Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

Click for [RealPlayer]  [Windows Media]

(Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media)

We're underway on this last Alpine Ascents Kilimanjaro Expedition of this season. I began really savoring this trip and these sights and experiences on the last trip realizing my season is coming to a close—it's gone extremely fast. These are the best adventure travel—I can use that old, trite term—trips that I know about. Adventure travel is defined, as I think it should be, by an imagination and a spirit that gets you into something that takes over and becomes bigger than you thought and just very rich, full experiences for a short period of time. It has been like that for me all summer. Myself, John and Art; Brian, Stacey, Don, and Mike, from the Denver area; Jeff; Peter; Justin Ralph our Irish member who, in typical Irish fashion, gives out a lot of grief knowing he's going to get more in return; and Guy from Portland; and Danielle; and Juan—the fourth expedition. We're up here at Machame, we came up in six hours yesterday, good time, traveling exactly together, is always a good sign and here we are, we're underway.

We had that mud experience yesterday, and at this point I think the group is in that frame of mind that you get in often on Kili climbs—always, on Kili climbs—where it's hard to imagine after climbing the 4,000 feet through the forest, to Machame, that Kilimanjaro could ever be about anything, except mud. But, that will change today as we climb up into the arid zones.

Once again, adventurous travel always leads to new experiences that you weren't expecting and I'm sure, with this group, that the big one yesterday—the really memorable thing—was those Land Rover, rodeo-type adventures, getting up that mud road to the Machame gate. It was wild as always, but successful. We got all three Land Rovers, plus Ali's Land Rover pick-up truck, to the top. The porters meet us about halfway down the hill and helped by pushing, and filling branches and rocks in the road to help us with our traction because, of course, the higher the vehicles go the less far they have to carry the loads. Plus, it was good sport and good fun for all. We got muddy, got some good photographs, and we had a great time with it.

Today we're off to the Shira Plateau, 12,300ft, and we'll keep you posted as our climb goes on.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent