Introduction

Recently I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. I wanted to share my experiences with my friends and for anyone wishing to climb the mountain themselves. This blog (I hope) will contain a dairy of my experiences and a section on advice for future trekkers. I hope you enjoy reading it and fell free to refer anyone to this blog.

Footnote
Written English is not a strength of mine so I apologize for any mistakes any, feel free to make any corrections by leaving a comment in this blog.

Feed Back and Visitors book

All visitors are invited sign the visitors blog by leaving a comment on this page (no registration required).

Contents

The first day on the mountain is on Day 4
Advice for trekkers will be at the end

Kilimanjaro Diary

Intro in September whilst I was in my final year of school 2 representatives from a trekking company came to our school to give a presentation on a expedition the school was going to do to summit the highest mountain in Africa. The idea of this instantly grabbed my attention and I knew that I had to do it. After some research and a lot of ‘discussions’ with my parents (my dad wasn’t too keen) I decided that it would be best if I went independent of the school.


The task now was to choose a route and a trekking organisation, this proved to be quite difficult and luckily I got a book for Christmas ‘Kilimanjaro: a trekking guide to Africa highest mountain’ by Henry Stedman. This book was invaluable and very interesting I would recommend this book to anyone going to climb Kili. Though this book I chose a company called Adventure Alternative (AA) [more on them to come later]. They offered the machame rout with final assent via the western breach. This sounded good and so I booked this any my flights.

Day 1 -Arrival into Nairobi

Arrival in jomo kenyatta International Airport (Nairobi). Early, but then a 1hr 20 min queue to get a visa (advice: try to get one before going). From here I was meet my some local staff of Adventure Alternative and was driven to the ‘Nairobi Park Services Campsite’ where a bed with mosquito net was available for $15 per night. The room was fine and the staff were friendly it was here I meet the Irish contingent of the team. I was quite tired at this point and had a burger and chips and headed of to bed.

Some thing to note at this points is that most guide books say that Nairobi is 3 hrs ahead of GMT, note that while this is true, Tanzania is so close to the equator that there is no need to summer time and as such it is only 2hrs ahead of BST.

Day 2 -Transfer from Nairobi to Moshi

Met by bus at 8:00 where we where joined by Rosy (an African working for AA), we then drove to the airport and picked a pair of sisters from Leicester, one at Exeter university and the other a police officer in the met.

East African drivers are to be admired for there positively offensive driving style I don’t think defensive driving is a concept that most east Africans understand. This made the drive to Arusha some 6 hours away an experience in its self. There was some pleasure to be taken out of it whilst overtaking Lorries around blind corners, you could stare into the open country side and watch villagers go about the daily business. Interestingly each shop had coke-cola boarding outside it seems the whole of Africa was sponsored by coke-cola! Next came the border crossing point between Kenya and Tanzania this involved filling out two forms one to say we are planning to leave Kenya and another to say we are planning to go into Tanzania (by the end of this I’m going to be able to recite my passport number from the top of my head).

Well luggage trodden on and touts persuaded that we really didn’t want to buy anything. We were on our way. Shortly after leaving the crossing point we passed a small mountain that I for a moment thought could be the great kili but no such luck. I should have know by the fact it’d peak was below the cloud base. After 2hrs of more heart stopping driving we arrived in Arusha were a quick toilet stop and change of bus and soon we were on our way to Moshi. Moshi was to be our main base where people could organise equipment and further travels such as safaris and beach holidays. We soon arrived at the keys annex hotel that seem very appealing with swimming pool and individual room but its best feature was the (once the cloud cleared) the view from the court yard on to Kilimanjaro.

We were beginning to appreciate that it was winter in east Africa at the moment and so this meant that day time temperature were moderate (little over 25) and that evenings were cool for the heat go in December!.

