Kilimanjaro Signing Off!
June 30, 2025
Checking in one last time from Tanzania! Hailey and the kids are on their way to Amsterdam. As sad as we are to see this session come to end, we are all filled with so much gratitude for the experiences and adventures of the past three weeks!
Our last two days together were spent exploring Arusha and soaking up our time together. Yesterday morning we were able to sleep in, which was an amazing treat! Sam, Atticus, Emma, and Ophélia all got up early because their bodies were used to our early wake up time, but the rest of the crew slept in as much as they could. After breakfast we loaded into our safari cars one last time to make the final trek back to Arusha. We will miss our amazing guides and drivers Prayer and Arnold so much!
On our way back to Arusha, our first stop was at the A-freak-A tshirt store for one last souvenir! Lydie and Coco handed out snacks to local children on our way out and it was so sweet to see their generosity and kindness. We also stopped at a super market to pick up some snacks – Sam and Trey decided to go big and get a pizza and a cheese baguette! We continued our journey back to Arusha with one more stop at the local mall. Back at our hotel we began packing, showered, and got prepared for our final dinner together!
We had a lovely dinner outside and
Rachel’s beef order and Coco and Lydie’s bruschetta were the best! Ophélia accidentally ordered cold corn pudding, and that all gave us a laugh. After dinner we had a meaningful and giggle filled final Moonup filled with reflection and sharing our favorite memories. One of the LODs, AP, shared an amazing quote – known as the Bon Vivant Manifesto that summarized our love for adventure and living life to fullest. Our other LOD, Lydie, shared a hilarious Nug Jug story that had us all laughing. We went around and shared our favorite moments from the trip and also shared what we loved about each other. We all agreed that this was an incredibly special and tight knit group of people. After Moonup we all stayed up hanging out and laughing uncontrollably!! It might have been one of the funniest nights of the trip!
We slept in this morning and walked into town for coffees and sweet treats. After finishing up packing, we headed off to our final banquet lunch! We listened to our favorite songs and sang and danced our way there. Atticus is always the star of the show when Crazy Rap comes on, and the girls always love when we play Rihanna. We sat outside and soaked up the beautiful mountain views one last time. The winners of today’s best order went to Emma and Ophélia who got a chicken shawarma that everyone was jealous of! We chatted and played Paranoia as we enjoyed delicious food and good conversation.
We are so sad to see this session come to an end. This group is so close and has made the best memories together. It has been incredibly special for us to be their leaders these past three weeks. Thank you again for sharing your amazing children with us. We know that these memories and friendship will last a lifetime!
All our love!
Hailey and Duke
Sending Love from the Serengeti!
June 28, 2025
Jambo again from Tanzania!
After the big accomplishment of summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, we packed up and headed straight into the next adventure: Safari! Our first day was mostly a travel day from Arusha to the Ngorogoro Crater, but we made a fun stop at Safari Land – the ultimate tourist shop filled with souvenirs, snacks, and surprises. AP, Lydie, and Coco got matching Safari outfits which had the whole group laughing – just wait until you see the pictures! Lydie even mastered bartering skills for a discounted price! After a long week on the mountain, we were all happy to slow down a bit and get to bed early!
We woke up the next morning to zebras right outside of our tents – it was an amazing way to wake up!! Ophélia, Emma, and Hailey had a surreal moment walking to the bathroom and getting just steps away from them. This was our first safari animal to see, and it was so cool to have these beautiful animals so close to us. Once we loaded up the safari cars for the day, we drove into the heart of the Ngorogoro Crater, where we spotted flamingos, giraffes, lions, elephants, and ostriches. After lunch, we made our way from Ngorogoro into the iconic Serengeti to continue our safari adventures. On our way into the Serengeti, we got to see a lioness right by our safari cars! That night, we fell asleep to the sounds of lions roaring in the distance, and we know it is something that none of us will forget.
