Mt Kilimanjaro

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The “Flat-Top” That Isn't: Exploring Kilimanjaro’s Secret Caldera

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Think Kilimanjaro has a flat top? Think again! From hand-drawn diagrams to summit photos at Uhuru Peak, explore the volcanic 'cooking pot' at the top of Africa’s highest peak.

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The Last Full Night: Resting at 13,000 Feet

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Explore the beauty of Mount Kilimanjaro from Karanga Camp. Follow along as we recharge at 12,992 feet, observing glaciers like "icy fingers," moorland chats, and the surprising sounds of John Denver drifting through the East African clouds.

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Ants in Your Pants: From Fiction to Kilimanjaro’s Slopes

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From Charlton Heston to Indiana Jones, movies love a good ant apocalypse. But would they really eat you in six minutes? Explore the facts—and a real Kilimanjaro ant dance.

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Stork Swarm in Mtowambu

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Stork Swarm in Mtowambu

Swarms of giant storks were suddenly everywhere. They were beyond counting. In the hundreds? For sure. Thousands? Maybe. Some circled slowly overhead, great wings outstretched. Many more rested, nested, and clattered their bills from poo-spangled trees. 

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The Eighth Wonder of the World: An African Mountain that became a Crater

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The Eighth Wonder of the World: An African Mountain that became a Crater

The land yawned like a Wyoming dawn. The opportunity in front of us was equally wide. We had a full day to spend in Ngorongoro Crater and I was pumped.

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The Safari as Journey: My Introduction to Bush Country

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The Safari as Journey: My Introduction to Bush Country

We pitched our duffels and then ourselves into Saidi's knobby-wheeled truck. Saidi found the gear and we lurched forward. Our aim was to encounter the wildness of East Africa, God-willing, in a bloodless way.

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What we Learned from Kilimanjaro's Shrinking Ice Cap

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What we Learned from Kilimanjaro's Shrinking Ice Cap

Explore three takeaways about the arrival and disappearance of Kilimanjaro's icy cap.

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Then I Let Myself Believe It: The Push to Kili's Rim

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Then I Let Myself Believe It: The Push to Kili's Rim

I caught her in my headlamp. She might have pretty in another place but she was beyond defeat here, maybe even beyond consciousness. She was draped between the wings of two laboring guides. Her head was lolling. Her toes were dragging. That little Piper had stalled.

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The most interesting man in the world

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The most interesting man in the world

Ernest Hemingway dangled a riddle of death at the front end of his short story, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." But what kind of epigraph is this? A freeze-dried window decoration? A chewy historical tidbit? The most interesting man in the world may have solved the riddle.

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It has an odd ring

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It has an odd ring

The old king climbed into the icy womb of Kilimanjaro. On his finger was the ring of Solomon. His porters carried a vast treasure. None of it has ever been found, of course.

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15K+

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15K+

It was one of those nice mattresses with a heat-reflective layer that is supposed to keep you snuggly warm even if you choose to bed down on an iceberg or glacier or such. It also shared many qualities with a Wham-O Slip-'n-slide.

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Starry night

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Starry night

The icy peak was silhouetted against the night sky. But the longer I looked, the more I saw. And the more I saw, the less I noticed the mountain of our obsession. It was stars--sweet Jesus!--the stars that dominated this glorious night. They were everywhere, from horizon to horizon.