Trav's Travels: Tanzania Safari: The snows of Kilimanjaro

Day 15:

We arrived back to Arusha in the early afternoon where we checked into the Arusha Backpackers hostel. From the hostel rooftop bar, you could clearly see Mt. Meru, which I believe may be the 2nd or 3rd highest peak (a volcano) in Tanzania. It got me thinking, if the weather is so nice here in Arusha, I wonder what it's like just a bit up the road in Moshi where one can view Mt. Kilimanjaro. And then plans starting whirring in my head to determine if I could go see Kilimanjaro.

Before, I continue, there is a little background info to this story that you need to know. The first thing, as Elisha will definitely nod her head to, I love mountains. The 2nd, I love snow. Luckily those 2 are often found hand in hand. Also, maybe those two statements explain why I would want to go live in Antarctica. But the rest of the background is this: Back in 1997, I climbed Kilimanjaro with my parents. It was the first major tall peak I had ever climbed...my first mountain trek. And it still ranks as one of my best experiences and most proud moments. I can still vividly see the glaciers we passed on the summit, the first true glaciers I had ever seen in my life (and I have been searching out glaciers and tall peaks ever since then). Add all this to Mt. Kilimanjaro being the classic icon and backdrop to the African grasslands that I had always dreamed of visiting and that I constantly read about in books or flipped through pages of pictures of. It's even in the lyrics of the Toto song "Africa". But the funny thing is, we never actually got to see Kilimanjaro from below 12,000ft. Before our climb, it was rainy and bad weather in Moshi, and after our climb, it was the same. So after we left Africa in 1997, I told myself I would be back to lay eyes on that behemoth that we had climbed, that snowy icon rising above the animal rich Serengeti plain...that thing that reminded me of my dreams and successes. Only problem was, that only a few years after we climbed it, I started hearing about this terrible thing called global warming. Kilimanjaro was often used as the poster boy to global warming as its glaciers were melting faster than most and that it is predicted to be snow free by 2025. To me, Kilimanjaro without snow would be like a singer without a voice or poem without words. Before climate change could completely remove all of the snow, I knew I needed to see Kilimanjaro!

I tried my luck seeing Kili from the Kenyan side in Amboselli which is where the classic photos of elephants, giraffes, and lions in front of snow-capped Kilimanjaro are taken. Unfortunately we had hazy weather and only caught a brief hazy glimpse of it. Not as satisfying as I would like.

When we had come to Arusha, I knew I was super close to Kili (the airport outside of Arusha is called Kilimanjaro Int'l), but I also knew I wouldn't have time to see it. We were leaving right away for our safari upon arriving to Arusha, and we had arranged to take a shuttle to Nairobi the afternoon that we were to arrive back.

But then something happened that made me believe it was destiny to go see it. We arrived too late for the shuttle to Nairobi, but we arrived early enough that we still had a good chunk of the afternoon left.

I began inquiring at the hostel whether they could call to their hostel in Moshi to see if the mountain was visible. If I was going to make the trip and pay the money, it better be visible! I got mixed answers, partly b/c I think to some people the definition of seeing the mountain doesn't necessarily include the top. But people seemed to think that it would clear around 6pm. I got some prices for a taxi to take us, but they seemed super high. Then we talked to some taxis on the street, and they were cheaper, but still high. Though I was still considering it, b/c it would be worth it to me if you could see it. I could see Elisha maybe rolling her eyes a bit at my enthusiasm to see yet another snow-capped volcano. But one of the taxi drivers offered to guide us via public transport to a place not all the way to Moshi where he said we could get a good view. He called someone in Moshi and it appeared like the clouds were parting, so we took off.

While on the bus, we looked left, and suddenly, boom! there it was! We eventually got off near a cornfield where we had a great and clear view of beautiful Kilimanjaro! We cracked open a celebratory Kilimanjaro beer and watched the sunset over the iconic snowcapped peak of Africa. The tallest mountain in Africa and one of the 7 summits of the world sitting nearly smack dab on the equator.

Day 16
We caught the early morning shuttle back to Nairobi. Elisha had been scared at the border crossing, given the visa issue mentioned before--she was supposed to have been issued 3 months, multiple entry visa, but they had given her only 1. She didn't want to pay to come back in, so she had slightly modified the handwritten one to be a 3. We made sure to go to a different immigration officer than the one who had previously given her a problem, and she breezed right through, no questions asked. But as we sat down in the bus, she looked at her passport and realized they had stamped it with the wrong stamp. Instead of an entry stamp, they had given her an exit stamp. So she had to go in and have it crossed out and given another stamp. But finally, phew, she made it in and was all good to go. And I can now say, as she sits in Montana, that she made it fine out of NBO immigration as well.

We arrived into Nairobi in the afternoon, again stayed another night at Debbie's apt before heading back to Mpala by matatu the next day