Mweka Camp (3,100m) to Mweka Gate (1,500m)

Day Six is the last day on Kilimanjaro, and is generally the easiest of all. The trail leads out of Mweka Camp and descends fairly rapidly through the Cloud Forest on the slower slopes of Kili. It's basically a simple hike out of camp and off the mountain, but since this route is used by everyone on their descent, no matter which route the took to the top, it can be busy and crowded at times.

In total, it will only take about three to four hours to hike down to Mweka Gate. The first half of that time will be on well groomed, but narrower trails that have a few steep points that you'll have to navigate with caution. It can be quite wet in the Cloud Forest, especially in the rainy season when I was there, so the rocks and trail can be slick in points. The further you descend though, the more the trail levels out and eventually you'll find yourself hiking on what can best be described as a road. It's wide, easy to navigate, and you'll make good time. Before you know it, you'll reack Mweka Gate, and your Kilimanjaro adventure will be over.

From Mweka Gate you'll sign the guest book one more time, then take a break while the guides and porters organzie the vehicles for your return to Moshi or Arusha. There will be a number of locals trying to sell you everything from T-shirts and soft drinks, to cheap jewelry and "tinga tinga", which is local art work. At this point, the climb is over, and the one thing on your mind is a hot shower.

For me personally, the last day was a fairly easy hike out. Your legs are tired from several days on the mountain, so in the steep portions of the descent you'll feel some exertion, but other than that, this is just a few hours walk down and off the mountain. After the days spent going up, it'll feel pretty easy. It also helped that for the first time in eight days I had finally gotten a good night sleep, so I was rested and ready to go.

I did learn a few lessons while on Kilimanjaro that I'd recommend to anyone who was going for the climb. First, schedule yourself a rest day between the travel and the start of the climb. It'll help you to get adjusted to the new time zone and you'll feel more refreshed and relaxed before heading out. This is something I wished I had done looking back on it. The next thing I would tell someone who was headed off to Kili is to be prepared for a challenging climb from the first day. I had been expecting it to be a bit easier on the lower portions of the mountain than it turned out to be, at least on the Machame Route. There are no switchbacks and few gradual climbs. The trail goes up. Straight up. It's only the degree of the incline that varies.

I will say that the gear that I took with me was, for the most part great. I was happy with the performance of everything. However, I could have used a larger daypack. Mine was stuffed to the brim most of the time, and in fact, I would say that you really don't want to take a "daypack" at all. You're better off taking a larger 2-3 day pack. Something that falls between a daypack and an expedition pack. A Kili climb is fairly gear intensive since you need cooler clothes on the lower slopes, and yet plenty of warm stuff for higher on the mountain. In your pack, at various times, you'll have an extra layer or two of clothes, rain gear, including jacket and pants, your supply of water for the day, snacks and lunch, and camera equipment. As you move higher, your layers will get thicker, you'll add a warmer jacket, hats, gloves and so on. The extra space of a weekend pack will be well worth it. Also, when it comes to rain gear, many climbers preferred a poncho to a rain jacket so they could keep their pack dry as well. Personally, I prefer the close fit of the jacket myself, and my pack was good enough that it never got wet inside, even in the rain, but the poncho was easier for others to pull on quickly without having to take their packs off.

So that's it. A basic six day climb on Kilimanjaro. I'll probably make a link off to the side so that all the articles of the climb can be easily accessed and read in order. But if anyone out there has any specific questions about Kilimanjaro, feel free to drop me a note. I'm happy to answer them and pass on my thoughts and advice. A Kili climb is a grand adventure, and anyone who has the desire to see the mountain really should go for it. It's certainly worth the effort and is a unique experience.

Next up, I'll post some thoughts on the five day camping safari.

