Part 9 of "From Cape Town to Nairobi in a Land Rover"
Mount Kilimanjaro, at 5,895 meters, is the highest peak in Africa. That may not sound like very much compared to the peaks in Asia (Everest is almost 2km higher at 8,848 meters) or South America (Aconcagua is about 1km higher). That is probably why approximately 35,000 people attempt climbing the peak every year (source: http://www.climbkilimanjaroguide.com/kilimanjaro-facts/). As we had all that time on our trip in Africa and were in Tanzania at the best time of the year to climb the Kili (February), me and Claudio thought we could get together a group of friends and join those 35,000. We may not make it to the top but at least we could try.
Mount Kilimanjaro, at 5,895 meters, is the highest peak in Africa. That may not sound like very much compared to the peaks in Asia (Everest is almost 2km higher at 8,848 meters) or South America (Aconcagua is about 1km higher). That is probably why approximately 35,000 people attempt climbing the peak every year (source: http://www.climbkilimanjaroguide.com/kilimanjaro-facts/). As we had all that time on our trip in Africa and were in Tanzania at the best time of the year to climb the Kili (February), me and Claudio thought we could get together a group of friends and join those 35,000. We may not make it to the top but at least we could try.
The success rate of reaching the top of Mt
Kilimanjaro varies greatly depending on the route and number of days used. Only
about 45% of the climbers make it to the top of the mountain, however, the more
days the climbers use fr their climb the higher their success rate (5 days
routes have a 27% success whilst 8-day routes have a 85% success). The greater success with taking longer for
the climb is explained by acclimatisation – getting used to the high
altitude. Apparently a Swiss mountain
runner (Karl Egloff) made it to the top
in 6h ours and 42 minutes in August 2014 but as we are far from as fit as Mr
Egloff we decided to attempt the climb in 6 days rather than in hours. We had
met a couple of people on our travels who were also wanting to join a group of
climbers, and Claudio had managed to attract a good number of his friends
working in Congo to join us for the climb. All in all we though we’d have 7 or
8 people in our group. The advantage of the bigger group is that the climb
gets slightly cheaper with every additional climber.
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| The peak viewed from our first campsite on the North side of Mount Kilimanjaro. |
So, we arrived back in Moshi on the 8th
of February after our little tour in the nearby area. Our climb was due to
start on the 10th, so we had a day and a half to check all gear, do
some laundry and get oriented before the trek. We were expecting tour group to
be a mini UN itself. We had met two Germans in Namibia, Thomas and Stephanie,
and were expecting them to arrive on the same day as we. Also Aimee (Australia)
and Luisa were going to arrive on the 8th, whilst Alex (Sweden) and
Carla (UK) would only arrive the next day slightly before our climb briefing.
Adding to that myself (Finland) and Claudio (Switzerland) we managed to have six
different nationalities in our little group.
We parked the Landy outside of Gladys Adventure , checked in at AA Hill Street Accommodation (a basic hotel but great location
just above Gladys Adventure) and went back down to unpack our hiking gear from
the car. We weren’t there for more than 10 minutes, and then Aimee arrived,
followed in 5 minutes by Stephie and Thomas. Aimee had just returned from a
safari in Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Apparently a very good 3-day
trip, especially with all the little baby wildebeests in Serengeti. Baby
antelopes = lots of lion kills witnessed live. Aimee also showed us pictures with lions laying next to the car rear wheel. The lions were so
used to safari cars they didn’t even move out of the way of the parked cars. Lying next to a car is a nice spot
for some shade – why move just because 6 people in the car are taking pictures
of me? We all rather envied her safari!
We got ourselves registered, started
organising our hiking gear and went out for dinner in an Indo-Italian
restaurant. Although that’s a rather weird combination (Indian and Italian???
Well, both are great cuisines with lots of flavours) the restaurant turned out
to be very nice. As the rest of our group was only arriving late in the evening
or next morning, we had set the meeting for the afternoon of the 9th
of February at Gladys to get ourselves briefed on the trek. Most of our group
made it on time for the 2pm briefing – except for Alex. We were wondering where
she was, as the only message we had got from her was a brief “En route” via
Facebook. Once she arrived (half way through the briefing) we learned that her
flight had been badly delayed and the airport wifi was not working – so she had
not been able to let us know her estimated arrival time. It was good finally
getting out group of 8 together.
