Back to the old neighborhood…

I woke up this morning to sounds that I don’t normally hear in Santa Monica: strange sounding, jungle noises. Birds? Monkeys? Hyenas? It all sounded very tropical.

My roommate here at the Dik Dik is Gary, a great guy who has a 5,000 acre farm in Minnesota. He farms in the summer and spends the winter months in Phoenix or out climbing mountains (sounds like a nice life style). He's also starting a winery by planting new variety of very hardy grapes that actually thrive in colder climates. Good to know we'll have wine even if we have another ice age. Career-wise, we have a very diverse group that even includes 2 Air Force pilots. One flies F-15s and the other pilots the B-1 bomber. Talk about cool jobs.

We met at 9:00 for our breakfast meeting. Tuck went through the dos and don’ts of the trip and we discussed the itinerary, gear, medication, etc. I’m really getting excited to hit the trail…it’s going to be a blast. RMI is actually doing a blog on our trip and will be posting the first entry including our group photo, soon. I believe I’ll let Tuck do the blogging honors as we head up the hill since I won’t a satellite phone. You can check out the RMI blog here:
RMI Kilimanjaro Blog (click)

I saw a great series awhile back called The Incredible Human Journey (click) that was hosted by Alice Roberts, a medical doctor and anthropologist. The series is about where we come from, the origins of the human race. As it turns out, the earliest human remains, the earliest traces of our species were found a little north of Kilimanjaro in Southern Ethiopia. It was the remains of an early human who lived in this region over 200,000 years ago. Most scientists now believe that we’re all from East Africa. If you don’t live in Africa you are are related to a small band of early pioneers who left the continent around 70,000 years ago and colonized the rest of the earth. With DNA testing, they can trace all of us right back here…the old neighborhood. A very interesting thought.

We leave early tomorrow morning and I will be out of touch for about a week. In the meantime, you should be able to follow our trip by clicking on the link above. Here it is again: RMI Kilimanjaro Blog (click).

That's it for now. Talk to you next week. Onward and upward!