Kili - Back To The Beginning

So...I was much less able to post on the mountain than I expected. Cellular coverage was non-existent for much of our route, and when it was available I was too sick to feel much like typing on my phone (more on that later).

For now, I'll go back to the beginning. We all arrived - or at least most of us did. I had met up with a large part of the group (40 people -19 survivors and 21 caregivers) at the airport in Amsterdam. We arrived. We settled into our hotel. We ate. We slept. Or we tried to sleep.

Next morning we had our first look at the mountain. We started off the day with some yoga on the lawn. Later, we took a nice hike while waiting for all those whose flights had been delayed. Or almost all. We were still missing one.

I'm used to hiking and running alone, or with a very small group. Hiking with a group of 40 was BIG change! I tried to move through the pack, walking for a while with different people, getting to know my new neighbors. Many of them are from Iowa, and many of those from Des Moines, so they already knew each other.

After my scramble to get ready to go, end-of-year work, and nearly 24 hours of travel, it felt great to get out and hike! Beautiful scenery was all around as we walked through the foothills of Kilimanjaro.

Here are a few pics from our day.

Julie