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| This was the view from our hotel room window on the first morning. Despite the construction site in front, looking at the peak got me rather excited. Tomorrow, we will be starting our climb up this mountain. |
We quite liked Gladys Adventures all the
way from the beginning. They have the best selection of rental gear (according
to them) for the Kilimanjaro hike, which was quite good as apart from me and
Claudio everyone else needed some rental gear, some of us almost a full
set. After the briefing our guide Davis
and Nelvin, the office manager, also asked us if any of were taking Diamox
(altitude sickness tablets). I raised my hand and said I’m thinking about
taking them. They also advised us on how to best take them. Their opinion is
that we shouldn’t take them in the evening before going to bed. The way
altitude sickness tablets work is that they help your body to get rid of alcalines.
They make your kidneys work more efficiently – which result in that you need to
go to the toilet more often. Therefore, if you want to sleep at night, you
should not take the tablets before bedtime. Twice a day should be sufficient,
we were advised. We were also advised to only take 125mg as a dosis twice a day
(instead of 250mg as instructed on the packaging of the tablets we bought in
Moshi), except for in the morning of the summit day take a full 250mg. After
this also others in our group got interested in taking the altitude sickness
tablets, and Claudio and Aimee made a trip to the nearby pharmacy and bought
enough tablets for our whole group.
The rest of the day was spent on making
payments. Most of us had trouble with our credit cards in Tanzania. Visa credit
cards seemed to work fine, but Mastercard did not work at most machines even
when indicated on the machine that it also accepts Mastercard. Claudio ended up
paying my share and I transferred him the money to his home bank account, and
many in our group had to make a number of trips to the ATMs to get enough money
out to pay for the slightly over USD 1,400 . The different routes for the Kili trek are priced differently. We
chose to hike up theRongai route and
down via Marangu, making it a 6-day
hike. We had heard that choosing a 6-day option increases the chances of a
successful summit significantly compared to 5 days (usually the minimum
required). This is because we get one more day to acclimatize. Usually altitude
sickness in its different forms is what prevents some hikers from successfully
completing their trek. We wanted to be on the safe side, although it cost us a
little more. We also thought that we would like to go up a different route than
what we will be coming down on. I was not myself very keen on taking the
Marangu route up, as I had heard t is by far the most popular (means it gets
crowded). Rongai suited me fine. I wasn’t very particular about where we will
be reaching the summit. We learned later that out of the three summit camps two
are for hikers and the third one only
for technical climbers. Our route would take us to Kibo base camp, where also
Marangu route will join us.
In any case, our guide briefed us well on what
to expect. I was still a little nervous. Very excited but a little nervous. My
previous experiences from altitude from Peru (Huayhuash trail) and China (in
the Yunnan province, in the area near the Tibetan border) had shown that as you
go up, breathing gets significantly more difficult. In Peru I had also vomited
and had a mild fever. Luckily the symptoms passed quickly and I had been able
to continue. In China we were much lower (highest was 3,800meters) but I recall
it taking me a few days before I started
feeling like I could breathe normally when climbing steps. So – I was wondering
how will it turn out this time? Hopefully the altitude sickness tablets will
help with nausea – the state of unfitness I am in undoubtedly will mean that I
will have some trouble catching my breath on the mountain.
In the morning of the 10th we
set off towards the Marangu gate, where we needed to register before driving
over to the start of the Rongai trail. We were all in a rather good mood. The
weather was good, and we were fully set for the adventure ahead.
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| At Marangu gate, ready to start our hike. |
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| After arriving at the start of the Rongai path we waited until our porters unpacked our big gear bags and started off on the path upwards. In the meantime we enjoyed our pack lunch and a chat. (Photo: Claudio Angelini) |
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| The porters and guides organising and packing our gear. (Photo: Claudio Angelini). |
The first night the Simba campsite was rather
full. We had at least three other groups on the campsite. The other groups
however mostly consisted of 2-3 people. We were definitely the biggest group
here with our 8 people. Our porters had already taken off earlier than us and
our camp was fully set up when we arrived.
We registered at the arrival point, and then went to look for our 2-man
tents. We enjoyed a great meal. Before dinner our waier Eli really surprised us
– he brought out 8 pails with hot water.
“Washing water”, he announced.
Washing water? I could not believe my ears.
I had packed 3 packets of wet wipes assuming that I won’t be washing in the
next 6 days. Woot! I can was my hair! What else could possibly make a girl’s
day than warm water for washing her hair? Lol. I’m such a wuss.
