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Excerpts from postcards sent in February 1987, Dean's World Tour I:
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In a couple of days, I'll begin a climb up Kilimanjaro. Whether I make it to the top is certainly in question. It's very, very cold and the air will be thinner than anything I have ever experienced. Altitude sickness is a real possibility. Brenda Grove and I have each invested approximately $240 into the climb.
We are required by Tanzanian law to have a guide, and we also hired a porter to carry our backpacks, which will make it, in that respect, easier than other mountains I have climbed. Still, it is one of the highest mountains in the world that people climb on a regular basis without using oxygen.. About 70% of those who attempt it make it to the top. The money spent on the experience is a good incentive to go further even if you are a little sick. Virtually everyone gets headaches.
Arusha, Tanzania, 13 February 1987: I celebrated my first full year of travel on a high point -- 19,340 feet (5895 meters). It was physically and psychologically the most exhausting and euphoric experience I've ever felt. The first few days of the climb between 6000 and 15,500 feet where relatively easy; but the ascent to the summit and the subsequent descent back down to a "breathable" elevation required a dozen hours of hell for a brief, but worthwhile, taste of heaven. Once on top, although frosted by a below zero Fahrenheit wind chill and intoxicated by the lack of oxygen, I didn't want to come down. I wanted to stay on top long enough to savor the memory forever. I had to suppress tears and euphoria because it would cause me to have too high of a heart rate and make me winded.
About 70% of those who attempt the summit make it to Gillman's Point (18,400 feet), at the lower edge of the volcanic crater. A much smaller percentage makes it to the true summit. Most acquire a variety of symptoms of altitude sickness before they reach the top and choose to go down or must be brought down. Luckily, I had no problems that warranted giving up. Brenda, likewise, made it to the top with me, experiencing only minor illnesses.
It was an extravagant adventure by my standards, at $36 per day for six days. Otherwise, one year of travel for me has cost about $9000, or less than $25 per day.
Kwa heri (Goodbye),
Sir Edmund Hillery
We're now at Musoma on Lake Victoria and heading toward Mwanza tomorrow where hopefully we can catch a boat, if it in fact exists. Most information we get around here, even from people who are supposedly authorities, turns out to be nothing more than hearsay or a best guess.
Love,
David Livingstone, I presume
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