Kilimanjaro Diaries ― Or, How I Spent a Week Dreaming of Toilets, Drinking Crappy Water, and Making Bad Jokes While Having the Time of My Life

Nowhere else but Africa can you expect to be completely pampered when embarking on a week of hardship!This realization convinces housewife, mother of four, and expat blogger Eva Melusine Thieme that her idea to climb Mount Kilimanjaro as the crowning achievement of her three years in Africa isn’t as crazy as it sounds. In fact, it has all the trappings of a dream vacation: no cooking, no fighting kids, no class parties to be organized, and an army of porters to lug everything up the mountain.But she soon finds out that the list of challenges and discomforts associated with scaling Kilimanjaro is long: sub-zero temperatures, blistered feet, long drop toilets (of which, you may learn, the drops are not nearly as long as they have once been, if you get the drift!), and the ever-threatening altitude sickness no one can quite escape from. Her climb turns into the greatest challenge she has ever faced, and ultimately she must make a fateful decision on that mountain, one that will have her question the meaning of life, identity, and family.Part guide book, part travel memoir, part history lesson, this story has something for everyone – the seasoned hiker, the aspiring Kilimanjaro trekker, the armchair traveler, the housewife and mother. You will find yourself smile and at times laugh out loud as Thieme takes you on her journey up the slopes of Kilimanjaro together with her teenage son and a group of hilarious and opinionated South African friends. From planning the trip to shopping for supplies to trudging uphill wishing with all her heart for an ice cold sip of water untainted by chlorination tablets, you will follow the author step by step on her quest to stand on the summit of Kilimanjaro or at least have a memorable time trying.Warning: You might be determined to climb Mount Kilimanjaro yourself after reading this book!