log off and live!
Hiking to the famous Torres del Paine was an uphill battle, literally. The last section of the hike was extremely steep and it felt like for every one step up we slid two back. Eventually we made it, and after only a few minutes the clouds parted and we had a magnificent view. Before heading back down we witnessed a mini-avalanche on an ajoining slope, which needless to say helped encourage us back to the refugio in no time!
Vienna is probably best known for its high culture: theater, opera, classical music, dance and museums. The center of the Austro-Hungarian empire for hundreds of years, we weren’t actually interested in seeing the cultural side of Vienna. Perhaps we’ve been in the “bush” too long, but I couldn’t really picture going to the opera in my chaco’s and convertible safari pants. Maybe that’s just me.Lucky for us there is a lot more to Vienna than it’s high culture.
Vienna is called a “green” city, and when you look at the map it’s not hard to figure out why. Our first day in Vienna we took a hiking trail, accessible by public transportation, which wound through mountains and into vineyards. Seriously. No more than an hour after leaving the city we were in the middle of the woods atop a mountain overlooking Vienna. Climbing Kahlenberg-Leopoldsburg wasn’t a technical hike, the steep trail was paved most of the way, but the views were spectacular and we had to remind ourselves we were in one the largest cities in Europe. We picnicked in a vineyard and watched deer steal a few grapes for themselves.
Not satisfied with a hike through the vineyards, we convinced our couchsurfing host to come to hike in the “viennese alps” with us. Hiking through alpine meadows up Schneeberg (snowmountain) was the highlight of our trip to Vienna. Especially when we saw the snow at the top. Let’s just say our African wardrobe was rather inadequate. Fortunately the alps are dotted with rest huts, which serve beer, schnapps, and even food.
We did get in a little musical culture while in Vienna. The Danube Island Festival, a huge annual 3 day concert with over 2000 artists, the Viennese really know how to throw a festival. It’s the largest outdoor festival in Europe. Crowds of people, from teenage punks to toddlers and grandparents roamed the island moving from stage to stage listening, dancing and rocking-out to the music. On one of the stages, we caught a German 1950’s rock and roll cover band, complete with hair gel and combs. Like Elvis the front guy doo-wopped across the stage, while his bassist and guitarist performed acrobatics with their instruments. It was like back to the future when Marty rocks the under the sea dance. Not exactly Mozart.
Hiking Mt Sinai is the sort of thing that many
people come to Egypt to do. Most people fly to one of Egypt’s expensive coastal cities, book a tour, get on the bus around midnight, arrive sometime before 2am, and with some luck are at the summit with one thousand of their closest friends that they never met before who are all just as tired and cranky as you’d expect them to be…..oh, but the sunrise is spectacular. We decided against that route.
We arrived in the small yet touristy town of St. Catherine’s in the afternoon. This is little town is walking distance from the actual mountain but sees a mere fraction of the traffic the mountain does…since no one wants to sleep here. We were welcomed to town by nice cool air (it might be a desert but it is as high as Denver) along with a Bedouin man who took us rather quickly to his hotel where we quickly made ourselves comfortable as the only guests there. We sat out under the stars,enjoyed a nice Bedouin dinner (which looked surprisingly similar to Italian) and prepared to sleep in rather than waking up at 2am to start our hike…we slept until 10 am.
Doing this hike in the afternoon has three clear benefits from my standpoint. One, you’re awake. Two, you can see things and will enjoy yourself rather than injure yourself. Three, hardly anyone else does it this way. Teaming up with another fellow who arrived at our hotel long after we did we set off around midday to start our hike, passing the usual camel in the road, a couple of fruit stands, and an overpriced souvenir shop.
Arriving at the St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of the mountain we obtained the mandatory guide (in lieu of an entry fee) and started up the long windy trail rather than the steep staircase. 
On the way we passed 16 overpriced snack shacks but only a handful were open…they really exist for that morning crew. We had the mountain to ourselves the entire 3 hours we hiked.
At the top we were the first to arrive and immediately set to work. First I needed to find to large stones in the shape of tablets. Then, I gave myself a “desert nomad” look using my bandanna and found a suitable place for the photo shoot where I cast myself as Moses. Finally, I posed for the camera with my props approximately 250 times. Most of these photos remain private however, and will be used at a later date.
As far as I can tell, the sunset was just as
spectacular as the sunrise would have been except that we were awake to see it so it didn’t feel quite as otherworldly as many who climb in the pre-dawn hours might experience. We went down that mountain rather quickly, and aided by the light of the nearly full moon. We ate well that night and slept even better.
IF YOU GO: Trust us, go and spend a couple of nights in St Catherine’s rather than doing this as an uncomfortable bus trip from Dahab. We stayed at Sheik Sina (owned by Sheik Musa’s son/) and had a found it very comfortable with a lot of options regarding lodging. Getting out the options were a bus to Dahab or a bus to Cairo (where we came from) so we took a cap to Nuweiba in order to continue to Jordan. You can walk to the Monastery and the hike from town without a problem.
Waking up at Horombo hut we were sore and although feeling much better than the day before, still physically exhausted. After summiting at 6:30 a.m. We hiked for another 7 hours back down to Kibo hut and finally to Horombo to spend the night. We ate breakfast and headed out ready to get off the mountain and down to lower altitude. 
