SUN. MAR. 19 DAY 14 MOSHI-AMSTERDAM-TORONTO

The flights home were, for the most part, routine and OK. We slept for a bit, endured an hour's delay in Amsterdam, ate lots of airline food and finally got home. The long wait at the luggage carousel nearly did me in: my feet and knees were killing me.

Then, through the doors to see Lou, Mom, Marlene and Tristan waiting for us. It was a happy reunion indeed ! There were jumbled words of welcome and "glad to be home" and tears and hugs and hearty congratulations. I couldn't believe we were home ! After a short visit, I said an emotional "so long" to Jeff, the best of brothers and my incredible travel companion, and we piled into Lou's car for the short drive home. A glass of champagne for welcome and then Lou took Mom home.

I sat in my house, bewildered. Did it actually happen? Was it a dream? I didn't know what I felt, I didn't know how I should feel. Surreal. Dazed. Proud. And bone weary. I'll need time to make sense of all this. But for now ..... zzzzzzzz !

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUN. MAR. 12 DAY 7 BARRANCO-BARRANCO WALL-KARANGA

Image
If you research the Kili climb, the phrase "The Barranco Wall" appears as a kind of gatekeeper to the secrets of Kilimanjaro. It is about 500 feet high ( not that big on this mountain ) but is in places a sheer wall of volcanic rock that involves hand-over-hand climbing. If you get through the Wall, you've really accomplished something. Others say "no big deal" or "exaggeration." I'm here to say that it is a big deal. In some spots, you have to hug the rock like a lover, pray to whatever god you suddenly believe in, don't look down, and trust your guide's instruction. When you get to the top of the Wall, you behold an incredible vista all around and a sense of elation and accomplishment: a type of "small summit" if you will. So, in our case, we took it on after a hearty breakfast and in brilliant sunshine. We hit the Wall right away and, right away, we felt the challenge. Both of us were terrified but we powered through. While
Read more

WED. MAR. 8 DAY 3 MOSHI

Image
A good night's sleep followed by a nice breakfast does wonders for the soul. After breakfast, we met our guides, Elly and Stanford, and a driver called Frank. All are good guys, friendly and good-humoured, but completely serious about the job. A million questions about life in general and bowel movements in particular led to a growing sense of anxiety. This is going to be a test! We then walked around central Moshi. This is a "typical" backpacker town. Active, bustling, noisy and dusty, but also quite clean and friendly. The drivers here are active but not frantic as you would find in, say, India. We changed some money, took in the all-encompassing markets, had a good lunch and enjoyed the good vibe. But all the while, we had the sense that Elly and Stanford were watching, assessing, judging: they talked to each other constantly in Swahili, a cool language to listen to. At the end, we asked them how we did and they smiled and said "good." Well, I felt better a
Read more

MON. MAR. 13 DAY 8 KARANGA-BARAFU

Image
After yesterday's "terror" on the Barranco Wall, today's climb up to Barafu was relatively easy: I use the word "easy" very advisedly, for nothing is easy on this climb. But the distance was fairly manageable and the scenery was interesting. It was a lunar landscape of sand of varying shades of brown and strewn rock. Mercifully, the trek today was relatively short in duration and I arrived in Barafu Camp in good spirits and brimming with confidence. Barafu is at 15,000 feet and we encountered our first hint of ominous weather: cold winds and sleet. Elly told us that he doesn't trust this camp because of the sudden and changeable weather. He then started to prep us for the midnight assault on the summit. All of a sudden, my good feelings and optimism disappeared. This is for real: this is hard-core: this is either triumph or heartbreak. This is what we came for.
Read more