I took the title of this blog post from Ernest Hemingway’s book of the same name (which is actually a collection of short stories) as it seemed fitting for the photo’s I wanted to show you today.I took these two photo’s of Mt Kilimanjaro (or ‘Kili’ as she is affectionately known) a few weeks ago. The second one shows exactly where our farm is located – all 3500 acres of it completely dwarfed by Kili’s towering 5891 m (19344 feet) height.
At different times of the year … month …. day …. even the hour, she can look totally different, and she’s not always easy to photograph. In these photos I think that her snow looks like white icing sugar (frosting) dripping off a (still warm-from-the-oven) chocolate cake … mmmm !
Her snow cap has been a cause of concern and debate over the years, and researchers stated in 2007 that 85% of the ice which covered her in 1912 had completely disappeared, and that 26% of the ice which covered her in 2000 was also gone. An increase in the Earth’s surface temperature is one of the factors being blamed for this – and Kilimanjaro is not the only African mountain where this is happening.Some say that her ice cap will, in all likelihood, have completely disappeared within the next 20 years. It is hard to imagine this, and I really hope that they are wrong – for what would this magnificent extinct volcano be, without her ever changing blanket of snow ?
