of Berg Adventures International