My Fellow Climbers: Louise, Jonathan, Sean, Brad & Jeet, I am in the black shirt on the right.

 

Precautionary Sign at the Gate of Rongai (Nalemaru) Route


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Starting our Trek

  Jeet, Brad and I traveled by plane to Amsterdam where we met up at the airport.  From there we flew nine hours to Kilimanjaro Airport and arrived in the darkness.  We were able to get a taxi and traveled to Moshi where we found our hotel and met Erastus with Zara Tours, who was very helpful.  Jeet & I went downstairs to the lounge/restaurant where we invited Erastus to sit with us as he ate our dinner and we both drank a soft drink.  It had been a long day, however we were very excited to learn as much as we could about the culture, other people and were too filled with anticipation to just fall asleep.  For my fellow compariates and I, it was our first trip to Africa and we wanted to learn as much as possible.

Standing at the Summit of Kilimanjaro near the edge of the Caldera.

Progress Report

Here it is near the end of February and been working out and getting my miles logged in, today is Sunday and have two days to go yet in this month, however now have 85 miles completed.  Also have started gradually to improve my diet to accelerate my fitness level.  I have a fitness goal in mind as far as body shape, tone and weight, however will not be so bold as to publish that on this blog at this time.  After some considerable reading it is apparent food intake has more to do with body improvement than just exercise.  My goal is to get really lean, so the achievement of this objective is going to take some will-power and will-power and will-power.

Getting into Shape!

I spoke with Ed the week before last and he said we each have to get 750 miles of roadwork in before tackling this challenge.  With the advent of this news and the fact it is frigid in Southern Indiana this winter, I decided to join Anytime Fitness.  Last Saturday was my first day, I put in 5 miles on the treadmill and repeated that 4 more times throughout this week.  I met with the personal trainers and they gave me some tips for my anaerobic exercise to get all my muscles engaged for this adventure.  So now at the end of this week, I now have 725 more miles to go.