Gavin

I realize that it might sound crazy to some and amazing to others, but traveling to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro sounded like a great idea to me! After Nate brought up the idea over 8 months ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Nate and I immediately started asking around to see if anyone else was up for the adventure. Although many expressed some level of interest at first, only my buddy Balazs was motivated enough to join the team. Before I knew it, we were lost in research and preparation. Balazs, Nate, and I did a bunch of cool local hikes to get ready for the Kili climb, and I began to realize that I really missed the hiking and backpacking days of my youth (thanks Dad!). I am definitely back into “outdoors” mode. We’ll see where that takes me next…

The real reason that this trip was so important to me was that I caught the travel bug from my grandfather – big time. He passed away back in February, but not before I had the chance to visit him and tell him about my planned trip to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro. You should have seen the jealous smile on face. As always, he said, “I’ve been there”, but this time I had one up on him because he hadn’t climbed the mountain! My grandfather was a very unique man and he definitely had an adventurous spirit. His spirit seems to have rubbed of on me a bit, and I already cannot wait to get started on my next adventure! In any case, it was a fantastic trip - it was great to stand on the peak of Kilimanjaro, look up at the sky and silently say, “See Gramps? I made it! Where shall I go next?”

Each of us bought a different piece of special gear for the trip – Nate got a really cool GPS unit to record our global progress, Balazs got a great little mini-dv video camera to capture the live action, and I got a hold of a great digital 35mm camera (Canon Digital Rebel) with a telephoto zoom lens. I have nothing but great things to say about the Digital Rebel! I am a total rookie, but it was hard to take a bad picture with this camera. Some of my favorite pics from the trip are below:

Mount Meru – Taken from the slopes of Kilimanjaro.	Kilimanjaro (Kibo) – We are on our way…
Kili at sunrise – Taken from Shira camp 10,965 feet	Camping On Mars – Sheffeild Camp 14,235 feet
Rush Hour Traffic in Tanzania – Zebras in Tarangire National Park	Baboons Climbing a Palm Tree at Sunset – Tarangire National Park
Lion!! – Tarangire National Park	Bird on a branch – Lake Manyara National Park
African Love Bird – Lake Manyara National Park