My friend Rick McCharles, who writes the Best Hike Blog, has been busy adding to his already impressive resume of trails that he has walked. Recently he's been in the Indian Himalaya, spending the better part of a week trekking the Kuari Pass and writing about his experience there. The trek takes travelers deep into the mountains of northern India where 7000 meter peaks abound, it also affords those who make the walk views of the famous Nanda Devi, a mountain that many believe is the most beautiful on the planet.

Rick starts his travelogue of the trek with a Day 0 post that outlines what to expect on the hike, including the price. The 8 day trek costs $600 apiece for two hikers and includes a guided walk covering 82 km (50 miles) with the highest point reaching 5135 meters (16,847 ft) at Larkya La.

The trek offers some fantastic cultural encounters and amazing views, but of course one of the highlights is Nanda Devi, a 7816 meter (25,643 ft) peak that is the second tallest in India. It features a steep, sharp summit that cuts across the horizon in dramatic fashion. It also happens to fall inside the Nanda Devi preserve, that is off limits to all but a few lucky visitors. On occasion, permits are issued to climb the peak and some of the best climbers in history have attempted to reach its summit. The mountain is so striking that American climbing legend Willi Unsoeld named his daughter after the mountain. Sadly, she would later die trying to climb it.

Rick wrote six posts on the Kuari Pass trek, each of which can be accessed from the Day 0 post linked to above. Each of those posts shares his experience from each day and plenty of photos from the trail, giving us readers a sense of what it is like to make this hike.

After finishing up the Kuari hike in India, Rick has now jumped over to Nepal where he is busy walking the Manaslu Circuit. I'm sure we'll get some great info on that trek soon as well.

liveBooks recently got an update about the impressive lineup of instructors for this year’s Foundry Photojournalism Workshop happening from June 20-26 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Some of them spoke to Miki Johnson of livebooks' RESOLVE blog.

Ron Haviv's favorite aspect of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is "Watching the growth of the students in such a short period of time".

Ami Vitale's is "Watching students grow in the short span of the workshop is incredible".

And mine is "the mutual camaraderie and unfettered sharing of knowledge, information, and support between instructors and students/attendees".

Read the rest on RESOLVE.

Photo © Ashok Sinha-All Rights Reserved
Here's another photo gallery of Kashgar and the Uyghurs by photographer Ashok Sinha, who traveled in China and was touched by their plight, which prompted him to document their disappearing ways of life. The photo essay is part of a larger project that is titled Life in Balance: The Human Condition in Xinjiang.

Kashgar is a city of 3.4 million surrounded by mountains and desert, and is located at Xinjiang's westernmost tip. It is closer to Baghdad than to Beijing. As a minority, the Uyghurs see their 2000 year-old culture and heritage being erased by the Chinese authorities, with much of Kashgar's old town being demolished. This was justified by the Chinese for safeguarding the population from the collapse of the old buildings in the event of an earthquake, and that the demolition is necessary to the “modernization” of the Uyghur people.

The old city is considered to be one of Central Asia's best preserved sites of Islamic architecture.

The New York Times has featured an audio slideshow on Kahsgar just under a year ago titled A City, and People, at Crossroads that explains the situation.

At one time I worked as the president of a division of TimeWarner. I was always very proud that I never-- not once-- used one of the corporate jets to fly someplace, something my peers all did. I was happy to fly with them on their trip but I always had the feeling that using a corporate jet was a tremendous waste of shareholders money and that it could be used for more productive endeavors. And I was perfectly satisfied with first class on British Air, my favorite airline. The flight from L.A. to London left at night, so you could change into your pjs, settle into your relatively private cubicle, have a fantastic dinner, read for a while, get a perfect night's sleep on a comfortable flat bed and wake up in the morning in time to get to your first meeting rested and without a trace of jetlag. All for $10,300 (roundtrip).

Now that I'm retired. I've discovered the allure of business class. Apparently I'm one step ahead of my former flying companions-- or at least the ones without corporate jets at their disposal. According to yesterday's Guardian, the British Air first class cabin is going the way of the way of the dodo bird.

