Mountain

Interview with Writer/Photographer M.G. Edwards

Special thanks to artist, editor and cover designer extraordinaire Elinor Mavor for interviewing me about my book Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill.

Click here to read the article.

Elinor’s blog, Mavor Arts, cover the arts and pop culture as well as various artists, famous and almost famous, sometimes herself, plus talented family and friends. I’m honored that she included me as a writer/photographer. The photos posted were taken by me or my travel companions during our Kilimanjaro climb in December 2010-January 2011.

Kilimanjaro photo licensed from ShutterStock.

About Elinor Mavor

Elinor Mavor is a professional art director, editor, writer and illustrator. She is a longtime contributor of artwork for the advertising, publishing and gaming industries. Her popular blog, Mavor Arts, features articles about her own work plus other well-known and emerging artists. She has been an editor since 1978 and was Editor and Art Director for two famous magazines, Amazing Stories and Fantastic Stories. Since 1982, she has edited magazines, newsletters, brochures and more recently started editing novels and designing cover art for self-published authors. With more than a decade of experience in full service graphic design and illustration, Elinor knows what is involved in designing, illustrating, writing and producing a project from conception to printed piece. Her BEHANCE Network/My Portfolio includes samples of her cover artwork. She welcomes writers who need editing services, including copy editing, proofreading, and critiquing, and/or book cover designs for their books. Click here to contact her.

M.G. Edwards is a writer of books and stories in the mystery, thriller and science fiction-fantasy genres. He also writes travel adventures. He is author of Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill, a non-fiction account of his attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain and a collection of short stories called Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories. His books are available as an e-book and in print on Amazon.com and other booksellers. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife Jing and son Alex.

For more books or stories by M.G. Edwards, visit his web site at www.mgedwards.com or his blog, World Adventurers. Contact him at me@mgedwards.com, on Facebook, on Google+, or @m_g_edwards on Twitter.

The Majesty of Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro looms large in my book, Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill, a chronicle of my attempt to summit the highest mountain in Africa.

The iconic mountain is a sight to behold. I can think of nothing better to capture the feeling of what it’s like to behold this magnificent peak than to share with you some photos of the mountain and short excerpts from the book. I hope that they will give you a glimpse of the majesty that radiates from Mount Kilimanjaro and put you on the mountain.

“I slithered out of my tent and stumbled into an incredibly majestic view of the Kilimanjaro summit. The clouds parted and the sun appeared, brightening the landscape and warming the air. Kibo Peak rose high in all its glory, as if to say that only those who were worthy could behold her full beauty. Lacey folds of snow lay gently in crevasses made by long-vanished glaciers that raked the mountainside. I was mesmerized by the amazing view and gazed at it for what seemed like an eternity. At that moment, there was nowhere else on Earth I wanted to be.”

“Kibo Peak reached for the sky yet looked close to the touch, and it beckoned me to head for the summit, a temptation that flattered me with a false confidence. I could not have chosen a better relief for my morning stretch. I faced the mountain and stretched in ways that made me look as if I were performing a sacred rite. I bowed and prostrated my body like a supplicant in a traditional ceremony, casting my arms and legs about in an elaborate ritual. The sunlight painted the landscape in surreal colors. The rock was more brilliant and the shadows deeper and more pronounced in the sunlight. I turned around in mid-exercise and beheld the Serengeti unfurling for miles across the plains into Kenya. Some claimed that Mount Kilimanjaro offered the best views in the world. Looking down on the world below, I had to agree.”

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The Plant Life of Kilimanjaro

Plant life is featured in my book Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill, which chronicles my attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. The book is on sale now as an e-book for $3.99 and in paperback for $9.99 from Amazon and other booksellers.

Diverse vegetation from different climate zones graces the slopes of Kilimanjaro. One of the more unique places on Earth, the mountain lies in Africa’s Afromontane region that straddles the Equator with clusters of freestanding mountains and plateaus surrounded by lowlands. A sky island more at home in the far reaches of the northern and southern hemispheres than the equatorial tropics, Kilimanjaro has amazing biodiversity.

Within days, mountaineers can hike through five different climate zones. These are:

Lowlands: Between 2,600 and 5,900 feet (790-1,800 meters), this is the subtropical area located just above the Serengeti plains. An area with heavier rainfall, its vegetation is dominated by banana, coffee, and other plants grown as crops.
Rainforest: Between 5,900 and 9,200 feet (1,800-2,800 meters), this is a subtropical rainforest rich with plant and animal life. The widest variety of flowering plants range in this zone.
Moorland and heather: Between 9,200 feet and 13,100 feet (2,800-4,000 meters), this area has less vegetation and is dominated by a few plant and animal species, including groundsels, lobelias, heather, and tree moss. Trees disappear above 13,000 feet.
Alpine or high desert: Between 13,100 and 16,400 feet (4,000-5,000 meters), this arid, semi-desert zone has no trees and few plants. Sage grass, hearty helichrysum flowers, moss, and thistles are common there.
Arctic or summit: Above 16,400 feet (5,000 meters), this is an arid zone with intense sunlight, thin air, and heavy snow and ice. Few to no plants grow there.

The southern and western slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro are wetter than its northern and eastern sides. The city of Arusha to the west of Kilimanjaro sits in a tropical bowl, while the Serengeti Plains to the northeast are dry.

Here are some of the species of plant I encountered during my climb.

Mackinder’s Gladiolus (gladiolus watsonioides)

African blood or fireball lily (scadoxus multiflorus)

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

Protea kilimandscharica

Kniphofia thomsonii

Giant fern

Stoebe kilimandscharica

Helichrysum meyeri johannis

The south side of Kilimanjaro is a fertile landscape filled with windswept views of stunted forests and swaths of vegetation. In the subtropical lowlands, wispy bunches of tree moss hang from the trees like tattered voiles ready to spring back to life when the rains return, transforming the forest into a fantasy land.

Tree moss, also known as old man’s beard or Spanish beard (usnea lichen)

Tree moss

Kilimanjaro impatiens (impatiens kilimanjari)

Hebenstretia (the white flowering plant)

Hebenstretia

Daisy bush (euryops)

Dead daisy bush (euryops)

Golden daisy bush (euryops brownei)

The north side of Kilimanjaro offers a more Alpine landscape with heather and moorlands dominated by tussock or bunch grass. The view there is more desolate and, in some ways, more intriguing as the vegetation quickly gives way to the exposed mountain. Mountaineers who climb fields of rust-tinged rocks are often left with the impression that they are on the surface of Mars.

Tussock or bunch grass

Hypericum revolutum

Dead helichrysum newii

Helichrysum newii

Stoebe kilimandscharica with bird

Dead philippia excelsa with bird

In the highlands, the view is dominated by groundsel trees, or dendrosenecios, with trunks like palms and topped with spiky leaf rosettes, as well a cactus-like flowering plant known as the lobelia deckenii.

Giant groundsel (senecio kilimanjari)

Giant lobelia deckenii with bird

Giant lobelia deckenii

Because few plants grow in the high desert, those that do such as sage grass and lobelia deckenii are photo ready. Unlike humans, the vegetation is hearty enough to survive the harsh climate on Kilimanjaro. Still, the mountain has a way of twisting everything at this altitude into bizarre and fascinating shapes.

Helichrysum meyeri johannis and lobelia deckenii

Helichrysum cymosum

Sage grass

Dead thistle (carduus keniensis)

If you’re thinking about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, imagine yourself hiking through these places over a few days. If you’ve already been there, I hope that these photos will bring back memories and help you put names to some of the beautiful foliage you saw on your way to and from the summit.

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