Team Sole Sisters

Our adventure has finally begun.

After nearly 9 months of careful planning and about 6 months of training, we’re finally in Tanzania to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. This adventure is the start of our quest to climb the world’s 7 highest continental peaks and is sure to be a life changing experience for us.

We left Cape Town on Thursday afternoon for the FEAT Talks in Johannesburg which we were super excited about. Nine speakers, most of whom are South African extreme adventurers, gave inspiring short talks about their recent adventures. Although we were already amped for our Kili trip, the Talks inspired us to believe that we really can do this. These adventurers are just ordinary people like you and I that have done extraordinary things. If you missed the live action and you’re keen to hear the Talks for yourself, check out FEAT (www.featsa.co.za). You’ll probably want to get up and start planning something adventurous! A fun adventure can happen close to home on a tight budget, so there really is no excuse. We only get one crack at life so make it happen friends.

Saturday morning started at 03:45am. Not at all a fun time of the day to get out of a comfy bed, all thanks to our good friends and hosts, the Marshalls, but it was time to get going. It was off to OR Tambo International Airport to check in our ‘mountain’ of kit. Luckily we’ve got a bunch of strong mountain men to help us carry our load up the mountain. After a scumptious Kauai breakfast we were finally on our way. The excitement really hit home as we settled into our seats high above the clouds towards East Africa.

It’s great to be able to take on this challenge as a family, and to be able to attempt to summit together is going to be a truly awesome experience. We’ll celebrate 2 birthdays on our climb; on the first day of our trek, mom, Lyzann, turns a very young 39. On summit day Hannah turns 10. If all goes according to plan and God willing, she’ll be the youngest person to receive an official Mt Kilimanjaro Uhuru Peak summit certificate. That dream is just 8 days away.

Our flights took us first to the beautiful island paradise of Zanzibar, off the Tanzanian coast. We’re so grateful to our sponsors, 1Time Airline (www.1Time.aero), who made the trip possible for us. Zanzibar looked absolutely awesome from the air but we didn’t get to stick around for long; we’ll have to wait until the 19th, after our climb, before we can return to start our 3 day island mini-vacation; the just reward for, what will undoubtedly be, a very tough 8 day trek that lies ahead.

From Zanzibar it was off to Dar Es Salaam where we checked through again for our last flight of the day to Kilimanjaro International Airport and the last time Lyzann would have to take her shoes off to get through the metal detectors. On the way home it’s flip flops…

As we approached a dusky Kilimanjaro Airport we got our first glimpse of the mammoth snow capped Kilimanjaro poking out ABOVE the clouds. You could feel the excitement as people hurridly snapped away at the mountain through the tiny aircraft windows before we dropped down into the cloud to land. It is a picture we will never forget.

Our driver, Mwingira, was there to pick us up and whisk us off to our hotel in Arusha, an hour’s drive away. What a stunning drive with the evening silhouette of another big mountain, Mt Meru, in the distance. We checked into our room, grabbed a bite to eat that seemed to take forever to get to our table and it was off to bed for a very weary Team Sole Sisters. The fun and excitement of it all have caught up with us.

We’ll spend the next 2 days based at the Outpost Lodge trying to recover from today’s whipping of our rugger team by the Wallabies, sorting out climb paperwork, exploring the markets of Arusha and just chilling.

We’ll be sharing our Kili experience over the coming weeks. We’d really love to hear from you if you’ve got any questions or comments or just want to say ‘hi’. You’ll need to register on our blog to get chatting.