Day three started with a peaceful sunrise as we peeked out of our tents. The day was very relaxing with a game drive in the morning and one in the evening. The highlight of the morning was definitely the hippos, which were so cute, funny, and stinky! We drove with the windows down, listening to music and taking in all the beauty. On our way back to camp for lunch, Atticus spotted a crocodile, and it was the perfect send-off for our morning game drive. Back at camp, we enjoyed lunch and soaked up the sun until it was time to head back out. The afternoon game drive was a big one – we saw a pride of at least ten lions, and even baby elephants playing in the grass! One of the elephants had a fifth leg (ask your kids). We ended the day with a magical Serengeti sunset from the top of our safari cars. We closed out the night at Moonup with a meaningful quote that Rachel shared from her book: “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” This resonated with all of us as we reflected back on the challenging, yet extremely rewarding, experience of climbing Kili!
Today we were up early for one final sunrise, and it was our best safari day yet. We saw a leopard (the hardest of the Big Five to spot!), a cheetah, and a male lion – all before lunch! Trey captured amazing photos of the leopard, and we can’t wait to show you all the amazing photos from the group, and in particular, our star photographer, Lydie. While Trey, AP, and Lydie have been taking amazing photos, Ophélia has been capturing all of our funniest moments with her GoPro! Our guide, Prayer, told us we were extremely lucky with our sightings, and we all agreed that seeing the leopard and cheetah was the best way to close out our time on the safari.
Atticus, Sam, and Duke spent most of the week with their heads poking out the top of the safari cars, living in the moment and soaking up the Serengeti. Meanwhile, the girls’ car was an adventure of its own with lots of singing and dancing. Our Texas girl, Emma, even said she’s officially a country music fan now!
As we wrap up our safari section, we’re filled with gratitude. Thank you so much for sharing each of your amazing kids with us – these past three weeks have been filled with laughter, adventure, growth, and memories that we’ll all carry for years to come. This group of nine is something truly special!
Sending love from the Serengeti,
Hailey and Duke
Shoutouts:
Rachel: Hey guys! Thank you so much mom and dad for letting me come to Kili! This is one of the best trips ever with some of the best people! I know I’ll remember this trip and cherish these memories forever. Say hi to everyone for me, I love you guys and I can’t wait to see yall soon!
Sam: Thank you for sending me on Kili. best trip I’ve been on thank you.
AP: Hi family! Thank you so so much for sending me on Kili. It’s been absolutely life changing and definitely some of the best people. Absolutely eye opening. I can’t wait to see everyone and tell pip I say hi. I love yall!
Coco: Hey guys!! Thank you mom and dad for giving me the opportunity to come to Kili! It has seriously been the best experience ever, I love yall!
Trey: Hey everyone! I Miss you all a lot, but don’t miss me too much, Tanzania is incredible. I’ll see you soon!
Atticus: thank you for sending me on this trip I’m having a great time.
Lydie: Hiiii fam! I am seriously having the most amazing time here and am beyond grateful that you guys sent me on this trip. I am so excited to see yall soon and tell you everything! Love you guys tons!!
Emma : Hi! Miss yall so much and see yall soon. Thanks so much for sending me on this trip I am having the best experiences ever.
Ophélia: Hi Mum hi Papa, miss you both! Can’t wait to see both of you. I have had a great time!!
Climbin Killi
June 24, 2025
Kwema from Kilimanjaro!!
Before we dive into the incredible week we just experience on Kilimanjaro, we wanted to start by saying that we are so proud and happy that the whole group made it to the top!!! We summited Mount Kilimanjaro at 19,341 feet!
