Trekking up Mount Kilimanjaro

If you don't climb it, drink it!

... in a 4X4.

Biking through the hills of Burgundy, Tuscany or Napa has never been on my list of things I've always wanted to do. Biking gets in the way of drinking which to me is the point of visiting wine regions. I prefer to drive!












If I am going to bike though, I'd rather do it for leisure on very flat islands like Île de Ré or the lowlands of the Netherlands. We once brought our bikes with us on a road trip through Maine and Nova Scotia and we took short bike trips around Acadia National Park and in the little fishing villages around Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Prince Edward Islands. That made more sense to me. And we did have bikes on board our canal boat cruise in Ireland and Northern Ireland which we used for short excursions into the Erne riverside hamlets. Much the same with mountain trekking. I'd rather ski down than hike up the fourteeners of Colorado.

So there was never a question as to whether or not we would hike up Mount Kilimanjaro while we were in Tanzania. It was never on my list.

But we didn't totally wuss out. We could have driven up the short paved road from Himo to get to the Marangu Gate. Instead we chose the much longer and infinitely more challenging dirt road from Moshi.

Whew! We made it!

The tee shirt I bought in the visitors' center gift shop said, "Kilimanjaro. If you don't climb it, drink it."

So we did!

we were up to the challenge!