Somewhere over the Egyptian desert...

Preston and Robin at Mountain Lodge at the edge of Arusha

Mountain Lodge Rooms from my backyard.

From the back yard of the room again.

Preston, George, Todd, Harry and our Land Cruisers at the gate to Arusha National Park for our intro game drive

Zebra and her baby

Big daddy baboon

Warthog

Road hazzards

Mt. Meru, 15,000' from Arusha National Park

Mowing the lawn...

Baby and spikey plant

Strange pink island...

First glimps of Kili peaking over the clouds

Strange off-road vehicle

I could swear this guy was posing for a photo.

Our first Hippo sighting (rare for Arusha National Park)

Our bumpy ride to the trail head the next morning.

Robin, Todd and Preston getting ready to start hiking at the Machame trail head gate.

Ryan is ready to charge up the hill

Our intrepid leader Allen taking a group photo of us before we leave

From top left - George, Suzannah, Matt, Preston, Lydia, Ryan, Todd, Harry, Adam, and Robin. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to climb with!

The Machame route starts on the west side of the mountain in beautiful jungle

The lower trail was completely rebuilt in the off season, we were lucky. Check out those TALL ferns!

Cool moss covered trees

Our first glimps of the mountain from the trail as we transition through another ecosystem close to 10k'

Todd at our first camp (Machame hut), settling in to our home for the night.

A great view of the peak as we start day two up to the Shira Plateau

Finally up above the clouds (and there to stay).

Our trail winding down far below is as we get in to the moor lands

Roy and Fangi, our awesome local guides, rasta men and all around brilliant guys. (Roy likes The Simpsons because Homer reminds him of Americans, doh!)

The peak from our lunch break

Toilet on the edge of the world. =)

White collar raven waiting for a hand out.

Fangi (AKA Hollywood) leads us up to the Shira Plateau