Jubilant that we had all made it to the top, we headed down with whatever spring was left in our step covering the distance to Mandara huts in less than 3 hours. Leaving our friends to their lunch at the huts, we continued down the path for another hour to a little lunch spot along the trail. Emerging from the woods to what we thought was a secluded picnic site, we were surprised to see several groups of porters waiting in the shade. Tucking into our lunch, we ate quickly, ready for the journey to be over. Rejoining our friends for the final hour and a half, we finally walked through the park gates, overjoyed that the walking was over. Our feet were tired, our legs worn out, but we were happy and looking up at the summit I could hardly believe that just a day ago we had been up there!
Drinking a delicious ice cold soda, we relaxed a bit while our guide signed us off the trail and obtained our official summit certificates. Piling into our pick up truck, we headed down to the companies office to unload, unpack and wash up a bit. Again, it was hectic at the office, and by the time we sat down with our crew in the bar nearly an hour had passed since our arrival. Thanking them for their assistance and hard work, we shared a few drinks as our guides presented us with our certificates and we presented them with some tokens of appreciation. To congratulate us, our guide sang a song about Kilimanjaro in his local language, complete with dancing and clapping, which needless to say took us by surprise. The man who had been mostly silent the last week was suddenly full of life, jumping around and singing.
Heading to Moshi in a combi that night, we were the talk of the bus with one man moving to the back of the bus just to sit next to me and practice his English. An hour later we were in town ready for a hot shower and a big comfortable bed. We had summited Kilimanjaro!
As we left Kibo hut I turned to our new guide and asked what time it was. He checked his cell phone, which still had service at 4700m, and informed me that it was midnight on the dot. We were off, George setting the pace, and that was that.
At first the pace was rather quick, leaving us out of breath, but soon we caught up to the group in front of us and George slowed us down, he just wanted to make sure we not begin our walk alone. Up we went, a combination of heaving breathing and slow walking. The pace was so slow it was nerve-wrecking but anytime we sped up in the slightest we were left struggling to catch our breath. We passed some people, others passed us, we were just part of a small string of headlamps you could see snaking up the slope of the crater.
As we climbed higher the affects of the altitude took a greater toll. From the start I felt nauseous but as we climbed that discomfort ultimately transferred to my head, mild mountain sickness. One step in front of the other, we just kept climbing and climbing. We’re halfway to the top, George would tell us…then repeating that same sentence 40 minutes later. He played games like this the entire way up, the top never seeming as far away as his time estimates…thanks merely to the darkness and the fact that we couldn’t see how steep the climb was.
As we neared the crater’s rim we found the first casualties of our friends, one girl sitting having just vomited, another hyperventilating. We felt the mountain sickness but were overall OK. We’d climbed the hard part, nearly 1000m to the craters rim. It was hard work. 
We were physically exhausted. It was 5am and we hadn’t slept. We were out of breath when just sitting. We couldn’t sit for fear of growing cold or cramping up. We had to continue. George urged us on, “you’ll make it, don’t worry, follow me.”
Then it got hard.
Climbing over Gilman’s Point we could see the caldera of the crater for the first time. We’d climbed the volcano but we weren’t finished yet. With 200 additional meters to climb to the Uhuru peak the wind picked up, the temperature dropped, our energy levels plummeted, and the air continued to thin. At first it was actually a bit easier, with ground that was relatively flat from what we’d done. Soon the elevation began again and even though it was much smoother than the steep climb we’d already managed, it seemed nearly impossible.
I’m not sure what it was, but at some point my body wanted to do everything a newborn baby does. Breath, sleep, eat, drink, poop, and pee. I could do none of these.
I suppose I was breathing but no where near as much as I would have liked. It was the desire to sleep though that most took control. As I walked I began to count paces before resting and breathing, then I was counting breaths. Ten breaths walking, 2 resting, then 7 and 4, then 2 and 10. There was no system to these numbers but the rest breaks were as much about me leaning forward, resting my head on my walking stick, and shutting my eyes. I felt myself wanting to sleep. Jill knew I was struggling. So did both guides. At one point Coleman, behind me, carefully choosing his words as he barely spoke English, said to me that I must move faster or I’ll freeze. I knew he was right, but I wanted to sleep.
Then Jill started to struggle. For me it was exhaustion and a desire to sleep, for her it was a mounting headache. Seeing her struggling helped to wake me up and we continued to push each other to the summit. It hurt, we were cold, our hands and feet were numb. Our steps were slow. The snow was slippery. We could see it though and we just kept walking. Jill mumbled something along the lines of, “lets just get there and take our stupid picture.”
That’s exactly what we did.
We made it to the summit. Our friend had puked again. Others were delirious. We took our picture. The guide cut off the top of the sign, his fingers were numb as well. We took another picture, then another, finally we got one that was “good enough” and we started back down. While up there we had some tea, it was hot, didn’t bother to eat anything. It didn’t matter.
At 6:30am, on Thursday, March 11, 2010, 364 days after starting this trip, we stood atop Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa and the world’s tallest freestanding mountain.
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