Day 3 -A Day Spent in Moshi

A day spent in Moshi. Today we had the chance to recover from the flight build up energy supplies in order to make sure we were fresh to make our assault on the mountain. After an attempted lazy morning, sometimes it’s just hard to stay in bed for too long (I didn’t think I would ever say that) we took a mini bus into town. Moshi it seems is based around a main high street (called kibo road according to my guide book) with side streets going of from it. After a quick tour around Moshi including the market and the travel agents we went for lunch in a small open air restaurant (I can’t remember the name if anyone knows email me). If the name does appear I would not advise anyone to go there ever those that were with me will know why.

It was then back on the bus to the hotel and start packing and preparing for the trip and the debate as to what to put in your bag I will put my suggestions in a separate blog.

Day 4 -Hotel to Macheme Gate to Macheme Camp (long day!)

The expedition begins.

There is a general feeling in the groups that its time to get started. We get on the bus to get to the gate at about 9:00am and after a fascinating drive to the gate though villages and farms we get to the gate from here we bundle out and join the queue to register this take about an hour due to the number of people starting that day.

The start of the trail in a 4x4 track which then after a while goes to a well maintained single track. I won’t give a detailed description of the trail the whole way up partly because I can’t remember it and partly because a detailed description is given in Henry Stedman’s guide mentioned above.

The scenery consisted of mostly rainforest; the high light of the day was seeing monkeys in the trees. If you are on this trail during a busy time as we were it is unlikely that you will see the monkeys unless it is quite. The first view of the mountain is also available today though the tree towards the end of the day, it seems a long way off and an impossible target but it also look a lot closer than in the hotel

The first campsite is a strange one this is sporadic set amongst the trees on a slight gradient and at an altitude of 3000m. There was a low cloud base so we could see the sunset and the night sky get ever clearer. We had a late start and a long walk so when supper was ready it was getting quite dark but a supper that was not to be missed. I don’t eat many vegetables but due to a mixture of cold and exertion I eat everything on my plate that night.

Day 5 -Macheme Camp to New Shira Camp

Today will take us from just above the rain forest though the slowly decreasing in size trees until we reach an altitude where only small shrubs grow sporadically and the odd hardy bush or tree passing on our way lobelia deckenii in its various stages from upshot to large plant in flower and example can be found .

Sunrise brought with it an amazing out look onto a sea of clouds at around 2800m- 3000m this was to become our base level in terms of view of the rest of the trip. The only other mountain visible above the ‘sea’ was meru some 100 km or so away. This gave us the benifit of a clear night sky and a bright waxing moon.


There were some truly tremendous views to be had today along the many rest stops, our guide Cornel took us to one that really did give us a fantastic view to the Kibo peak and from the southwest. Once we came over the plateau ridge we were blessed with a view across the shira plateau towards Kilimanjaro’s third and smallest range of peaks. This showed us the benefit of the ascending via the Macheme route with peak reaching towards the sky such as cathedral and needle.


Tonight’s camp although larger as it is where 2 tails combine (shira and macheme) the camp was much flatter reaching over towards the shira caves. It is these fairly small low caves that porters used to sleep sometimes as many as 50. After digging out some unwanted stones from underneath my roll mat it was off to bed for a second night this time at an altitude of 3830m (12500’). Called New Shira Camp.

Day 6 - Rest Day at New Shira Camp

Due to our sudden rush from 1600m to 3830m in about 30hrs today was need to acclimatise. Most of us were feeling some effects. I my self had a small hang over and was getting out of breath by going to the toilet at night.

We woke late, well as late as you can when camping and found that we where pretty much alone on the campsite as everyone else had moved on over night. We the proceeded to take a short walk to an outpost called The Shira Huts.

We were travelling over the far edge of the Shira plateau and the purist would argue that it was not part of the plateau. The ground was undulating and strewn with basalt boulders and stones that where clearly the produce of the volcano. We arrived at the huts swiftly in a round 45 minutes. Here we stopped for a bout an equal amount of time and chatted about out lives back home. Indeed this seemed to be the content of most conversations on the trip, I learnt more about Ireland and its education system then I ever had! (Most of the Irish were teachers of some sort or even parents).

