I had the incredible opportunity to
climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with my brother, Michael, and my sister-in-law,
Lenore. I was going to do a full write up on it, but Lenore took notes
the entire hike and did an incredible job. Bellow is the story of our
climb from her point of view. Italics are my comment. The corresponding
photo album can be found on Facebook or by clicking here, with a short video of the summit push here.
Their
view flying of Kili into JRO at a cruising altitude of 17,000ft,
2,345ft bellow the summit.
After finally arriving at the
Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) around 7:10 pm on Monday, August 26,
2013, we connected with our driver from The African Walking Company
("TAWC") to take us to the Arusha Safari Lodge to finally be reunited
with Nick after not seeing him for nearly 15 months. We were beyond relieved
that our hiking bags had made it and that no other luggage had been lost. The
Arusha Safari Lodge was beautiful. The rooms were in separated little adorable
bungalows.
After settling into our room, the three of us enjoyed a delicious dinner at the
lodge before receiving our pre-climb briefing and equipment check. The
pre-climb briefing took approximately one hour. It was during this briefing
that we learned a team of 17 would be assisting the three of us during our trek
up Mount Kilimanjaro: (i) One Guide; (ii) One Assistant Guide; (iii) One Chef;
(iv) 10 Porters; and (v) Four Helping Porters.
DAY
ONE OF HIKE
The next morning, Tuesday, August
27, 2013, we woke up around 6:00 am, to finalize our preparations for the hike
ahead and enjoy the everyday luxuries a lodge has to offer, such as sinks,
showers, toilets, warmth and walking around without hiking shoes. My last hot
shower was not ideal. The hot water lasted for just over 5 minutes, and quickly
turned ice cold. Poor Mike didn't even get a few seconds of hot water. My
shower was nice and hot. It's nice to know hot water heaters work in
Afirca, but I feel bad for not showing them. The room at the lodge had no
hair dryer, but fortunately Mike was able to convince the hotel manager to let
me borrow hers so I didn't have to start the hike with wet hair.
By the time we made it to the lobby to have a quick breakfast, our driver and
guide, Mussa, were already there ready to take us to Machame Gate to start the
hike. We enjoyed a quick breakfast at the lodge, filled our water bladders with
bottled water, and then departed the lodge around 8:30 am to officially start
our adventure up Mount Kilimanjaro. Our guide, Mussa, had been guiding people
up Mount Kilimanjaro for 13 years!!! After only being around Mussa for a short
period of time, we knew we were in good hands.
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Enjoying
breakfast
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The drive to the mountain from the
lodge was approximately 1.5 hours. We stopped at a market along the way to
purchase some snacks to take on the hike and to try to get Nick some warm socks.
Our lost suitcase floating somewhere between Istanbul and East Africa had the
snacks we had picked out for the hike and plenty of warm socks for Nick. Our
lost snack bag included beef jerky, Nutter Butters, Cheeze-its, breakfast bars,
protein bars, and pretzels. The market did not have any warm socks for sale,
but we did purchase cheddar cheese Pringles and crackers. I did not realize at
the time how precious the cheddar cheese Pringles would become to me while on
the mountain. I craved them everyday we were on the mountain, but waited until
after we made it down from the summit to devour them.
We waited at the entrance to the Machame-Mweka Route (often shortened to
Machame Route) at the Machame Gate, at 5,942 ft above sea level, with several
other hikers to complete the necessary registration formalities, which included
weighing our bags. The Machame Route starts at the south-western side of the
mountain. The reasons people decide to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Roof of
Africa, are vast. I got talked to into it from my husband and brother-in-law.
Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world. It is
actually three volcanoes, with the two main peaks, Kibo and Mawenzi. Uhuru
Peak, the highest part of Kibo's crater rim, stands at 19,345 ft, and is the
goal of most trekkers.
After the formalities were complete, we started our hike on Day 1 around 11:30
am while it was 74 degrees.
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At
Machame Gate ready to get started
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We met our assistant guide, Robert,
at Machame Gate, who guided us as we started our journey up Mount Kilimanjaro.
