Kilimanjaro (5895m/19,340') from near the village of Moshi, Tanzania.
On December 14 SMI founder Kurt Wedberg arrived in Tanzania with Heather Krug and Robyn Stern. Robyn is a Creative Director who’s biggest account is Purina and Heather is the CEO at Bear Grylls Ventures. This trip has been planned for close to a year now. Many hours of planning, conditioning hikes, acquiring gear, and rearranging lives have gone into the preparation for this climb.
December 15 was spent acclimating to the Tanzanian countryside and getting prepared for a 7-day climb to the Roof of Africa beginning on December 16. We will try to keep you updated on the progress of our climb as often as possible.
Here are a couple pictures from today’s adventures:
Heather and Robyn taking in the scenery on a walk through some local rice fields outside the village of Moshi.
A local Tanzanian carrying hardwood from the forest behind. He will use this for heating and cooking in his home.
Bananas growing near the rice fields. There are an estimated 80+ different types of bananas grown in East Africa. Some are used for cooking and others can be peeled and eaten.
They harvest rice twice each year in these fields. In the foreground a local farmer is tending to groups of starter plants that will soon be transplanted to the empty fields behind.
Rice farmers pause to greet us as we walked by their plot of land. The people in Tanzania are some of the friendliest people we've met anywhere in the world.
Tanzania is abundant with over 1400 varieties of beautiful flowers.
Tanzanian children from the Chagga tribe are always a joy to be around. Today they enjoyed following us on our walk.
Kurt cutting open a fresh mango. Sampling the local fruit is one of the fun fringe benefits when visiting Tanzania.
Kurt climbing a vine in the forest.
A Black & White Colobus Monkey yawning high up in a tree in the forest.
Kilimanjaro looming high above our hotel. We're excited to start up it tomorrow!