From the ruins of Rome to the slopes of Kilimanjaro: a B.C. family’s 5-country trek

‘It was like a bunch of different holidays and vacations’ said Shannon Jackson.
Jude Jackson (right) said he didn’t quite know what to do after he summited Kilimanjaro. His father Aubrey (left) assured him that one day he would know.
1 / 1 Jude Jackson (right) said he didn’t quite know what to do after he summited Kilimanjaro. His father Aubrey (left) assured him that one day he would know. Advertisement
Happy, but also at a loss for words. That’s how Jude Jackson relates his feelings after having summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the highest peak in Africa.
He was on the trip of a lifetime, accompanied by his parents, Shannon and Aubrey Jackson of Williams Lake, B.C.
The last of five children to be living in the family home, Jude’s parents wanted to celebrate with their son as he entered the 12th grade and inched closer to life on his own.
Several months after their return, and with graduation now fast approaching, Jude told the Tribune he didn’t quite know how to process the whole experience.
The 17-year-old Lake City Secondary student had initially suggested the family go on a safari, but the trip grew into much more.
“The trip got bigger and bigger,” Shannon said in an interview with the Tribune.
A stopover in Italy becomes a vacation of its own
Travelling to African countries, the Jacksons learned, is no simple matter. Vaccines and visas need to be sorted, and when you add hiking up a mountain 5,895 metres above sea level, you’ve suddenly got much more to think about.
They needed to “acclimatize” before their long climb, so on their way to Africa they stopped for a week in Italy.
“I just kept saying it’s just a stopover, but we ended up doing quite a lot as well,” Shannon said.
The jetlag slowed the family down a bit, but it didn’t stop them from keeping busy every day of their visit. A daily dose of irresistible gelato, pastries, cheese and prosciutto also didn’t hurt.
The Jacksons spent four nights in Florence, and three in Rome. Aubrey celebrated his birthday with his family while visiting the Accademia Gallery of Florence and seeing Michael Angelo’s Statue of David with his own eyes.
Aubrey said he was swept away by the history and culture he encountered left and right while in Italy, especially when visiting Siena, where they glimpsed colourful festivities leading up to the Palio.
A centuries-long tradition, the Palio is a horse race involving 10 of the city’s 17 remaining ‘contrade,’ communities with deep historical ties whose members wear their emblems proudly.
“It absolutely fascinates me, and I want to witness it from beginning to end,” Aubrey said about the Palio.
The family visited all the highlights around Tuscany, then travelled to Rome via a fast train which moves at a maximum speed of 300 kilometres an hour. Their hotel room in the country’s capital overlooked parts of the Roman Forum, and they could see the Colosseum from the terrace.
Gorillas, and shifting perspectives
Shannon told the Tribune climbing Mount Kilimanjaro has been a dream of hers for at least 25 years, so she didn’t expect a trek into the forest to see some gorillas would outshine the thrill of fulfilling her dream.
But as she thought about the trip, she told the Tribune the moments she spent in the deep forest, wearing a mask and keeping a small distance while visiting a family of gorillas, was probably the highlight of the trip for her.
“I was just blown away,” she said.
There would be no gorillas on the safari they planned for in Kenya, but just next door in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park resides about half of the world’s population of mountain gorillas. So, Uganda was their next stop.
There was no guarantee they would encounter gorillas. Nevertheless, the Jacksons walked through the dense forest for about an hour with a small group of guides and tourists, hoping to get lucky.
“Next thing you know, we see one up in the tree and then there’s another one right beside my dad,