Good news for folks that think hiking in the mountains might be fun but also feel like maybe their chance has passed them by. You are probably not too old to hike in mountainous terrain if you want to! When Elise and I climbed Kilimanjaro she was in […]
I like to have two or three discrete take-away points after any adventure – a short bulleted list of things I learned or what I got out of the adventure, or how I grew or changed. When we did Kilimanjaro, the magnitude of the trek and the mountain […]
Any of y’all get tired of going on vacation somewhere and being stuck in queues or mobs of tourists? Any of y’all tired of vacations where you get discriminated against (or worse) by locals who have grown to hate the thronging mass of tourists? If any of these […]
When we were at Kilimanjaro in January 2018, we were helped along the way by Chief’s Tours’ expert team of guides, strongmen (we were told they didn’t like being called porters), and cooks. Cook is not a sufficient title for the skill and expertise of Mateo. He was […]
When the Roaming Parkers were in Tanzania in January 2018, our guide showed us a Dracaena fragrans (Masala) plant and told us a story about the Chagga people who regard the plant as holy. It seems that if you come upon four Dracaena growing in a rectangle, you can bet […]
Washingtone, our head guide at Kilimanjaro told us that three things are needed for a successful Kili climb. These are really good pointers for any guided trek, whether you are on Kilimanjaro Tanzania or Black Creek Mississippi or anywhere in-between. Cooperation – You have to trust your guides […]
Everyone that I’ve ever read or listened to talk about a Kilimanjaro trek spoke positively of the outcomes. Even the folks that got sick and couldn’t summit. It is most commonly described as “life-changing,” or “transformational,” or just plain “awesome!” It is not cheap. For the Roaming Parkers, […]
One thing you need to be prepared for before foreign travel in many countries (including but not limited to Tanzania) is the predominance of squatty potties. You hardly ever see western-style sit-down toilets. Most toilets are either keyholes cut in the floor with a stepping stone on either […]
Kilimanjaro is a strenuous physical challenge under fairly extreme external constraints including altitude and cold. But despite all that, Kilimanjaro has been called, “Everyman’s Everest,” implying that most people – even ordinary people – should be able to do it. The REAL challenge to Kilimanjaro is psychological. That […]
