Decisions, decisions.....

Still being a bit new to this I am finding starting the blogs to be the hardest thing (also is this a blog or a part of a blog?), so now there were four of us the next sensible thing seemed to be to sort a meeting out for us all to review the various route options and to decide which one that we wanted to do.

I sent an email out to the team introducing them to one another and asking to sort a meeting, we eventually managed to settle for a Wednesday night in October to sit and discuss the way forward. Unfortunately one of the team members was unable to make it but as I had made a decision that I really wanted to get the trip booked by the end of the year I decided that it was best to go ahead anyway, I could easily present the information and get feedback via email.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about the next bit but between the three of us we managed to decide that we either wanted to do the Rongai route or the Machame route, we also came away from that night having decided to also get quotes for doing a safari afterwards and then a trip to Zanzibar, this was despite earlier discussions to try to keep the costs down……..

We set about emailing a variety of different agencies to find out approximate costs. Some of the web sites had already got costs to do a safari as well so we had a basic estimate of the cost. The first company came back to us the next day, African Travel Resource and an incredibly friendly and enthusiastic person called Jay, they gave us a full breakdown of what we would be doing each day and where we would be staying and even had a map available on Google Earth with links so we could see each campsite/hotel. The other companies came back over the next couple of weeks and we ended up with a wide selection of prices and different trips.

We narrowed it down to 3 different suppliers in the end of either Roy’s Safaris who are based in Tanzania and although slow to provide a quote were quite good, Good Earth Tours who were highly recommended and had a very in depth web site that offerec a variety of different trips and then ATR.

After looking at the costs and the various benefits of the different routes we decided to go on the Rongai route. We had initially eliminated doing the Marangu route which is the most popular as it was also overcrowded and we would have been sleeping in huts for the majority of the trek which we didn’t feel would give us as much of an experience as the tents. The Machame route was the only other one that we considered but this was again quite a popular route and also involved scaling the Barrancu wall which didn’t appeal but overall the route did look quite appealing. In the end the Rongai route won as it was one of the most secluded and also offered a good climb high and sleep low to help with altitude sickness, one of our main fears for not making the climb, it must have been a good reason as this is the only route that has a potential for raids on trekkers from bandits in Kenya!

We had learned a lot about the different trip options getting all the costs so requested a quote from all 3 agencies that we had selected with the details of the route we wanted to do along with a 6 day safari and then finishing with 4 days in Zanzibar. Cheerful Jay from ATR came back the next day with the quote and Good Earth Tours followed the next day, as I type this 4 months later I have still not received a response from Roy’s safaris so we decided to remove them (or maybe they decided to remove us….).

The team had also taken quite a reduction in numbers from the 4 that were mentioned we had now lost a member due to his job being at risk and another through the discovery that climbing Kilimanjaro wasn’t going to be that easy and would require a level of fitness.

So we ended up choosing Africa Travel Resource from the two remaining agencies, even though they were the slightly more expensive of the two companies the service from Jay had been fantastic and the description of what we would be doing each day, also (and this is really one of the most important things for me) they are carrying a toilet for just our group of up to 12 people, rather than the ones that every person on the mountain is using.! The toilets are known as long drop toilets because you are basically crapping off the side of the mountain! For those of you that are interested here is the link they sent us through to where we would be each day.

http://www.africatravelresource.com/T1/googlemap_full.asp?Trip=46955