It was on the way back that I caught my first hit that my old schools groups might be camping at the New Shira Camp. I had done my research the night before and it look as if there where 2 routs they could possible take a higher, more northern camp at Shira 2 camp or ours. I was more likely to be our camp. As we walked back a porter came past carrying a bag bearing the name “The Great Walks”. I knew that this was the company that the school has gone with so it was highly possible that this was there group, as it is a small tour agency.

It was later that afternoon after some lunch and a lie-down in the sun that the bags met up with there owners (as is nearly always the case in Kilimanjaro). I then plodded over to investigate the large camp of yellow and grey tents. It was as expected the small band of merry men (and women) of Dean Close School. After an exchange of tails I went on my way thinking would not see them again whist on the mountain.

Day 7 -New Shira Camp to Lava Tower Camp (uncomplete)

So today we started walking again this day although not too strenuous did have a large altitude jump going from 3830m to 4600m in under 5 hours. The walk also showed the decay in density of flora. The start of the walk there was I large amount with the odd tree or bush albeit a little scrawny. This gradually decreased and by the end of the day we had truly entered eh alpine dessert of the higher slopes of Kilimanjaro. It is in this climate that precipitation is rare. So how is there snow on top I hear you call, clouds are formed below 3000m and then pushed up by the southerly winds but as this only happens occasionally the south face seldom see rain.

The start of the walk is made by meandering though the campsite but you soon find yourself of the spine of a hill with a valley either side of you before long, a path can be seen, mostly from the porters along it rather than a scar on the mountainside. This is on the left hand side is a rarely used path that comes from Shira 2 camp. Soon after this the path that leads down into the karanga valley can be seen. This second path is the one taken if the western breach is not the chosen route of assent and lead across the face of the mountain. Our path seemed to laugh at this and marched directly for the top.

It was at this crossing of paths that I had a surprise encounter with the dean close bunch again. They had just finished there lunch and were taking a detour to see the lava tower. This meant that I could walk with them for a half hour or so. More exchanging of tails and piss taking followed.

The lava tower was to become one of the many great surprises for my trip. Standing a little under 100m form its base it presents a shear rock face to Kibo the main peek and was not until the next day that we could appreciate its full size. After lunch and an hour or so break we made our attempt to bag our first summit in Kilimanjaro. The route describe in the itinerary as ***COPY SECTION*****. Proved to be a little more interesting involving a fair bit of scrambling, I was starting to wish that I had worn trainers rather than my large wide soled boots but I made it.

The view from the top was very impressive and gave a clear outline of the pervious days walk. It also allowed us a unique opportunity to look down on our camp. Acclimatization was also on the agenda as we had gone about 100m from the camp at its base. We had come from 3800m today and were now standing at 4700m. If the accent was interesting descending was downright challenging.

The campsite was an interesting affair situated in the saddle between the mountain and the tower it is a trap for wind which rushes between the two. The state of the toilets also worsened with altitude as the layer of earth before the rock decreased.

Day 8 Lava Tower Camp to Arrow Glacier Camp

This trek is only 2 hours and is really just a little further over the ridge but it takes the traveller to the base of the western breach. Its purpose is to take 2 hrs of the summit attempt and for that alone it is very useful. The camp is also more sheltered that the previous allowing more chance of sleep before the attempt is made on Uhuru.

As aforementioned the summit bid is made form this camp and so therefore time spend that we spend here was little, in order to compete the next day in day light, it is started at night (at 12 o’clock to be precise). This camp site also gave us a chance to look at the task ahead in daylight. The western breach is not to be laughed at.

The walk over the camp is a fairly dull walk if such a walk can exist on Kilimanjaro. The most interesting view comes from looking back at the lava tower form the top of the ridge; from here you can see it in all its spender. The other view that will fixate the viewer is seeing the cliff face to the right of the breach that seems to act as a guardian. This is a view that can be seen almost form day one but today you rest at the bottom of it.

