After a series of successful Peace Run events in the valley we are now attempting to carry the Peace Torch to the top of Africa and spread it´s light across the continent.
This is our group together with porters and guides, who will assist and lead us. We are all pretty excited...
weighing the luggage. A porter must not carry more that 15kg.
rolling shops
loading the bus
everybody wants a picture:)
This lady peeled and cut a mango for 50 cents during a break. hmmmm...
Aharan trying to do some business
A huge baobab tree.
Aklilu is happy.
Brooke signing the book for the climb.
I love flowers!
The boys are ready to go!
The Kilimanjaro song - we learned it later and sang it with our guides.
A preview of the unknown.
"I will give you special price."
While waiting it started raining pretty heavily, so we could test our rain gear...
Aharan had a nice combo...
Aklilu looked like a sheikh... but...
Haryaksha´s zebra appearance was unbeatable!!
Albena very tired...
Meanwhile Andrew arrived together with Star TV and the Chief Warden from Kilimanjaro National Park and we gave a short interview about the Peace Run explaining our goal of taking the Peace Torch to the top of Africa.
We all ran together for a few steps up the biggest hill in Africa!
Now we were ready!
Meditation before the start.
Last group shot at the Marangu gate.
As we entered the park the sky cleared and we had no more rain until the day after summit. A little miracle for us in the rainy season...
On this first day the path lead us through the rainforest with exuberant vegetation and huge lush trees.
Laurent, our head guide performing on the bridge.
I got a "Lord-of-the-Rings-forest-feeling" while walking along this path leading to somewhere unknown, fascinating...
Our guides really became our friends on the way.
Since we started at about 5pm it got dark before we reached the hut.
Finally: Mandara hut at 2800m above sea level.
A bowl of hot soup followed by a nice vegetarian dinner was the perfect finish for the day.
