The Outdoor Enthusiast Next Door: Kraig Becker (Part 1)
This week's Outdoor Enthusiast Next Door is Kraig Becker. When he's not climbing Kilimanjaro or camping in the Serengeti, he works as an IT Manager for the Texas Society of Architects. He also maintains an excellent blog about adventure travel at The Adventure Blog.
Why do you travel? And why outdoor/adventure type travel?
Hmm…why do I travel? Well, there is that old cliche that travel is its own reward, and I truly do believe that. But, even as a kid I wanted to visit and explore far off places and experience different cultures. As I grew up, and actually had a chance to do that, the Wanderlust fully kicked in, and it hasn't let up yet. I just feel a need to explore these places and put myself outside my normal comfort zone to experience things that are extraordinary.
Outdoor/Adventure travel is simply what appeals to me. Sure, it's nice to stay in a five star resort as well, but that feels more isolated from the actual culture you are visiting. Plus, adventure travel means getting off the beaten path and doing things most people never experience. That appeals to me a lot.
I understand you recently returned from climbing Kilimanjaro. Tell me a little about your experiences.
The first week of the trip was dedicated to the Kilimanjaro climb. I was taking the Machame Route, which is well known for being one of the more scenic, and as I was to come to learn, harder routes. It certainly lived up to it's billing, as even from the first day, it was very beautiful, but also very vertical. While climbing Kili you actually pass through five different climate zones, starting with grasslands at the base, proceeding into rain forest when you actually start the trek, then going through moorlands, alpine desert, and finally polar at the summit. Each of these different zones meant that the scenery changed daily and helped to keep things very interesting.
One of the things I was most worried about before going was the effects that altitude would have on me. The summit is at 19,360 feet, which is higher than I'd ever climbed before. As it turns out, I suffered almost no effects of altitude, but the one that I did suffer from, was enough to keep me from the summit. While on the mountain, I had little to no sleep at all. The first day I may have gotten an hour and a half to two hours of light sleep, but from then on it was less than a half-hour a night, at best. So by the fifth day, the day before summit day, I was exhausted, but still not sleeping. As a result, I elected to not go for the summit, as I knew that it would be one long (12-14 hours) day. I still think that trekking the mountain was a great time and a wonderful experience.
In addition to the Kilimanjaro climb, you also went on a camping safari. What was that like?
It was five days in length, and consisted of three national parks in Tanzania. Lake Manyara, The Serengeti, and Ngorogoro gorge. The latter two are both World Heritage Sites, and are simply amazing. After a day of rest following the climb, four of us who really didn't know each other before hand, set out on the safari. We quickly bonded and became friends in the way that you only can with people who are of like minds and open to experiencing new things when they travel. I know that the new friends I made helped to enhance the experience all the more.
Our trip was a camping safari, which meant we'd be staying in tents right out on the Serengeti. For me, that was part of the experience, and staying in a lodge wasn't going to capture that same feeling. There were times when we would go to bed at night with a half-dozen elephants no more than a 100 yards away, and there were a number of times when you would wake up to the sound of some unidentifiable animal. At night you could hear the animals, not far away, as they moved about, struggled with predators, and went about their lives. Being a light sleeper, I also woke up regularly to the sound of footsteps outside the tent. I was never really sure what was out there, but I wasn't going to stick my head out to find out either. 
Throughout the days on safari we would travel in a modified Toyota Landcruiser (the days of the Land Rover are all but over) that would allow us to stand up with our heads out of the roof so we could observe and take pictures of, the wide variety of wildlife we would come across. We're talking dozens about dozens of elephants and giraffes, hundreds, if not thousands, of zebra, wildebeests, and gazelle and so much more. We were even lucky enough to see quite a few lions and one lone leopard. The leopard is quite rare and fairly difficult to spot.
The first stop on the safari was to Lake Manyara a national park in Tanzania. The park was fun and offered our first glimpse at the amazing wild life there, but it didn't in any way prepare us for our next stop, which was the Serengeti itself. The wide open spaces, vast grassland area, and great expanse of the legendary Serengeti is everything you could hope for and more. The variety of wildlife and unbelievable number of animals is staggering. We encountered elephants, lions, giraffes, wildebeest, and so much more, and in numbers too high to count. It was simply amazing and breathtaking at times.
After three days on the Serengeti, we spent the last night camping on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, and the last day exploring that wonderful place. The Crater is beautiful as well, and contains it's own self contained ecosystem with a whole host of creatures as well, including the very rare Black Rhino. It was also an amazing place, but unlike the Serengeti, it felt a bit more cramped there and you tended to run into more safari vehicles, even in the"low season". I can only imagine how crowded it could be during the high season.
A camping safari, to me, kept me close to nature at all times and made it feel more like a true adventure. Had I returned to a nice, safe, comfy lodge each night, it would have seemed surreal and detached, if that makes sense.
~admin
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wrote on
Wonderful interview. Well described, capturing the detail of the trip. Makes me want to travel.