Rob has been guiding people up Mount Kilimanjaro for 9 years and this was his
103rd time up the mountain. Rob set our pole-pole pace, which means
"slowly slowly" in Swahili. The two things we read that were the most
important for a successful hike up Mount Kilimanjaro is to proceed very slowly
and to drink lots and lots of water, which our guides referred to as
"drinky-drinky."
Since my backpack had a water bladder with a hose that hung just below my
mouth, I constantly took little sips of water while we walked up the mountain. I
just used my trusty Nalgene like a good PCV. One of the large benefits of
drinking lots of water is your backpack gets increasingly lighter as the day
progresses. The most unfortunate thing about drinking lots and lots of water is
that you have to go to the bathroom frequently. I knew well before this hike
started that I was not going to use one of the latrines (long drops) along the
way, but I went partially in one just to make sure. It was just as disgusting
as I imagined and accepted that the outdoors were far more appealing (no
worse that student latrines at Thunduti, but still gross).
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The
first day of hiking.
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Around 1:30 pm, Rob pointed out a
nice large log for us to sit on and eat our boxed lunch. Our lunch boxes had a
variety of goodies inside, including a cheese sandwich, cookies, candy bar and
banana.
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On
our log right after finishing lunch.
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For the next 5.5 hours, we drank
lots and lots of water and hiked steadily through a winding path through a lush
forest, which turned into a cloud forest as our elevation increased. The path
was wide at first and gradually narrowed. The forest was beautiful. Green moss
hung from the trees. We were disappointed not to spot monkeys along the way.
Even before completing the hike on Day One, we noticed the forest start to thin
out as we came upon tree like giant heathers.
We arrived at our first campsite, Machame Camp, around 5:00 pm at 9,911 feet
above sea level, which was a 3,969 ft gain from Machame Gate. I turned to Mussa
when we arrived at camp, "Home Sweet Home." I made the same remark
each day we made it to camp.
A fun little fact is that our campsite on Day One is higher than the top of
Mawson Peak, which is the highest point in Australia. The temperature at camp
when we arrived was 55 degrees. Our campsite was at least 30 feet higher than
everyone else's campsite and was in the clouds. Our team set up our tents far
away from everyone else's, which is quite nice because being isolated keeps the
noise level down and helped keep our campsite area clean. We didn't know it at
the time, but a few days later, we learned our lovely team of porters clean our
campsite area for us before we arrive. We got to camp early the evening before
summit day and observed our team picking up used toilet paper and other trash
along the ground.
Our campsite was equipped with a green tent for me and Mike, a green tent for
Nick, a bright blue rectangular toilet tent (the most distinguishable feature
of our campsite from all others), a green mess hall (which is where we ate our
meals), a green kitchen tent, and green tents for our hiking team to sleep in.
The toilet tent had a tailgate toilet in it. I was also pleasantly surprised to
see toilet paper in the toilet tent. I had brought plenty of toilet paper of my
own, but being a girl, it was refreshing to know there was an even greater
supply!! I had a love-hate relationship for the toilet tent. While I hated the
toilet tent, I am not sure if I would have survived the trip without it. I
was certain that I would just use the long drops on this hike and keep the
toilet tent clean for Lenore and the poor assistant porter that has to clean
it, but due to the fact that our bathroom tent was right there, stocked with
tissue, and warm, I only made it to through the second day before
converting. It seems like a crazy luxury, but it really did make a huge
difference. The ceiling of our sleeping tent was bright yellow. Our
sleeping tent had a front and back entrance and had a smaller foyer area on
each side that was useful for putting on and taking off hiking shoes and for
keeping the bucket of wash-wash we were given in the evenings.
After we were settled in our tents, we were given our first set of bright blue
wash-wash buckets. The three of us each got our very own wash-wash bucket that
was 1/3rd full of hot water. The water was so hot we had to wait a few minutes
before using our first wash-wash. We were given no towels or soap with our buckets,
as this was something we were required to bring ourselves. We brought
disposable towels that expand after being emerged in the water. I brought
shower gel. I am not sure what Nick and Mike brought for soap. I can't
speak for Michael, but I just used soap. We also brought plenty of cleaning
wipes. Prior to the hike, I was convinced I would try to wash my hair. I
realized on night One this was not going to happen because it got so cold at
camp, my hair would have froze.