Business class passengers famously draw envious glances from the herd in economy by turning left when they enter a plane, but it is the first class ticket holders who are the most pampered. On British Airways' 747s they ascend to their Kelly Hoppen-designed cabin and don their free pyjamas and slippers before supping on the likes of lobster thermidor, pan-seared wild Scottish salmon or roasted Cornish game hen, then slip between the sheets of their roomy-- and extremely flat-- bed.

Now, however, this most opulent form of travel is under threat.

The global downturn has devastated demand for expensive seats, and even Hollywood stars and bankers are shying away from BA's extravagant first class prices. The airline, stung by a slump in premium bookings that helped push the company into its worst-ever loss of £401m, has removed first class accommodation from four of its new long-haul planes, and is to review seating plans for other new aircraft.

"The long-haul aircraft that we take delivery of this year will not have any first class cabins in them," said Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive. He insisted there was no direct link to the recession, but he added: "Longer term we will review the configuration of [all] new aircraft." BA is also launching a service this year from Heathrow to Las Vegas, a prime destination for high-rollers, with no first class option.

First class is the last remnant of the more romantic days of air travel when BA's predecessor, British Overseas Airways Corporation, offered first class tickets alongside the more down-at-heel tourist or economy cabins. Its upmarket reputation has become even more rarefied over the years following the introduction of slightly less luxurious business class seats in the late 1970s, and cut-throat competition on the transatlantic market.

Walsh admitted that the cost of ripping out seats in the existing fleet is too great to get rid of first class in existing planes, leading industry watchers to speculate that upgrades for economy class travellers might become a more common occurrence... The cost of refitting an aircraft, at millions of pounds per plane, means that airlines will have to turn to riskier strategies such as overbooking flights until their new aircraft orders arrive. Airlines can guarantee strong revenues from economy class passengers if they overbook the back of the plane. Under that scenario, any passenger who is the victim of an overbooking could be upgraded to one of the many empty seats in business class, or bumped to another flight.

Of course, there's always Air Emirates. I'm not sure if this price includes tax or not, but the L.A.-London run is $24,916.97. In any case, the food looks like it's probably not that different from B.A. Business class on B.A., by the way, costs $4,274 and you'd be surprised how comfy it feels when you think of the $6,000 you save by forgoing First Class (or the $20,000 you save by avoiding Air Emirates).

Filmmaker Richard Sidey is putting together an interesting documentary about the impact of climate change on the polar regions of our planet. The film is called Speechless: The Polar Realm, and he is busy editing it now. The video below serves as a trailer for that project and offers some stunning images to remind us just how beautiful, and full of life, the polar regions actually are. I'm not sure about the film as a whole yet, but these great shots definitely have me intrigued.

Speechless : The Polar Realm (film trailer) from Richard Sidey on Vimeo.

Shot over the course of the past two years, the video below is a compilation of some amazing skydiving shots that almost makes it seem like jumping out of a perfectly good plane might be something I'd want to do. Almost. But seriously, this is is a beautiful five-minute clip that that is a good mix of style and substance.

BackToAwake - Skydiving Compilation from BackToAwake on Vimeo.

I didn't even realize it until I got here, but it looks like the Tung Lok people partnered up with some place from Beijing called Xihe Yayuan to serve Peking duck in Singapore (200 Turf Club road #01-23, 6466-3363).

Sure, it was good, although not without some elements of tackiness, like the Pop Rocks and blueberry sauce that one was supposed to eat the skin with, as well as the bang of a gong every time a duck was ready to be carved.

But yes, it was tasty...and it had better be at a whopping S$88 (US$69) a duck. Still, I like Paradise Pavilion's duck better. It's even more expensive there, but the smell of apple wood in that place is just lovely...and the ambiance and presentation is certainly much more elegant too. Too bad that it's so expensive.

