Along with Christmas cards, Russian orphan calendar sales, holiday shopping and getting fit for the trip, I've now added "learn how to podcast" and (more importantly) "learn how to create a non-sucky podcast" to my list of things to do this month.
I've been able to find only one set of podcast-like audio files for Kilimanjaro, from a group called "Cops on Top" that climbs mountains in honor of police officers killed in the line of duty. Technically, what they recorded last January isn't really a podcast -- they called in every day to an answering machine from their satellite phone -- but the dozen or so short vignettes were intriguing to hear. (Especially the day they were on the summit -- they sounded more than a little short of breath!) It was good to hear that the weather they experienced was good; we will be hiking up the mountain at about the same time of year as they did.I also just discovered the Everest Podcast, which details the journey of "city slicker" Erick Tseng from San Francisco to Mt. Everest's Base Camp 3. I suspect the Flying Yanks' podcast in Africa will share a lot of similarities to Erick's. It seems to me that Erick should be considered a pioneer of adventure travel podcasting -- I highly recommend giving the Everest Podcast a listen.
In other news, I'm getting healthier... the daily gobs of phlegm are getting smaller. I'm pretty sure that I ended up with a touch of pneumonia; I finally dug into my supply of Ciproflaxin so I can get myself cleaned up. It's a good thing that I'm finally feeling better: There's only six weeks and a day left before the big iron bird takes me to Africa!
