12/29/02 - 01/13/03

Thirteen of us from the Colorado Mountain Club were led by Steve Bonowski halfway around to world to Tanzania in East Africa. The purpose was to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, (the highest peak in Africa at 19,341ft), and to go on a safari to the places that you usually see on the Discovery Channel. We flew into Kilimanjaro airport after about 20hrs in the air and used the Marangu Hotel as our base. It was a long ass ride, but flying over the desert and the Nile was kinda cool. The airport was hot, humid, and full of bugs. It could only get better. The links below will take you along on our journey............

Kilimanjaro
We had permits to ascend via the Machame Route (a.k.a. Whiskey route, for its intoxicating views), traverse part of the South Circuit, summit, and descend via the Mweka Route. It's not the "tourist route" (a.k.a. Coca Cola route), has a lot less people on it, and gives us an extra day on the mountain to acclimatize. Approximately 39 miles round trip.
Day 1: Marangu hotel to Machame Gate to Machame camp
Day 2: Machame camp to Shira camp
Day 3: Shira camp to Barranco camp
Day 4: Barranco camp to Barafu camp
Day 5: Summit day, Barafu camp to summit to Barafu camp to Mweka camp
Day 6: Mweka camp to Mweka gate and back to Marangu hotel

Safari
Lake Manyara: Monkeys, elephants, and giraffes...oh my!

Serengeti Plains: Yep, it's everything you've heard and seen on Animal Planet

Ngorongoro Crater: Collapsed volcano approx. 10 miles wide, tons of animals

Link to just pictures

Steve Helle's Africa website

Roger Wendell's Africa website