Africa

Cameras of Kilimanjaro: See the mountain from the porters’ perspective

Kilimanjaro has a few dirty little secrets. We’ve talked before about one of them—that the most popular routes can be absurdly crowded.

A far darker secret no on likes to talk about is that many porters aren’t paid livable wages, often have to pay for their own food on the way up and therefore barely eat anything while hauling backbreaking loads, and refuse to turn back down the mountain when they experience altitude sickness because they cannot afford to.

So it is with great pride that we at Embark are a part of the great Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, the nonprofit that focuses on ensuring that porters make livable wages, are treated fairly, and that they actually receive the tips climbers try to give them.

We sat down this week to Skype with Australia-based photographer Helen Osler, who became involved with the porters project when she climbed the mountain back in 2008. She tells us one thing that really struck her about the porters that helped her reach the summit was how interested they were in her camera, and how skilled so many of them were as photographers.

She began to wonder how she could get porters on the mountain to take photos, given they couldn’t afford the equipment. So she launched the Porters of Kilimanjaro Photographic Project, through which she had people all around the world who were traveling to Tanzania bring disposable cameras and then get them back to her weeks later.

Out of the 75 cameras delivered to Mt. Kilimanjaro, 55 came back, giving Helen more than 1,000 photos to sift through. She says she was struck by how thoughtful so many of the images are, and was inspired to develop a book, even though the resolution isn’t large enough for a truly large, coffee-table, glossy book.

Called Cameras of Kilimanjaro, the 104-page color book costs roughly $48, but money raised through the photographic project will be used to improve the porters’ working conditions. Helen’s drive to help the porters is truly admirable. Among her observations:

“There are incredible risks, the same as everyone who climbs there, yet they can’t afford to go down. Their families won’t be eating if they lose their job that day, so they keep going. When I climbed, we gave medication to two or three of the porters, but they refused to go down. And there was nothing we could do about that; it was their choice.”

Helen says the average wage each porter earns per day should be 8,000 Tanzanian shillings, but the porters association has found it goes as low as 6,000. This converts to $4 a day instead of $5, “which is well under what they should be paid,” Helen says. “Which in our terms is just nothing.”

Check out the book, and if you can’t afford it, spread the word about it and about the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, too. But the best thing you can do if you’re going to climb Kilimanjaro is to make sure that you find an outfit that works with the project and to do what you can to deliver tips to porters yourself. And remember: When you pay as little as possible to climb, the porters are the first to take that hit.

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“Moving Mountains”: Climbing Kilimanjaro

Big kudos to David and Ingrid, whom we sent to Kilimanjaro in August, for coming back with such great images and stories. David recorded himself describing some of his best images from the trip; check out the audio slideshow above, and our YouTube channel for more.

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Kilimanjaro comes with high risk of acute mountain sickness

A study has just come out confirming what many climbers already know: summiting mountains as high as Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro involves a high risk of acute mountain sickness, and steady acclimatization before the final ascent is the best guard against it.

The study appears in the current issue of High Altitude Medicine & Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and Muhimbili University College of Health Science (Tanzania) evaluated the incidence of AMS among trekkers of Africa’s highest peak by comparing the effects of three increasingly difficult and rapid ascent routes, the option of a single rest day during the climb, and use by a sub-group of climbers of prophylactic acetazolamide.

The authors reported a similar rate of AMS among climbers regardless of drug use, a finding most climbers already know anecdotally. More surprising is that a mid-climb rest day did not seem to have an affect on AMS, although we’d argue it has an affect on physical and mental stamina. The only way the researchers found to protect against AMS, given the risk of it is so high, is to acclimatize before final ascent, which is precisely why it’s so important to take things one day at a time.

In the report, the researchers found: At 2743m 3% of the 177 climbers recruited at this altitude had AMS. Following headache, the commonest symptom reported on LLS sheets was fatigue (38%). At 4730m, sleep disturbance was the commonest symptom described (82%). 47% of the 189 climbers on all itineraries were AMS positive.

Climbing Kilimanjaro is no joke. Slow and steady definitely wins the race.

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Priority: Keeping it real on the road

Anyone who read Elizabeth Gilbert‘s travel memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” (and let’s face it, a lot of people did) knows the hunger for not just visiting a place, but experiencing it. Those with the luxury of time can actually carve out months at a time actually living in their dream destinations, but for those with only a week or two at their disposal, getting off the beaten path and finding what is real about a place is practically an oxymoron.