It really hit home today that were almost there form being a distant view from day one and even further form the hotel we are now just about to make commence our final day of going up.

Day 9 SUMMIT DAY

Well today’s the day I’ve been waiting for a very long time. An early rise with a very welcome cup of coffee comes at around 12 o’clock. Kit had been packed the night before it simply a case of replacing layers that I had put on the night before, grab poles and wait. It was at this point that it was starting to get quite aggravated I just wanted to get gone; 0100hrs had passed by the time we got moving and that was a welcome sight. It was a quite walk; I my self was focus on the task up ahead and did not was not up to conversation about home, I think the others where thinking along the same lines.

The walk started my going straight while the scree was shallow but before 30 yards had passed the zigzags started. It is a sign of how little used this route is that you cannot see the mark of the path in daylight. It was before long (about an hour) that we started to do a bit of scrambling. This was to be nothing compared to the scrambling that lay up ahead. After a little while I started to develop a head ach that I could tell was going to develop in to a banging altitude head ach I had so far managed to avoid, so I popped a painkiller. I was using Advil to thin blood to help with altitude as so could not take that so I took an ibrofen instead. It was after around 3:30 I think that we got the courage up to ask our guide how far it was until the top, we though that we were doing quite well but the truth was we where under half way to the crater rim. The moral of the group plummeted. Although the route had been pointed out to us by the guides the night before it was hard to work out where we where in the moon light (luckily it was a full moon that night). It was from here that the route become a little hair raising with steep drops beneath we had to clamber on to boulder and where frequently on all fours for quite some time.

The dangers of the route were rudely shown to us by seeing some lights up head that where stationary. We soon reached them to find that they where stopped for a very good reason; there guide had fallen 7ft and had broken his forearm. The main issue with the western breach is that it is very inaccessible and impossible to descend without a belay. With none available as is usually the case with injuries on the breach he was forced to take some painkillers and push on to the top. This hit home the dangers of mountaineering, (and made me thankful that I bought extreme insurance rather than sport+).

By now it was a case of will we ever see the crater rim, every false summit seemed to be coming at us and moral was low. I personally stayed near the lead guide as I was feeling good and wanted to push onto the rim as fast as possible. It was when I saw the light glisten though a gap on to the rock face beneath it that I realised that I was meters from the rim. I knew that if I made it too the rim in a stable state then I would defiantly go to the top come hell or high water.

The crater itself was an unexpected delight with soft dirt meeting towering glaciers. Soft dirt doesn’t sound very nice or welcoming but after countless hours on rock and pebbles it is very welcome. It is also very flat. The top of the western breach meets the crater where an glacier (Furtwangler glacier), the ice starts shallow and then as you round the corner builds up a wall about 20 foot high. At the sharp end of the point a frozen stream leads away and over the crater rim. We rested amongst some boulder at the foot of the scree/ash slop that we would climb after a well earn rest stop.

We rested here for about ½ an hour. This is unusual but it felt like the natural thing to do, a side reason was that a member of our group was throwing up after being hit by the altitude. We then set off on a winding trip on utterly demoralising scree/ash slope. There is no obvious track up the slope that is one of the steepest parts of the expedition. It is up to the lead guide to choose the best angle between zigzags to take you up to the top. You also find that with every steep you take your foot slides into the ash similar to walking in deep power snow. Once at the top of this the summit is finally in sight. As you walk the ridge line path to the summit there is an awesome glacier to the right, and you can see vast fields of glacier in the crater to the left (note this will be the other way round for a non-western breach assent).

You have been awake for about 8-9 hrs, there is 2/3 the oxygen at sea level, you have another 6-7 hrs of walking ahead of you, in short your body is physically and mentally wrecked. In any normal circumstance you would feel you where about to break down, but you have this unavoidable feeling of utter joy. The feeling can only be felt after a massive achievement and massive endurance. I had a similar feeling after leading a successful 50 mile expedition that was completed in 22hrs. I also sported a permanent grin.