I started my changing clothes routine at the first night of camp. Each night
after wash-wash, I put on my first layers of shirts for the next day (a tank
top and long sleeve shirt), fresh socks, and two layers of pajama pants. Then
when I woke up each morning, the only thing I would have to do to get dressed
was put on the pants for the day, jacket, gaiters and sneakers. After feeling
clean and somewhat refreshed, the three of us gathered in the mess hall for hot
tea and snacks. The mess hall soon became our favorite place on the mountain.
It was just large enough to comfortably fit a small table and four surrounding
chairs. The table always had thermos' of hot water and hot tea, a jug of water,
powdered milk, powdered chocolate mix, bowl of sugar, jar of honey and salt and
pepper. The snack we were served on the first evening at camp was popcorn. I am
not sure whether I have ever been more excited to see popcorn than I was on the
first evening at camp. We devoured the popcorn within minutes and sipped on hot
tea, which warmed us up since the temperatures only continued to decrease as
the night progressed.
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Lenore
enjoying tea and popcorn.
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Each night at camp, we were required
to sign a registration book that we made it to that campsite. Most nights, our
guide had us wash-wash prior to signing the registration book to avoid waiting
in line to sign the registration book as most signed the book immediately upon
arrival.
Dinner was served at 6:30 pm in the
mess hall by our wonderful waiter, Liberot (I'm pretty sure his name was
actually Liberate, but he had a strong accent and pronounced it Liberot).
Liberot always had a smile on his face and soon warmed all of our hearts with
his personality. For dinner, we were served the most delicious zucchini soup
with bread. We couldn't eat enough of it and the hot soup helped keep us warm.
We wrongly thought the soup was our dinner. Shortly after the pot of soup was
gone, we were served tilapia (REAL FISH!!!), potatoes, spinach and a
most delicious vegetable sauce. The vegetable sauce contained green
peppers, carrots, onions and eggplant. For dessert, we were served a fruit
salad. Once we had eaten more food than any of us needed, Mussa came into the
mess hall to give us our briefing for the next day ahead. We were all tucked in
our sleeping bags by 8:02 pm. I folded my jacket and pants for the next day
into the bottom of my sleeping bag to try and keep them warm.
As we crawled into our sleeping bags on that first night, Mike pulled out a
mini pillow that he had snuck in his bag for me. I used balled up clothes
from my bag wrapped in a chitinje.
DAY
TWO OF HIKE
We survived the first night at camp
tucked into our warm sleeping bags that were designed for below freezing
temperatures. According to our thermometer, the temperature on night one got
down to 42 degrees Fahrenheit. Night One and Night Six were the only two nights
that the temperatures didn't make it below freezing. Our sleeping bags kept us
nice and toasty and we all slept quite well, other than, we all woke up before
5 am on Wednesday, August 28th with a pressing need to use the restroom. It was
quite torturous to have to crawl out of the toasty sleeping bag, and put
sneakers and a wind jacket on in order to walk out into the cold to the toilet
tent in the dark. In the morning, due to the condensation, I had to put the
hood on my jacket over my head while in the toilet tent because the tent
dripped. Prior to then I had kept my toilet paper in a Ziplock bag, but it was
at that moment that I realized I would never forget to do so. Had the toilet
paper not been in a Ziplock, it would have been soaking wet.
After surviving the first morning bathroom trip, I crawled back into the toasty
sleeping bag and waited to be woken up. Each morning, we were woken up by
either Liberot or Rob with a delightful "Good morning" and then the
question of how we would like our hot tea. They served us hot tea to our tent
every morning by 6:30 am, which helped us face the cold of the morning. We were
then brought fresh wash-wash buckets, but were all too cold to even attempt to
use it on that first morning. Michael and I actually told them not to bother
with wash-wash for us in the mornings.
When we poked our heads out of our tents after the sun came up, the only thing
we could see were clouds. For breakfast, we were served porridge, bread,
tomatoes, cucumber, bacon, eggs and cantaloupe in the mess hall to give us the
energy for Day Two.