Way back in February of this year I wrote about two adventurers who were planning to embark on a trek along the length of the Nile River, covering some 4250 miles (6840 km) in the process. At the time, the team of Levison Wood and Simon Clarke were raising funds to support their efforts while aiming for a start this past summer.

That launch date came and went, and apparently so did Clarke, as Wood is now nearing the start of this epic adventure. He intends to leave the U.K. early next week and travel to the furthest headwaters of the Nile before officially getting underway on December 1. His starting point will be high in the mountains of Rwanda, where the Nile's earliest tributaries can be traced. From there, his path will take him into Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, and eventually Egypt. Along the way, he'll pass through mountainous terrain, deep jungles, one of the largest swamps in the world and of course the Sahara Desert.

Levison believes it will take roughly 12 months to complete the journey, which he says is inspired by Ed Stafford's amazing trek along the length of the Amazon a few years back. If he is able to pull off this expedition, the Nile walk would also rank amongst some of the greatest adventures in history as well. Wood won't face the overwhelming oppressiveness of the Amazon Rainforest of course, but he will have plenty of challenges to overcome none the less.

You will be able to follow Levison's progress on the Walking the Nile website as well as on Facebook and Twitter. This will certainly be one expedition that we'll be following closely in the months ahead. Good luck to Levison as he gets underway next week.

That was kinda nasty. I only got this because someone was mentioning earlier about how their friend went around to a bunch of food court stalls at Taipei airport eating dumplings, so I figured that I'd try to find some too. But these things were limp and lifeless, and I didn't care for those bubble tea pearls either. It was interesting to see the blind massage place next door though (no, Val Kilmer did not appear).

It seems I've been a little quick to write off the fall climbing season in the Himalaya. The arrival of Cyclone Phailin a couple of weeks back brought copious amounts of snow to the region and effectively put an end to several expeditions on the big mountains. But apparently not everyone gave up their climbs when the heavy snows arrived as ExWeb is reporting that there has been a pair of successful summits on Annapurna and once again they came from the difficult South Face.

According to the story, climbers Yannick Graziani and Stephane Benoist topped out yesterday morning local time after spending approximately a week on their summit push. The duo arrived in Nepal in late September and spent some time acclimatizing on smaller peaks nearby before heading over to Annapurna Base Camp. They arrived on the mountain late last week and almost immediately launched their attempt. They had expected to make the push in four days time, but it ended up taking them the entire week instead, although they were finally able to reach the top yesterday.

There is no word yet on whether or not they have gotten back down safely and we all know that is a big question mark on Annapurna. The mountain is known for being very difficult and prone to avalanches. Considering the amount of snow that has been dumped on the Himalaya recently, lets keep our fingers crossed that Yannick and Stephane get back to Base Camp safely.

This was the second attempt on Annapurna for this team. They made a previous go at climbing the mountain back in the fall of 2010. That attempt was thwarted by bad weather and excessive snow on the upper slopes of the mountain.

This is of course the second time this fall that climbers have successfully negotiated the South Face of Annapurna. Swiss climber Ueli Steck made his epic solo summit, in just 28-hours no less - a few weeks back along the same route. Conditions were a bit different then however as Ueli's summit took place before the arrival the cyclone.

Congratulations to the French climbers on a successful expedition. Well done! Now get home safe.

Apparently the town of Suwon is known for its rendition of kalbi. I wasn't quite sure of what was so special about it, but since we were down in Suwon today, I suggested that we get some for lunch, and our local host suggested this place (89-7 Woncheon-dong, 31-212-2354). It turns out that basically the thing that makes it unique is the marinade, which fortunately wasn't too strong at this restaurant and actually complimented it quite well.

The history, I was told, was that Suwon used to be all farmland many years ago, and hence the focus on beef. One can of course get this style of kalbi in other cities like Seoul, but this was getting it straight from the original source (a bit like going to Caesar's in Tijuana, I suppose). And yeah, the huge and slightly upscale spread of banchan at this place made it even nicer.