Just as you are about to set off down the mountain, you realise your at 5895m and you still have to get down again in a day and a half! At this point the group split up 4 of us went on a head on guided as we were keen to get down to oxygen ASAP. The pace as fast, and we reached Gillman’s point before long, here you have an option walk the winding trail down to **barfu** or ‘ski’ down the ash. The latter involves sliding down the ash often helped by poles and getting cover in a fine dust. The descent is into a bowl shaped valley, that if was at a reasonable height and not near the equator would make a fantastic skiing resort.

The first target for descent is a rocky outcrop known as the barfu huts, reported to have the worst latrines, but they had improved by the time I got there (I think the worse ones were at lava tower camp- very shallow a bit like this topic). Here we were greeted by our porters who had walked around from laver tower with hot soup, a very welcome dish. It was here that I started to get the benefits of descending to 4800m and found by self to be jumping form rock to rock, a young Canadian girl who was on her way up came over to me and asked “how can you walk so fast?” the reply “I’ve just come form up there!”

We spent a night at millennium campsite in similar surroundings to the first, it’s a pretty unremarkable camp site manly because it is over shadowed by the day before. Although the sleep is very welcome!

DAY 10 Millenium camp to Gate

Our group was suffering, knees being the problem of the day. 2 members of our group were suffering with the impact the descent has on knees and a long time coming down. This mean a hour wait to at the gate, if anyone does spend any time at the gate the comments book is a very good read, this provided entertainment for hours. A the final work on the expedition stage goes to Lipman one of our assistant guides after we were moaning about the descent “well this is an adventure holiday!”

Day 11

This was the day I left the group, they were off on safari and I was off to catch a night flight home. Little did I know that my second adventure had just begun. I waved the others off on there safari at about 9:50 and was told that I would be picked outside the hotel at 1100hrs, 11 came an went – not surprised it is Tanzania. So when a bus came at 11:30 heading for Nairobi I naturally got on thinking this was my bus. We then went to the town centre to pick up the rest of the passengers. I then heard a loud knock on the window, and I saw a distinctly unimpressed employee of the tour company, I had got on the wrong bus. After a short drive to catch the right bus I was on my way. Then came the border crossing after mass confusion and a nervous walk across the border (feeling as if I was a bout to the arrested). We then set off for the airport, once at the airport, I went though security at the front door. And tried to check in. “Sorry Sir, you don’t appear to be on this flight” at which point my mouth dropped and by brain went into over drive. Off to customer services to sort it out. “no your defiantly not on this flight but you are on tomorrows flight”. Reminders to all travellers do not get your dates confused, and ask the company which date is deemed to be the start of the trek. I’m only glad that I messed up by being a day late not early.

I then thought right I need to contact the company and ask for a pick up. The time was 2000hrs by this point, outside is was pitch black and everyone had gone home, great. So I thought I’ll take a taxi to the hotel I stayed at and stay the night there, then get a taxi back to the airport in the morning. I asked security guard where the taxi rank was, this was my second mistake. I showed the name of the place I wanted to go asked a price and off we went. The driver did not know where we were going and then proceeded to get lost around the streets of Nairobi. This was perhaps the most scary experience in my life, eventually we got to my destination and after he raised the price by $10 dollars, I was finally safe. I then booked into a room, and rang home. “Mum, I’m stuck in Nairobi; I’ll be home the day after tomorrow.”

I realised by this point I was running out of money I had $60 left in cash and $100 in travellers cheques with no place to change them, as I had only just turned 18 I had no debt card, no credit card and a bank card that only worked in the UK. I put $30 aside for a taxi and then $20 for food and $10 for anything else.

Day 12

Perhaps the most boring day possible, I had only food and taxi money so I could not go into town. So I spent 13hrs watching TV in the hotel and rationed my self to a brunch and dinner. I then took a taxi (a different one) to the airport, checked in safely and while waiting in the lounge meet the team from my school who were on the same flight and was offered a lift back to school on there coach for where I took a train home. Then I slept.