Wasteland Goes to Africa: The Pictures

[[R-MOD]Wasteland]

Hey guys. As some of you know, I just recently got back from Tanzania, where I hiked up Mt. Kilimanjaro and went on safari. Just thought I'd share some pictures (which were thoroughly butchered when I uploaded them to facebook, but oh well).

The first couple pics aren't actually in Africa. Before the trip I hiked in the Rockies a lot (I live an hour away) to train, and got some cool pics.



This is a mountain top lake called Hamilton Lake. It's about a 12 kilometer hike (one vertical kilometer) up from Emerald Lake, where the hike starts.















Anyway, on to the pictures of going up Kilimanjaro.

The hike was about 4 vertical kilometers, to a total altitude of 5681m, where the air has less than 50% the oxygen that it does at sea level.





There was a fair number of these funky tree things as we ascended through the clouds.



Here we're just breaking through the tops of the clouds. I'm second from the back.



Who is that handsome devil and where are his dreadlocks?



Arriving at our camp on the third day. Notice the pond. That was our drinking water for the next two nights + one day. They boiled it, but at that altitude you can't get water up to 100 degrees, and no matter how much you boil green water, it's going to stay green. Notice the two black huts at the far left. Those are the public latrines, uphill of the drinking water. We were fairly sick every day we had to drink this water.



Hiking up on the last day before the summit attempt. Not much vegetation at this altitude.



Our camp on the last night before the summit attempt. There were absolutely no plants at this altitude. We slept here for a couple hours, and then woke up at 10:30 PM for the summit attempt. Our chief guide tells us one of the main reasons we go at night is because seeing the trail ahead of us while hiking is bad for morale. We were starting to get altitude sickness here. One girl in our party of eight began vomiting at this altitude, and I was starting to feel sick myself.



After hiking through the night on the summit attempt, we see dawn break. We're close to the top. You can see the tops of the clouds as they start their daily travel up the mountain. The peak at the far right is next to where we made camp two nights ago. The place with the bad water.



Me at the top. As you can see, this isn't the highest point on the mountain. But it was the highest point on the route we took (there's many routes up). The actual peak is about 100m higher.



The view down from the top. Below you can see where we made camp for a couple hours the night before. It's one vertical kilometer below us. After this we scree ran down the slope to the camp where we slept for about 4 hours, ate, and then trekked another 5 hours further down the mountain. We were all very tired, but also very happy to be hiking to lower elevations where you could breath somewhat easily.



Myself on the way down.



The trail down quickly found a very beautiful rainforest, which we trekked through for several hours.

[Nimble]

Looks like quite the trek, beautiful scenery aswell. That dawn picture above the cloud level looks especially cool, like an ocean or something!

[Garabaldi]

Awesome pictures.

Makes me sad that summer is nearly over.

[[R-MOD]Wasteland]

Now for some safari pictures.





My dad and I next to one of the giant baobab trees. These things were all over the place.





















Myself taking a video of the an elephant as it got a little closer than I would have liked.







Myself walking with two Masai warriors. We were told to stick very close, as we were on the Serengeti, and there are lions around.







The Masai spears are really cool. At one end is a long blade for stabbing, and at the other end is a heavy metal spike for throwing. I bought one. Can't wait to bag a grizzly









A hyena makes off with what's left of a hippo that lions had killed recently.



The hyena keeps some vultures away from his food.



Hippos at sunrise.

[Paladin-X]

Lake Louise in Banff National Park?

Nice photos dude.

[[R-MOD]Wasteland]

Yeah man. You from Alberta?

[Paladin-X]

Yep. I'm in Edmonton.

[trogdor1289]

wasteland's going native


Well kinda.

[unrealalex]

wow man thats incredible. I want to do that. How do you get involved in such a thing?

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

Those are some awesome views.
You seemed pretty close to that lion in the tree too.
How did Customs feel about your Masai spear ?