Yet another beautiful timelapse to wrap things up for the day. This one features plenty of sunsets and night shots to keep you mesmerized. It is 11+ minutes in length but truly spectacular. I hope you enjoy.

Dreamlapse HDR from HD Nature Video by LoungeV on Vimeo.

This place is supposed to be one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Singapore (52 Upper Cross Street, 6449-5030), and apparently they are known for their suckling pig, which they brought out tonight, head and all. And sure, it was good, with a super thin and crispy skin dipped into a mildly sweet sauce. But I was surprised to find that the ear was so difficult to eat.

And I'm not quite sure what they did with the rest of the pig after we finished with the skin...did the remaining meat get mixed in with the noodles? They charged an extra S$10 (US$8) for some kind of chopping service. Otherwise, the seafood here was surprisingly fresh (and pricey), even if the venue itself was pretty beat up.

I'm busy making reservations for a trip to India this winter. Everything seems so much more expensive than I remember it. And it wasn't that long ago that I visited Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta. The first time I went to India, though, that was like a whole different world and a whole different age. I had just graduated from college and I drove across Europe and Asia to India. It was still 1969 when I got there-- December 1, 1969, in fact. I remember because it was a major day in my life. I was waiting for my paper work-- or my van's paper work-- to get processed at the Pakistan-Indian border (Wagah, I think) and it was very hot in the sun. I had spent a year being very frustrated about not being able to stop smoking pot and hash. But suddenly at that remote, desolate border crossing I felt a hand reach inside me and rip away the desire for drugs. Gone; forever. I never desired to use a drug again after that. What a great way to start my trip inside India.

Eventually I made my way down to Goa and rented a house on the beach. When I left I decided to drove to Sri Lanka. In between was Kerala, a very green and beautiful state. I remember they had the most Christians and the most Communists. In fact they had a Communist state government that was working far better than any of the other state governments. I was pretty carefree and drove wherever my fancy took me. I wound up one day in Cochin, a seaport on the Arabian Sea. Today's Washington Post has a story about the city, now (since 1996) called Kochi, In India, A Jewish Outpost Slowly Withers.

When I visited in 1970 is was a real outpost with nothing going on at all. I don't remember it as a city, just more as a village. Now there are around a million people and it's a major port and historically it was a place filled with traders from all over the world: Greeks, Arabs, Romans, Chinese, Portuguese, and Jews. And Cochin has been somewhat famous in the west as an oddity, a Jewish enclave in Hindu India.

I was curious about Jews living in such a place and I decided to investigate. I found very little-- an old synagogue but no actual Jews around. The Indians boys eager to take the three or four visitors a day on a tour weren't Jewish and they said the Jews had all moved to Israel. Legend says the first Jews to have settled in Cochin came when Solomon was King of Israel. A thousand years later there were Jews from Europe arriving and at the time of the Inquisition, more Jews from Spain and Portugal arrived. In the middle 1500's the Jews of the area sought protection from the Hindu king against Muslim oppression and he let them build their own "Jew Town" in Cochin.

It was still called Jew Town when I visited, although I didn't see a single Jew. According to the story in the Post there are only 13 elderly Indian-born Jews left. "In Kochi, there is concern that Jew Town soon will be little more than a quirky tourist destination." That's certainly what it was in 1970 when I visited. Occasionally Jewish tourists from the U.S. or Israel come by but it's the kind of place that's not worth more than a pleasant afternoon on the way somewhere.

Yeah, that is a bit of a mouthful of a name, but that's how they named this thing on the sign, verbatim. It was Sanji's special this month, featuring a blend of red, white, and black miso, complete with your choice of topping, which in my case, was that knob of butter in the far upper left corner.

It wasn't as heavy as they made it sound, but the broth definitely had a bit of musky depth to it...almost as if they added Chinese doufuru to it. I don't think I'll be going back for this again, but I'm glad that I tried it once. (And no, those aren't carrots above, but rather surimi crab sticks.)

