The Trip

The trip that I am going on with Alpine Ascents is a 14 day excursion. There is so much to do in African that it's hard to determine if I wanted to just do the climb (which would be 10 days total) or to go on the 14 day trip where it adds 3 days for an African safari.

Here is the itinerary for the trip:

Day 1 (Sunday, December 8th 2013): Day of flight!

Day 2 (Monday, December 9th): Arrive in Tanzania! Alpine Ascents will then pick me up and transfer me to the New Arusha Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania.

Day 3 (Tuesday, December 10th): Orientation and gear check. After meeting in the hotel for breakfast I will join a detailed group orientation covering all aspects of the climb. After Lunch there will an equipment check. Once the check is completed there will be a walking tour of Arusha before dinner.

Day 4 (Wednesday, December 11th) thru Day 10 (Tuesday, December 17th): Climbing the mountain. Please check my previous blog on the entire itinerary for this climb.

Day 11 (Wednesday, December 18th): Safari adventure in Tarangire National Park. This place is known to have a variety of large animals.

Day 12 (Thursday, December 19th): After lunch there is a possibility of visiting the Masai village where we would observe the tribal dance and local life-styles of the nomadic herders of the region. We would then go to the well known Ngorongoro Crater and sleep in a lodge perched on the rim of the crater. This crater is well known for having exotic wildlife that can't be found anywhere else in the world.

Day 13 (Friday, December 20th): Exploring Ngorongoro Crater during the morning where there are herds of zebra, antelope, buffalo, elephant, rhino, cheetah, and hippo. After lunch we proceed to go through the Serengeti National Park to our next lodge and dinner.

Day 14 (Saturday, December 21st): There is an option for me to go on a sunrise balloon ride here. I'm thinking of doing this only because it's about $500 more and honestly if I am going to go and experience this I might as well fork over the extra cash to do so. After the sunrise balloon ride we fly back to Arusha for a lunch and prepare for lat night flights out.

Day 15 (Sunday, December 22nd): Arrive back home... maybe...

I will be posting more details on what my flight schedule looks like after I actually buy my ticket. I am really fortunate right now that I didn't hurry to purchase my tickets. I was planning on being there on the 8th which was what I was thinking was day 2 but really is Day 1 in accordance with the itinerary! If I had bought that ticket I would have had to find my own way around Africa for a whole day!