Kilimanjaro / Tanzania Safari

The Climb

The first part of my Africa trip was to climb Kilimanjaro - Africa’s highest point at 19,341 ft (5894 m). The route I took is called the Lomosho route. This route is a newer route and is quickly becoming a popular route due to its beauty and, ironically, being less traveled. Lomosho goes up the ‘back’ of the mountain, meets other routes at the top, and comes down the ‘front’ of the mountain. This route can be climbed anywhere from 5-8 days. I took the 8 day tour. This allows for better acclimation to the height, but also means you don’t take a shower for 8 days.

This route starts from the entrance of the Kilimanjaro National Park, Lomosho gate, which stands at 8694 ft (2650 m). So, doing the math, the route climbs 10,647 ft (3245 m) to the summit.

Lomosho Route of Kilimanjaro Camp site with peak in background. This was around day 4. Acclimation climb. Had to stay on ridge for 45 minutes. Nothing to do but stack rocks... Everyone does it... Cool mountain plant view from the top of a smaller plant of the same species Base camp to summit - notice no vegetation, only rocks. Too high... View from summit Me at summit... Path to summit View of base camp returning from summit. Taxi - in case you can't make it back down the mountain on your own... Me and the 'crew'

The one thing that struck me the most about the trip was the number of porters / guides I had to bring with me. If you count them in the photo, there are 9 people - for just me. If you know me, I usually travel alone or with a single partner. So, this took a little getting used to. The company I went with ‘Ultimate Kilimanjaro’ didn’t want me to carry my backpack, but I insisted and they backed off their demand. When I asked the guide if anyone else does this, he said the last time anyone requested to carry their own stuff up the mountain was 3 years ago. So, not very common.

Safari - Tarangirie

The first part of the safari portion of the trip was to a national park called Tarangirie. A relatively dry place, but with a wide variety of animals.

FYI - Don’t forget you can click on any one of these photos (even the ones in the title cards, e.g. the above photo) to get an enlarged (better) view.

Very unusual to see a leopard in the daytime. Dung beetle. Larger than you might think... Totally classic photo This guy never took its head out of the tree

Stayed in park for entire day. As you can see the weather was great…

Safari - Ngorogoro crater

The second part of my safari trip was to Ngorogoro crater. A fascinating place. A large crater which covers 100 square miles (260 k)! The weather was slightly overcast, but made for very misty-like photos.

Enlarge me to see all the animals! Very cool looking bird - very common grey (southern) crowned crane I wasn't alone. There were other people on safari also... Lions and ducks and rhinos...oh, my... Flamingos? In Africa? Yep. pink = male = breeding season Just a little dirty Today's afternoon meeting This rhino was at least 1k away. The only one I saw. Full zoom with 400mm lens and a lot of cropping... This guy never budged an inch Caught in the act! Overview of crater on the way out... The end...

BTW - these guys break into the cars to steal food and other stuff.

Contact

Ken Herman

[email protected]