#2 - CHECK!

Guess what came in the mail today???



My passport!!! Getting a passport was #2 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. This means that Justin and I can put the deposit down on our trip to Africa. Yes, I said AFRICA!!! Number 48 on my list is to go to Africa and climb Kilimanjaro and go on a safari. We are currently in the process of booking this trip and plan to go in December 2010. We have to fill out an application with the guide company we're using and they require passport info on the application, so we couldn't fill it out until I got my passport. The guide company we intend to use, International Mountain Guides, is a very well known guide company and does hikes all over the world. They lead teams up each of the seven summits, including Everest. The seven summits are the highest mountains in each of the seven continents. Justin plans on doing all seven and I know he will not stop until he has done them all.

Anyway, Kilimanjaro is the most popular of the seven (and one of the cheapest) to go to. Justin and I will fly out of Atlanta on December 17, 2010 to Amsterdam. We'll stay in Amsterdam for a day and then fly from Amsterdam to Tanzania (Southern Africa). We'll get to relax in Tanzania for a little over a day so we can get use to the time change, although a day is nowhere near close enough to get use to that kind of time change. Tanzania is a whopping nine hours ahead of Alabama, which means there's about a five hour window each day where we could call home. But then again, we probably won't be calling much, other than to say that we're alive and haven't been eaten by anything.....yet.

After that day and a half of "relaxation", we head to the Machame Gate to Kilimanjaro to start our hike. The hike takes six days to get to the summit, but only 2 days to get down. After getting off the mountain on day 8, we'll be able to go to our hotel and take a shower for the first time in over a week! Doesn't that sound appealing?!?!?! And the term "hotel" is even a slight exaggeration. I should just say broken down room with a small bed covered by a mosquito net. That would probably be more accurate.

The next day we'll fly to the Serengeti to do a safari!! I don't know if I'm more excited about the climb or the safari. They are both so incredible and a once in a lifetime opportunity. We'll spend three nights sleeping with the crazy animals in the Serengeti before heading back to the airport for our evening flight back to Amsterdam. Overall this is a two week trip. On Christmas day, we'll be on the mountain two days away from the summit. On New Years Eve, we will be sleeping under the stars in the Serengeti. There is seriously no better way to spend those holidays!! I'm not sure our parents are 100% pumped that we'll be gone, but they understand. We're hoping to convince Gordon, Justin's dad, to come with us. He would love to do these things!

Justin and I have been looking at blogs related to Kilimanjaro (see one of them on my "Blog Love" list to the right) and youtube to find videos of others who have done the same thing. We've found some pretty interesting ones...



I so hope that happens to us!



I so hope this does not happen to us!