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| Inside the dining tent on our first night in camp. (Photo: Carla Costelloe) |
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| The dining tent a.k.a "The Thunderdome" at night. (Photo: Carla Costelloe) |
The next morning we had a nice breakfast in
our “Thunderdome” (or Milo dome as we named it later) aka the dining tent. Our
head guide Davis also conducted a quick health check – we each had our oxygen
levels and pulse measured and temperature taken. After breakfast the most
amazing thing was realising that the
clouded peak of Kilimanjaro had now cleared up. Photo time! We posed in front
of the mountain and then continued our hike towards the first and second cave. The walk of the day was again very moderate,
around 4-5 hours. Our group did already start splitting slightly as some liked
walking more slowly than others. We did still all arrive within about 20minutes
of each other at the campsite.
We camped at the second cave at 3450
meters. In the afternoon we did an “acclimatisation walk” to about 300 meters
higher than our camp site. Our guides wanted to follow the recommendations of
walking high and sleeping low. Very sensible for avoiding altitude sickness. It worked for some better than others – I was
feeling unwell after dinner, and just at bedtime my stomach was rumbling and
rumbling so much that I thought a visit to the bathroom could be a good idea. I
however did not make it quite that far. As soon as I sat up in the tent I
started feeling veeeery sick. I barely had time to get out of the tent before I
vomited. Great. Feeling the first effects of altitude. I did however feel a bit
better the next day.
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| Every campsite had a sign with altitude and directions. |
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| Campsite at second cave. (Photo: Stephanie). |
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| Chilling out at campsite after the day's walk. (Photo: Stephanie). |
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| Campsite at Third cave. (Photo: Claudio Angelini). |
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| Group photo at third cave before starting our hike towards the Kibo base camp. (Photo: Claudio Angelini). |
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| Hiking to Mordor. (Photo: Claudio Angelini). |
Upon arriving to the third cave we also had
Luisa make a remark that she has discovered she doesn’t like hiking very much.
Ooops! We are now half way up the mountain and she wasn’t really enjoying
herself. We felt a bit bad for talking her into the climb. In the evening we
also had one of the first mishaps with
the gear. Claudio’s self inflating camping mattress had a leak, and air was
running out faster than we could get it in. We asked our porters and assistant
guides if there was any possibility to borrow one but they said unfortunately
they carry no spare mats. That was a cold night for Claudio, he did not sleep
well.
On the fourth day we continued to Kibo base
camp (4600 meters) where we arrived at around midday. We had lunch and rested.
Tonight’s dinner was going to be served early, at 5pm, and after that it was
bedtime for us. We would have a wake up call at 11.00pm and start our climb
towards Gilman’s point at 12 midnight (except for Alex and Luisa who had been
slightly slower than the rest and were going to start already at 11pm). I slept well in my two sleeping bags but
Claudio was cold despite having a great sleeping bag as he was still without a
mattress.
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| At the Kibo camp we set up tents slightly above the huts. The upside was that we were about 50m closer to the top of the mountain. At this altitude (4600m) all uphill walking felt like serious exercise, and I was happy to start the climb even that little bit closer to the top. |
Our head guide had advised us to put all of
our warm clothes on when we wake up and get ready for the summit climb. I had
lots, despite lending a down vest to Carla. I put on two sets of thermal
underwear (long sleeve tops and bottoms), a pair of fleece pants, my hiking
pants, one pair of hiking socks, woolen socks, a t shirt, a fleece, a cross
country skiing jacket and a windproof Gore Tex jacket. I also had two pairs of
gloves, a buff and a beanie. In my bag I still had a thin down coat and a
fleece balaclava.
So, at 11.00pm we started getting ready for
our climb, adding layers of clothes, filling thermos bottles with hot water,
checking we have all the snacks with us. We had a quick snack and started
making our way to the top in the pitch dark night with help from the ight of
our head torches. Pole-pole. (Slowly, slowly). Our guide had estimated that we
will probably take about 5 hours to get to Gilman’s point, and from there we
would take another couple of hours to Uhuru peak. We could already see a line
of hikers going up the hill in front of us, forming an endless looking line of
dots of light with their head torches. Really, we need to go up there?
Our troubles started rather soon. The first
one was Stephie, who got stomach cramps and was feeling really rather unwell. I
think that started when we had only got about 20minutes into our climb. Poor
girl! Not much later she vomited. She however kept our pace (we were going at a
snail pace already). When we stopped for a water break, Stephie was feeling
unwell again and decided to sit down for a moment. The next thing I saw was her
passing out on the slope. Yikes! That made me a little worried but she
recovered immediately. She then told us it also happens to her at home because
she has very low blood pressure. We continued the hike upwards. It was quite cold,
I could feel it in particular in my hands and feet (at least -5C or colder).
