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Raleigh woman will take on African mountain to raise money for UNC patients

For most people, a diagnosis of terminal cancer would be enough of a challenge to face. But Harriet Farb, who has incurable breast cancer, is taking on another physical conquest — climbing one of the world’s tallest mountains. Farb flies out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Jan. 10, bound for Tanzania and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Her ascent of the 19,340-foot peak will raise more than $10,000, which Farb is donating to the patient and family resource center at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Farb, who lives in Raleigh, has been a patient at UNC’s cancer center since 2001.

The resource center helps patients cope with the physical, emotional and financial strains of treatment. Assistance may come in the form of a prepaid gas card to defray travel expenses, a class on managing appearance changes or the use of a jaunty hat to cover a head newly bald from chemotherapy. Continue Reading…

Five-week trip full of adventures highlighted by the incredible people

Trekking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, white water rafting the mighty class-5 rapids of the Zambezi River, swimming at the edge one of the world’s highest falls, Victoria Falls, watching the cheetah kill on the plains of the Serengeti, dancing with the Masai warriors — these were all part of our five-week travel adventure in Tanzania and Zambia.

Along with my two friends, Lori Last and Sandy Turner, I travelled to Africa recently to trek to the summit of 5,898-metre-high Mount Kilimanjaro — the highest peak in the African continent and the world’s highest free-standing mountain. The non-technical climb in support of the Alzheimer Society of B.C. was one of myriad travel adventures we experienced during our five weeks in Tanzania and Zambia. Continue Reading…

Alex Menkhaus was going through a break up and needed something to clear his mind.

Why not climb a mountain? Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa to be exact.

“It was a suggestion from my sister,” said Menkhaus, 24, who immediately passed on the idea to his friend Kevin Hurley. “He really took to it more than I thought he would.”

Soon the word spread and the two recruited five other friends and family to embark on what some would say is the trip of a lifetime. But Menkhaus and the others didn’t just want to have an adventure-filled vacation. They decided to put up a Web site and turn their trip and experiences into a fundraising tool for the Network for the Improvement of World Health, a nonprofit operating in Tanzania. Continue Reading…

MOUNT KILIMANJARO, Tanzania — “Step by step, inch by inch” rang through my oxygen-deprived mind as I trudged the last 1,000 feet of the summit push toward an elevation of 19,478 feet.

The radiating sun slowly creeps across the frozen glacier field as my lips begin to go numb. I’m not thinking, I am just walking, walking … walking. A porter smiles at me and offers to take my pack, and I just shrug him off.

I am going to do this. I did not go all this way, ruin my heels with hellish blisters and eat porridge for nothing! My dad walks besides me, just talking, softly whispering words to me. Do I look at him? No. I have to keep my eyes on the target, and I absolutely cannot stop. Stopping would mean I quit. Stopping would mean the mountain beat me, and my competitive nature would not have it. Continue Reading…

Climate:
Tanzania is known for being hot all year round but humid on the coast and dry on the central plateau. Its it the hot and dry weather which attracts safari tourists especially in the months of January to March.

Time: GMT +3.
Electricity: 230 volts, 50Hz. Square or round three-pin plugs are used.

Language: Kiswahili and English are the official languages. Several indigenous languages are also spoken. Continue Reading…