Our journey began on Wednesday morning as we made our way from Arusha to Machame Gate. At the Machame Gate, we had a delicious lunch and met our porters and guides who would turn into family by the end of the journey. We each had individual porters who carried our duffels, and four amazing main guides, Samia, Samwell, Naza, and Lighty. One of our favorites, Samwell, told Ophélia at lunch that she speaks Swahili as well as a local! After fueling up and meeting our team, we started our trek through the rainforest, one of Kilimanjaro’s five ecosystems. We ended Day 1 by hiking in the dark with monkeys all around us. Although we arrived at camp in the dark, we were greeted with a warm dinner, and were even more excited to get up in the morning and see our first glimpse of the summit from afar!
Our second day of trekking began with seeing a blue monkey on our way out of the rainforest! We woke up early and hiked from Machame camp to Shira camp, which was a shorter day. Atticus led the pack and we made it to camp for a late lunch. We had a delicious meal of pasta and bolognese. This lunch was long and filled with many wild conversations. It’s safe to say that this group is absolutely hilarious! Today was the first day that we started to feel the effects of the altitude, and we were all a little bit gassy…
On day three we experienced our first real day of acclimatization where we “hiked high” and “slept low.” Everyday we have been taking our hikes very “pole pole” which means slow slow to help with acclimatization as well. We hiked through the Moorland zone, and Coco, one of our LODs, led the way. Despite it being a chilly and challenging day, we successfully made it to the Lava Tower for lunch at 15,200 feet! This is the highest that anyone in our group has ever been!! We finished the day by hiking down to Barranco camp at 13,000 feet and getting to bed early to rest up for the days ahead!
On day four we hiked from Barranco camp to Karanga camp. This hike started with the infamous Barranco Wall, also known as Breakfast Wall, as many people lose their breakfast while scrambling the huge wall. Thankfully, this was not our group’s fate and everyone did amazing. The top of Barranco Wall typically provides an amazing view of the top of Kilimanjaro, but unfortunately it was completely cloudy when we made it to the top. The way down to camp was also very cloudy and misty, and this day proved to be the most mentally challenging so far. Our porters knew exactly what we needed after a tough day and we were greeted with a delicious pizza lunch! The group was also able to bring our spirits back up by enjoying our afternoon routine of popcorn, tea, and games in the dining tent. One of our favorite porters, Eric, taught us how to play a Tanzanian card game called “Last Card,” and we listened to music and played music for the rest of the afternoon. AP and Lydie braided all of the girls hair in preparation for our summit bid the next night. At dinner, Sam coined the nickname “Pilipili Kichaa” for his love of the crazy hot chilies. Duke, Sam, Atticus, and Trey all spent time stargazing after dinner, and we had an amazing view of the Milky Way.
On day five, we hiked from roughly 13,000 feet at Karanga camp to 16,000 feet at Upper Barafu Camp, also known as Kili base camp! We had an early dinner at 5pm and were all asleep by 7pm for our wake up call just a few hours later for our summit bid!
Our summit night was fueled by Scandinavian Swimmers gummies, fruit roll ups, and celsius packets, mint candies from Samia, and motivations from one another. Our hiking beasts, Atticus and Rachel, were our amazing LODs for summit night! We woke up at 11 pm and pushed off from camp around 12:30 pm. From 12:30 pm to 5:30 am, we hiked in the dark, guided by our headlamps and the amazing stars. Trey used one of our breaks to turn off his headlamp and admire the amazing stars above us. It was a new moon on our summit night, so it was especially dark, but this allowed us to enjoy the stars even more! We took breaks every hour, and our moral and energy grew exponentially when we saw the sun start to rise around 5:30 am. We turned the speaker on and enjoyed music and the most amazing sunrise of our lives! We can’t wait to show you the pictures! It was at the point that we all knew that the whole group was going to make it to the summit. The energy and vibes were through the roof!! We pushed up to Stella Point for our final break and our first true view of the summit. After fueling with more snacks and water, we began our final push to the summit. The final push was mostly in the snow, but we knew the summit was so close. Getting to the summit was amazing, and there were even tears of joy shed! Our porters practically ran us down the mountain, and we all had so much fun sliding in the scree on our quick descent back to base camp. After lunch and a quick nap, we woke up and headed down to a lower camp.
