Tierney's OP Trip to Mandara Hut

By Tierney:

Last weekend I backpacked to Mandara Hut.

On Saturday,  6:45am, 13 of us met at school to go to the first hut on Kilimanjaro. I was the only student there who had done this trip before. We drove to ISM Moshi Campus to pick up two more students and while we were there we weighed our packs (mine was 2 pounds over weight, but if I drank enough water on the bus I would be OK!)

Getting ready to leave

                                     

School bus

Once we arrived at the gate, we ate lunch and signed the guest book, it was a long wait until we were ready to start hiking at 1:30 pm. We had lots of energy by the time we started, but we used all of it while hiking.

Group picture at the gate before the hike

After the 5 hour hike, we finally arrived at Mandara Hut and were all ready to eat dinner and get into bed. The hike was long and tiring, but we kept ourselves occupied by playing games and looking at the beautiful environment. We only took a few breaks along the way, but when we did we ate a little bit of food and drank some water and then we would start hiking again.

Group picture in front of Kili

Sunday morning we were up and going off to the Crater at 6:00 am and were very lucky not to have to carry our backpacks. Once we were at the Crater we walked down into it and then back out again. There was a beautiful view of the Crater, Mawenzi point, and Kibo point.

 View of Mawenzi (2nd peak on Kili) 

Beautiful sunrise view from the Crater

                  

                                                                Going into the Crater

Eating breakfast

After the Crater we went back to the hut to have breakfast. Once we were all packed up and ready to go, we set off. About half way through the hike it started to pour rain, so we had to get all of our rain stuff on, raincoat, rain pants and a pack cover (if we had one) and continue on with our hike.

                                                          Hiking in misty and cold rain

By the time we were back at the gate it had stopped raining, but all of our clothes were still wet. Just before lunch it started raining again and it was raining for some of the bus ride home too.

Happy girls after hiking

We made it! 

On the bus ride back we ate lunch which was chicken or veggie pizza. We are all very proud of ourselves for passing O.P level one to Mandara Hut on Kilimanjaro.

In two weeks I'm looking forward to the next level:  2 nights in the Pare Mountains.

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Here's the blurb in the school newsletter written by the ISMAC trip leader

I'm so proud of T for not only doing this trip, but doing it twice.  This might fall under things that should go under the "For the Grandparents" section of the blog, but I thought T did such a great job writing about it I wanted everyone to see it. 

Loisaba and Lewa

We had an amazing week up at Loisaba.  TNC (The Nature Conservancy) is helping to build a new luxury tented camp on the Loisaba Conservancy and we volunteered to the be guinea pigs to make sure all is in working order.  The new lodge will officially open in March and it’s getting lots of international press already.  Very exciting.

After an 11 hour drive from Arusha we were thrilled to be met with an infinity pool and rainbow.  We were excited that Webb and Jeff would be meeting us here in two days time. Since we were the only guests we were spoiled rotten for the entire week.

Dining tent

Lounge tent ready for New Year's Eve party

Even though Matt is really the Chairman of the Board for Loisaba, we think Anderson should actually have that title.  He took our testing job seriously and sat in every chair almost as soon as we arrived to make sure that they were up to par.

The new tents were amazing perched on the top of a hill overlooking a water hole with beautiful sunrise views.  We enjoyed coffee and hot cocoa at our tents every morning.  The hyrax and hornbill did, too.

Loisaba Tented Camp

One of many beautiful sunrises

Anderson enjoying the sunrise, ever on the look-out for animals

Morning hot cocoa and reading

Hyrax

Resident hornbill stealing a breakfast biscuit

Elephants at the waterhole

Good morning

The kids were very excited for Grammy and Grandpa to arrive and tried to make sure they knew it!

Welcome notes

Patiently waiting for Grammy and Grandpa to get off the plane at the Loisaba airstrip

Although I’m sure Webb and Jeff were looking forward to a restful afternoon and evening after their long travels, that’s just not how it was meant to be.  Their arrival date happened to be the only night that the very popular Kiboko Starbeds were free.  We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stay there, so after a few hours of relaxation at the tented camp we moved ourselves over to the Starbeds for the night.  This is certainly my kind of place.  While Forbes recommended the Starbeds for New Years we felt lucky to be able to spend the night there on the 29th. (It’s also listed it as one of the “World’s Best Outdoor Hotel Rooms”).  How lucky are we?????

Sleeping under the stars

Family tent with two platforms for beds

Amazing to watch the sunrise from the comfort of bed

We did lots of game drives, fishing, walking, and horseback riding with some pool and relaxation time sprinkled in.  We also were able to have an amazing New Year's Eve party on a deck full of interesting people.  Great way to bring in the new year.

Family!
At Sosian Natural Springs

Safari Selfie

Lion Tracking with Brown

Anderson learning to track from Brown

We found them!
9 of them including the cubs

Big Yawn

Some of the younger ones

We got to horse back ride a few times.  It's a great way to get out on safari.

We got to name the new fowl, she had one brown eye and one blue.
Meet Nusu Nusu ("nusu" means half in Swahili)

View from the deck.  Ash coloring on a rock.
We called it Lizard Rock because it was nice and warm in the cool mornings.

Grandpa checking out the elephants on a bush walk

Simon kept us safe

Grevy's Zebra 

Happy, happy kids

 

Oh yeah...of course there were sundowners.  Loisaba did them in style!

We started at Loisaba with a rainbow and finished with one as well.  

After about a week at Loisaba we made the four hour trek to Lewa. We spent two nights there for more game viewing.  We got very close to seeing our first kill, but the lioness missed.  She was stalking from the road, lying low, and took a swipe at the zebra as it ran past, but she missed.  It was very exciting.

We love Lewa!

Of course there were sundowners at Lewa, too.   

Looking for the rhino in the distance

A tower of giraffe

Lilac Breasted Roller

Lilac Breasted Roller
Photo by Tierney Brown

  

Mt. Kenya as seen from Lewa

Waiwai and her calf, Delia.
Waiwai is rumored to have one of the longest horns in the world.
I can understand why!

Waterbuck hanging with impala

Cheetah with a very full belly

Then it was time for the long drive back to Arusha.  (A bit shorter for Matt because he was able to fly with a friend to Nanyuki after he had an early morning meeting).  Car fully loaded, seven people inside with luggage on the roof, and we were off.  Luckily all are good travelers and we made it home for dinner.

Back in Arusha we had a few final days of holiday before school started back up.  There was lots of quality time together including some amazing scavenger hunts (fake clues!) and games of hide and seek (trees were a favorite hiding spot).  Now school is back in session and swim lessons have started.  All fun things for the kids to show Grammy and Grandpa.  Webb and Jeff are currently on safari to the Serengeti, Matt is chimp viewing in Mahale, and Tierney is backpacking to the first hut on Kilimanjaro (again).  We’re so very fortunate.