We had barely enough time to squeeze in a quick lunch at Fresh Station before heading to our next meeting today. And I have to admit that I liked this place a lot more than I did last time, as somehow the fruit wasn't as blatantly in your face this time. Instead, different pieces were accentuated with just the right amount of yuzu, shiso, etc., and it worked well. Too bad that we had to go to a meeting later though; there were some raw onions in a couple items that would have been great with the food, but dragon breath was the last thing that we needed before meeting a client for the first time.

If you’d like to keep up with daily images and information about Ireland’s fantastic heritage sites please consider following Abarta Audioguides on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Spectacularly positioned on the cliffs overlooking the North Atlantic, Dunluce Castle has to be one of the most picturesque heritage sites on the island. The earliest parts of the castle are thought to date to the 14th century, but the majority of visible remains date to the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was the fortress of the MacQuillans and later the MacDonnells, who were descended from a powerful Scottish clan.

These families were embroiled in near constant conflict to control the area of North Antrim known as ‘The Route’ which extended between the Rivers Bann and Bush.

The MacDonnells rose to become the most dominant family of The Route and the Glens of Antrim, but they fell into conflict with the English Crown. In 1584, Queen Elizabeth Ist sent the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir John Perrot, to deal with the growing power of the MacDonnells. He laid siege to Dunluce and successfully took the castle. It was granted back to Sorley Boy MacDonnell in 1586 after he pledged his allegiance to Elizabeth, but the MacDonnells rose in rebellion again during The Nine Years War.

After the crushing defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, Randal MacDonnell surrendered and received a pardon. He prospered when King James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth to the English throne. Randal brought large numbers of Scottish settlers to the area as part of the Plantation of Ulster. He established a new town for his settlers here at Dunluce. However the prosperous years of the MacDonnells of Dunluce would soon end, as his son, (also called Randall), forfeited Dunluce and his lands during the rebellions of the mid-17th century. 

Following the Restoration of the Monarchy, King Charles II regranted Dunluce back to the MacDonnells, however by then the castle had fallen into disrepair. It was abandoned as a main residence and quickly fell into ruin. Today it is a stunning site to visit with simply incredible views. You can find it along the scenic Causeway Coastal Route (A2 road) at co-ordinates 55.210404, -6.578216. For information about opening hours and entry fees please visit here. Please note that it is free entry for anyone bearing a valid OPW Heritage Card.

I really hope you enjoy our blog. If you'd like to discover more stories about Irish history, archaeology and culture and if you'd like to support us you can download audioguides from my website www.abartaheritage.ie, where we have 25 guides that tell the story of Irish heritage and the majority are absolutely free to download. 

If you’d like to keep up with daily images and information about Ireland’s fantastic heritage sites please consider following Abarta Audioguides on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Backpacker Magazine has a reputation of throughly "field testing" their gear before they make recommendations on it's quality. Any gear that makes their "Gear of the Year" list usally comes highly recommended and ends up being duralbe, functional, and well worth the money.

GoBlog has published the complete list of winners of this years Editor's Choice Awards, and as always, it's a list that will have our hearts beating a little faster and our wallets trembling in fear.

Highlights of this year's list include the Jansport Whittaker LT Pack (Yes, I was drawn to the pack first!), the MSR Reactor camping stove, which has been garnering a lot of attention it seems, and Big Anges Emerald Mountain tent.

So much gear...so little money!

The funny thing is that I actually got this monthly special at Tamoya in part because of how weird it sounded (and frankly, the shop's photo of it didn't look very good either). But that just got me even more curious: could this thing be as bad as I imagined it to be?

Fortunately, it wasn't, and in fact I finished the entire thing. Granted, I don't think I'll be getting it again, but at least I got some fresh veggies in my dinner. I ended up using that sesame dressing as more of a dipping sauce rather than trying to toss the salad.