We woke up today and finished our push down the mountain. Emma had us all laughing as she kept slipping in the mud, and we all felt such pride making it through the Mweka gate at the base. We were bummed to say goodbye to our fantastic porters, as we truly couldn’t have done it without them! We are now on our way back to Arusha, and we can see Mount Kilimanjaro from a far, which is making us all feel very proud of our recent accomplishment! Ophélia is sharing quotes she took down throughout the past week, and we are all dying laughing. This group has inside jokes galore and is always laughing. Duke and I absolutely love this crew, and we are so proud of them! We can’t wait to celebrate our amazing accomplishment and experience the Serengeti with them on our safari section! Talk soon!!
Sending love from Kili,
Hailey and Duke
Killing it on Killi
June 17, 2025
Jambo from Tanzania!! The group arrived safe and sound with high energy and spirits on Tuesday night. Once we reached our hotel for the night, we shared our first meal together and had a Moonup full of laughter. The avocado tree above us had its eyes set on Sam, as avocados kept dropping all around him – and the mysterious bird in the tree kept chiming in to say hello. We laughed our way through Moonup and into the night. It’s safe to say that this group is hilarious and has already grown so close!
The next morning, we woke up and headed to our next destination for the service portion of the trip. This past week has been an incredible time of getting to know one another and immersing ourselves in the local culture. Our first LODs (Leaders of the Day), Trey and Lydie, helped everyone settle into our amazing campsite upon arrival.
The next day, we began our community service at the Mungere School just outside the town of Mto Wa Mbu. On day one, we toured the school, met the kids, and played soccer with them. Soccer MVPs of the day were Rachel, Coco, and Emma!
The rest of the service days were filled with helping around the school and forming amazing bonds with the kids. On day three of service, we met the students in their village and walked with them to school. It was a beautiful walk through several small villages and past scenic rice fields. After working on our project, we played basketball with the kids, and many of us got our hair braided. The next day brought even more braiding – Emma and Coco came out with the best French braid styles!
We also shared music and dances with the kids, and had so much fun learning their favorite moves to each of their songs. That afternoon, we stopped at a local art studio on the way home from school. We were all stunned by the beautiful artwork, especially Rachel! Many of us picked up paintings to bring home. Next, we visited a woodworking shop where we learned about the types of wood locals use to make hand-carved animals, utensils, and more. Bradford and Coco even got to try sanding down one of the wooden creatures at the shop. A highlight of the afternoon was tasting the local cuisine-Foo Foo-at the woodworking shop! The group had been dying to try Foo Foo, and everyone was thrilled, especially Lydie!
One of the best parts of this past week has been our amazing campsite. We’ve been enjoying delicious meals and great company. Our afternoons have been filled with swimming, relaxing by the pool, card games, and our favorite lawn game, “Suie”, with a soccer ball. This group also loves music and has created an awesome playlist. AP, Atticus, and Sam have bonded over their love of metal and rock music and are slowly converting the rest of us too! We all agree that the stars have been the best part of the campsite-they’ve been absolutely breathtaking every night. Trey even saw his first-ever shooting star, and Bradford said the stars were the best she’s ever seen!
The group has been having so much fun. Sam keeps everyone laughing, and Rachel’s kindness is contagious. Ophelia and Emma have impressed us with their language skills-the whole group was in awe when Emma spoke French with other visitors at the campsite. We’ve all been learning lots of Swahili words, sayings, and numbers, but Opélia has taken it to the next level. Whenever we need help remembering a word in Swahili, she’s our go-to girl!
We’re back in Arusha now, preparing for our Kilimanjaro climb tomorrow! This group is incredibly close, and we’re so excited to see how much they’ll grow over the next week. The energy and excitement for the climb are buzzing, and we know this group is going to crush it!