Our camelbak’s straws started freezing (we had expected that and therefore me
and Claudio had hot juice in our thermos bottles and the rest had water bottles
in addition to their camelbaks). I realised Claudio had also gone quiet on this
summit climb, and we could no longer hear his cheerful chatter in the back. I
heard him complaining his feet were cold. We continued for a little while, had
another break and I had some hot juice to drink (by now my camelback was
already frozen). I also offered some juice to Stephie who said it was nice, as
it was the only thing that stayed in her stomach. Water just came up the same
way. She still continued, just more
slowly with Tommy and our assistant guide, staying a little behind the rest of
us (which meant that it was now four of us, as Luisa and Alex had already
started the climb an hour earlier and we had not yet caught up with them). I
complained a bit about the weight of my pack restricting my breathing. The pack
wasn’t heavy, definitely not, but at this altitude any extra weight felt like a
massive obstacle. Our guide overheard that and he took my backpack off me, just
passed me my water bottle. That felt pretty good, I was climbing rather easily
after that. (We were probably around a third to half way up the mountain).
Not much after that break I heard a shout from
the back of the group asking to stop. I think that was one of our guides. When
I turned around I saw a doubled up Claudio leaning on his hiking poles looking
absolutely miserable and about as energetic as a dead corpse. Crap! It seemed
the lack of sleep and the cold without having a proper sleeping mattress had
broken down our big guy. Our other assistant guide took his backpack to carry, and also took Carla’s camelback
(useless as it was frozen), and moved Claudio up in front of the group, right
behind our head guide. I was walking behind Claudio and heard him muttering he
wanted to die. Not a happy hiker! He was also complaining that the line of
lights ahead of us was endless and never seemed to reach the top (some more
groups of hikers went past us while we were resolving the multiple issues in
our group).
The good thing about the multiple stops was
that Stephie and Tommy always managed to catch up with us when we had to stop.
After Claudio also started feeling unwell we slowed down even further, and
Stephie and Tommy could also stay with us. I think Stephie was feeling
marginally better.
Some way further up the hill I heard
Claudio say the most he will go is up to Gilman’s point, then he will turn
back. At this point in time we had also caught up with Luisa and Alex. Luisa
announced this was the stupidest thing she had ever done in her life. She was
cold and not enjoying herself.
I had just been thinking the same about not
going further than Gilman’s point, although I didn’t want to say it aloud. I had
been thinking that if the rest of the group makes it to Uhuru, I should at
least try. I should first see how I feel on top of Gilman’s point and then
decide. Seeing Claudio so miserable however made me decide that I will also
definitely go down from Gilman’s. Aimee was the one who then interrupted and
said “No way, we are all going to Uhuru!” She was absolutely convinced we can
all make it to the top, as we had come this far. I was not entirely convinced
but her cheerfulness and determination was great, as the rest of us were all a
little miserable for a variety of different reasons. It did make me laugh a bit
– we didn’t think climbing Kili would be easy without training yet I wasn’t
expecting we would all be quite that miserable. We were such a sad lot on the
highest mountain in Africa.
Well – despite all the moaning, cold,
vomiting and inability to carry our packs we did eventually make it to Gilman’s
point around sunrise. Alex and Luisa had
decided to take a slower pace so it was just six of us (me, Claudio, Carla,
Aimee, Stephie and Tommy). It took us slightly over six hours instead of the
estimated five – yet here we were. We got to the top at the same time as a
group of 30 Iranese hikers. Their joy on the top was really infectious. The sun
came up, there was daylight, and we could take pictures at Gilman’s point. Life didn’t look so bad at all. After we had
taken our photos, our head guide Davis announced we are all now going to Uhuru. Ok, sure, why not. I now
have daylight and I feel much better after having achieved the Gilman’s point
milestone. Besides, Uhuru peak didn’t seem to be that far away (although I knew
it will be another two hours or more). So – continue we did, including Stephie
and Claudio who were both still feeling a little unwell. I think Stephie was
actually already doing better than Claudio at this point.
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| Yes! We got to Gilman's point. Even Claudio managed a facial expression that resembled a smile, despite being all exhausted and cold. |
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| Sunrise as seen from Gilman's point. (Photo: Claudio Angelini). |
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| A map of the Kilimanjaro hiking routes. We fllowed the Rongai route coming up from the North side of the mountain and went down on he Marangu route on the Southeast side. (Source: http://www.climbkilimanjaroguide.com/kilimanjaro-facts/) |
Their success on getting to Gilman’s point
still cheered up the rest of us. We had not been quite sure whether they will
want to come up to Gilman’s point when we met them on the way up. It was great
to hear they had reached it all the way Gilman’s point. We all felt very happy for their achievement.
