Great Adventure

Well My old college roommate has just returned from Africa and has shared her story with her friends. It is an amazing journey and I am very proud of her for doing it.
I wanted to share her story and some of her photos with you.
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So it was touch and go a few times but I made it back alive!!! I really don't even know where to begin to tell anyone what we saw or what we went through...every day was an adventure!

Day 1 involved a close call with elephants...I have never been so scared in all my life!! After running for dear life we managed to get to our first camp safely!

Day 2 was a very long day we hiked 12 kms in about 7 hours...the climb up Kili is to be taken pole, pole (slowly, slowly). It was a long day...to top it off...I got sick that night.

Day 3 this morning was not good for me, I was sick from altitude and was afraid to go any further...I thought if I am getting sick now it is only going to get worse...Thomas our guide was great...he went through all the symptoms with me and felt it was safe for me to go on...he let me take the lead...and trust me...this day we went pole, pole, pole...slowly, slowly, slowly...I was weak and exhausted, but we made it to our next camp.

Day 4 I felt much better today, but thankfully Thomas still carried my back pack...we made much better time and got to Kibo Hut, where most of the routes to the summit lead. When we signed in and told them we had taken the Whiskey Route (the Rongai Route) to get there...they were much impressed.

Day 4 - 5 It was Lana's turn to get sick...we were up with her most of the night...she was much worse than I had been.

At midnight they woke us up to make a push for the summit...to be honest...it was awful. It was cold, dark, and with only 50% oxygen, we were weak and fatigued quickly.

At 6:30 a.m. on August 4, 2007, we reached Gilman's Point. I started to cry, I was frozen and just wanted to go back down. Due to fatigue, nausea and cold we all decided to go back down at this point. We didn't make it to the summit of Uhuru, but we had made it to the top of Kilimanjaro. Mission accomplished...time to get the heck of this mountain!!

Day 6 After hiking for 15 hours the day before, we woke up at a beautiful camp in the rain forest. With only 3 hours ahead of us to get out of the park we were anxious to get going. I don't think I was the only one with tears in my eyes when we finally saw the gates. We had made it!!

Dineen







Dineen is the girl in the middle.

Way to go girl.. Great memories.