It’s been an amazing first week-filled with service, connection, laughter, and memories. The group has not only formed strong bonds with the local children but has also built such a special connection with one another. Thank you so much for sharing each of them with Moondance and with us for this incredible three-week adventure. The energy and vibe of the group wouldn’t be the same without each and every one of them. They rock!
– Hailey and Duke
Here are a few words from our crew!
Lydie: Hey family! Dad, happy late Father’s Day! I miss you guys so so much but I am having the most amazing time. Africa is beautiful and y’all would love it! I can’t wait to tell you guys everything when I get back. I got some awesome art to bring home to y’all and other than that I haven’t made any shopping errors. Hudson i hope your life isn’t too miserable without me! Tell my friends i love them so much and iI can’t wait to see them! Don’t miss me too much 🙂 Love yall! -Lydie
Sam: What’s up. Miss y’all. Happy Father’s Day. I’m having so much fun. I’m about to go climb Kili.
AP: Hey guys! We just finished amazing service and are prepping for Kili. Africa is absolutely amazing. I miss y’all so so much and give Pippa a treat for me. My group is amazing and Happy Father’s Day! I think I might need a new bathing suit for the 4th of July wink wink. Love yall!!- Pricey
Bradford: Hi family and whoever is reading I miss yall sm! I am having sm fun with my group. We just finished service and are about to start hiking Kili I am nervous but excited ! This place is really cool. Can’t wait to get back and tell yall about it. Happy Father’s Day dad! Don’t miss me too much I am thinking about yall!! Love brad
Atticus: What’s up. All is going well. Happy Father’s Day. Hope all is going well. Having a blast. About to climb Kilimanjaro. Can’t wait to see you.
Emma: Hey guys what’s up. I hope y’all are enjoying y’all’s trip!! We just finished a week of super fun service and now going to hike Kili tomorrow then safari. Ophelia and I met some french people who had just come back and showed us pics, so beautiful. Happy Father’s Day Dad miss you. Mom you are going to actually love me I bought you the most beautiful African art for the house. Miss y’all and see you soon.
Ophélia: Hi Mum and Papa. Tu me manques! I’m having a great time and I discovered a new skill of
mine; Bartering! I have been super curious since getting to Tanzania and I have learned how to count to 100 in Swahili which is pretty cool. I know how to say a couple of other things as well. I’m really looking forward to summiting Kili and i can wait to show you guys the souvenirs I bought, they are all things useful! See you soon also dad I still have your credit card so do not worry.
Coco: Hey guys! I’ve missed you all!! I’m having so much fun!! Right now we’re prepping for Kili and we will be starting the climb tomorrow!! I’m a little nervous but im trying to get a good insta post so I will just have to push through it. I am super excited for the elephants and giraffes! I hope you guys are having fun at home and happy late Father’s Day dad! Also give bibble and poofa lotssss of kisses for me! Please pick me up with wingstop! 🥺 Africa is super pretty though! I have lots of pictures and stories to tell when I get back! See yall soon!!!
Trey: Hey Everyone! We’re climbing tomorrow (don’t worry, I’ve been drinking lots of water) and I can’t wait! The past week has been changing and inspiring. I have gained endless new perspective. Tanzania is absolutely magical, I’ve never been somewhere like it. I hope to return one day! The group is so much fun!
Together At Last!
June 11, 2025
Hello Kilimanjaro Families!
We are excited to report that our last student has safely landed in Tanzania. The group is so excited to be all together, and we 100% share in that excitement! Trip updates and a group photo are to come… Stay tuned!
Cheers,
Moondance HQ
Safe Arrival!
June 10, 2025
Hello Kilimanjaro Families!
We heard from our leaders this afternoon that the group landed safely! One student’s flight was delayed, but they will be greeted by a leader at the airport and join the group soon. The group is so excited to start their adventure together!
Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips, but we will be posting trip updates throughout the next week! This will allow you to follow along with the trip. You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to!
– Moondance HQ