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| The glaciers on Kilimanjaro have shrunk significantly. We still managed to catch a glimpse of them but if you compare photos of the peak taken 30years ago and today, you can see how much smaller the white cap over the peak is now. (Photo: Stephanie) |
Very soon we reached the summit at Uhuru peak. On the way from Stella point to the peak we met various hikers already on their way down. We congratulated them on their summiting
and they in turn cheered us on for the final meters. You'll get there, not much more to go. That made us feel good.
Getting to the peak was an amazing
feeling! Woot! We made it to the top of the highest peak in Africa. We had been
told we are allowed a maximum of 15minutes at the peak and then we need to turn
back. We spent our 15 minutes taking various photos in front of the signs.
There were also other groups on the peak and we had to take turns with our
pictures but it went rather peacefully, no massive crowds (bigger thna what you would expect on top of a mountain, though). We also took our packs back from the guides (yes, embarrassingly
enough they had carried all the 3 bags - mine, Claudio’s and Stephie’s all this
time, plus Carla’s water). I knew carrying the bag down won’t be a problem –
gravity will take care of bringing me down with the pack, lol.
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| We made it to the top of Africa! In the end we reached the peak around 7.30am. Slightly later than our guide had expected us to - yet we still made it. |
Just as our 15minutes was almost up Claudio
said he is again starting to feel a little unwell. Me, Claudio and one of the
assistane guides started making our way down while Davis called the rest of the
group together and they followed behind us. We again stopped at Stella point to
get the group back together and made our way down over Gilman’s point and
towards Kibo base camp. Going down was much easier, although we still had to be
a little careful on where to step in the icier and rockier parts. Half way down
the mountain we met a couple of our porters, Luisa and Alex. The porters had
brought us some hot drinks up the mountain knowing we will be tired and
probably out of drinks by now. It was great to see them. We had a quick break
(and Claudio fell asleep, haha) and then continued our way down.
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| Enjoying a break half way down to base camp. |
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| A tired crowd after over 10 hours of hiking. Still need to get back to camp! |
By the time we got down we had been hiking
for almost 12 hours since our departure from the base camp. We had a snack, a
quick nap of about 30-60minutes and then got woken up again to continue our way
down. I peeked out of the tent to find out that it was snowing! First it was just wet snow and after a little
while it turned into light hail. Well, going down should be easy, although we were surprised of the sudden change in weather. We had to reach Horombo hut before dark (about
1,200 meters lower down) where we would overnight. Making our way lower was
important in order to avoid altitude sickness.
I felt really good on the way down. Despite
the rain and occasional hail I felt like singing. All of a sudden my feet were
flying down the path. It was so much easier going down than going up. I
think was at my most cheerful on the way
down. It was not just the ease of hiking downwards, I was also in a really good mood because I had made it to the top, despite having thought a couple of times on the summit climb that I may need to turn back at Gilman's point.
We camped at Horombo and went down the rest
of the way on the next day. The weather was getting warmer. We still got some
rain but that was ok. We kept peeling off the warm clothes layers and putting
them in our backpacks. After a quick teabreak at one of the huts we made our
way donw the last hour of the journey, and found ourselves back at the Marangu
gate where we had registered on our first day. Getting the paperwork done took
a while (we had our certificates issued here) and after that we had lunch and
drove back to Moshi.
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| When we woke up in the morning at Horomo camp we saw the peak wrapped in rain clouds. We were happy we had gone up the day before - and felt for the American couple whom we had met earlier and who had said they are summiting the day after us. I hope they made it to the top despite the snow! |
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| View from Horombo hut - beautiful despite the clouds and drizzling rain. Building on the right is a toilet. A bathroom with a view! |
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| Here is a man whose appearance we always loved! Elia was our waiter and kept bringing us food and drinks to the "Thunderdome". We always loved seeing his face :) (Photo: Alex Knezevic) |
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| Our assistant guide Freddy (Freedom) was always smiling. (Photo: Alex Knezevic) |
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| Almost back at the gate - scenery has changed to a lush rainforest - it was raining, indeed. (Photo: Alex Knezevic) |
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| Back at Moshi, outside the Gladys Aventures office, we received our Kilimanjaro summiting certificates. |
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This truly was a fabulous yet exhausting event. Although I enjoyed it, I came down from the mountain thinking "I'll never do that again".
Well, who knows...
Well, who knows...
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