Which is why we at Embark were so excited to come across the travel piece, When ‘Real’ Is the Traveling Priority, in The New York Times this week. Because this is exactly the kind of travel we believe in–the kind that lets you try a place on and wear it for a while, test its pulse. Simply put, we are not in it for the T-shirt.

This is why we take people to more than just the mountain when we climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and even on Kilimanjaro, we prefer the route less traveled (Lemosho), so that your path up what will arguably the best climb of your life will not be littered with tourist traffic. We’ve also taken several side trips to visit with the Masai, as seen here. We don’t just stare at and photograph the locals; we interact, share food and stories and laughter.

This is what real travel is all about.

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The Oregonian features Embark

Over the weekend, travel writer Shawn Donley featured Embark Adventures in The Oregonian as the best way for Portlanders to find a local guide up Mt. Kilimanjaro. He has this to say of Embark founder Donovan Pacholl:

The Tanzanian government requires all climbs to be guided and supported. If you’re looking for a local option, I doubt you’ll find anyone in Oregon who knows Kilimanjaro as well as Donovan Pacholl. He spent several years living at the base of the mountain and in 2003 helped establish the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project. He now runs Embark Adventures (www.embarkadventures.com), which specializes in climbs up the beautiful Lemosho route.

Props also to Donley’s second local pick, Nicole Apelian’s Trackers International. She leads nature lovers on trips to Botswana’s Okavango Delta.

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On safari in the Serengeti National Park

At Embark we’re not shy about picking favorites–that’s how we decide where to go and what to do in the world–and climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro sits high at the top of our list. But while in Tanzania, we consider foregoing a safari through the Serengeti truly lamentable. You just have to try to make the time for this unforgettable post-climb event.

The Serengeti National Park is Tanzania’s first and most famous park and a major portion of the entire Serengeti region, which makes up 14 percent of Tanzania’s land area and comprises not only the park but also the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

More than six million hooves pound the legendary plains of the Serengeti, which is renowned for its wealth of leopard and lion. The vast reaches of the park also help the black rhino fight extinction and provide a protected breeding ground for the vulnerable cheetah. Every year, triggered by the rains, nearly two million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra, and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle gather to undertake the long trek to new grazing lands.

At least 2,000 years before Europeans first explored what is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Maasai lived off this fertile, wild land that was eventually established as a protected park in 1951 and covers 5,700 square miles (14,763 square km) of some of the best grassland range in Africa. One of our favorite parts of the safari is spending time with Maasai–an honor few tourists have.

Serengeti’s ecosystem is also known as one of the oldest on earth, whose climate and vegetation have barely changed in the past million years. With plants that range from dry scrub and grasslands to towering baobabs, this park goes from burnt yellows in the hot, dry summers to a rainbow of flowerbeds that streak across green fields during the springtime rains.

You may have heard of the Big Five–lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffalo–and the Serengeti is one of the world’s only parks that boasts them all. Our guides are so passionate about their work they have been known to get a bit emotional if and when they are able to track down and show all five. But these impressive beasts aren’t the only wildlife to get excited about. Cheetahs, gazelles, hyenas, baboons, impalas, giraffes, and wild dogs populate the rugged terrain, not to mention more than 500 species of birds and 100 types of dung beetle, trees so beautiful and strange they’ll distract you from the animals, and a night sky so full of starlight you might not need your head lamp.

Check out our Serengeti Safari itinerary, our audio slideshow with John Leary on his recent trip, and details on the tents and lodges we prefer on what is arguably the greatest safari in the world.

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Tanganyika Wilderness Camps: On The Move

Tanganyika Wilderness Camps, Tanzania Safaris, Tanzania Safari Tours, Tanzania Safari Lodges

One of our clients’ favorite tented safari lodges are run by Tanganyika Wilderness Camps. From mobile tented camps to farm houses and full-on lodges, these are ideal for people who want what we’ll call luxurious rustic.

The mobile camp option moves during the migration, perched in private areas rich in fauna and wildlife and alongside local tribes and farmers. The company’s focus is on long-term conservation, and they’ve seen up these lodgings to ensure that the locals and the environment are benefited by tourism without resulting in communities that feel “touristy.” Check out more photos of different lodging options here.

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