While in the mess hall for breakfast, we refilled our water bladders. When I
say "we," I mean Nick and Mike actually took part in the refilling
while Mike was kind enough to take care of mine. Mike and Nick emptied out
their remaining bottled water into my water bladder so I could have another day
of bottled water while they started Day Two with the water from the mountain.
They love me! Also, only Mike and I had water bladders as Nick had bottles
since the water bladder we had gotten for him was safely packed away in our
lost suitcase.
After our tummies were full from a delicious and warm breakfast and our water
bladders were full, we started our Day Two hiking adventure around 8:45 am. The
morning dew held the dust together for the first hour or so of our Day Two
journey. It didn't take long for the ground to heat up just enough to evaporate
the dew and allow the dust to invade every crevice of uncovered skin and even
some of the covered skin. Thank heavens for the gaiters!
I struggled to keep my nose and mouth covered with my scarf as I remembered
getting sick because of all the dust when I was in Tanzania 3 years prior. The
hike on Day Two was unbearably dusty at times, and despite my efforts, I still
swallowed lots of dust along the way. I also do not believe my sun glasses
offered my eyes much protection from the dust either.
Only after a couple hours into the hike, we were above the tree line and we got
our first view of the summit while on the mountain. We also had unbelievable
views of Mt. Meru floating among the clouds in the distance. Mt. Meru is the
next tallest mountain close to Kilimanjaro and is 14,977 ft high. After we made
it back down Mt. Kilimanjaro, Nick would joke that we were higher than Mt. Meru
on our Barafu base camp night (not a joke).
The hike became steeper and dustier the further we got away from the tree line.
We climbed up on rocky hills throughout the day. We noticed the temperatures
were cooler while hiking up the rocks and warmer while hiking through the dirt.
The dirt retains the heat from the sun.
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Hiking
through the clouds. Lenore is observing drinky-drinky.
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The designated lunch spot was vast
and open and had a wonderful view of the summit. While we had started to warm
up during the hike, the moment we stopped moving for lunch, we instantly got
cold again. Our boxed lunch on Day Two contained a sandwich, cookies, candy bar
and bananas. Robert carried a thermos of hot carrot soup with him to give us a
cup of hot soup for lunch. I gave my candy bar to Mussa and Robert, since I do
not like chocolate.
While we ate our lunch, we got talking to another group. One of the members of
the group, Mark, was from Boca Raton. He lives near Palmetto and Powerline. We
should have gotten his email. I have no idea where these places are.
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Enjoying
lunch with a view.
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The path after lunch was even
steeper and rockier. Once we reached the top of a ridge, we walked down swiftly
for 15 to 20 minutes to get to camp.
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The
path got a bit steeper.
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After 5 hours of hiking, we arrived
at our campsite near Shira Hut around 1:45 pm. Just like on Day One, our lovely
team picked out a fine location for our campsite that was quite a distance away
from all the other trekkers. Rob explained to us that one of the reasons they
do this is because theft at campsites has been a problem in the past. Our
porters kept guard of our belongings any time we were away from our tents.
The campsite near Shira Hut had spectacular views. There were no trees to
obstruct the vast views. Mt. Meru was in the distance, as were other truly beautiful
rock formations (Shira Lava Towers, the biggest one being called The
Cathedral), and the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro was in the distance. Also,
since we no longer had the protection of the trees, the campsite near Shira Hut
was considerably windier than the campsite on night one. The canvas of our tent
flapped very noisily in the wind. Our guides recommended we wear ear plugs to
bed to soften the sounds from the wind. I do not believe any of us found the
need for the ear plugs. I found the noise soothing.
We relaxed for just over an hour at camp and then proceeded to follow Robert on
a short acclimation hike that took us beyond Shira Cave at approximately 12,595
ft. At the top of our short acclimation hike, our total gain in altitude on Day
Two was 2,684 ft.
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On
top of a rock at the end of our acclimation hike
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Once we reached the top of our short acclimation hike, we ran into three girls
we kept running into along the way: (1) Sarah from Chicago and living in the
UK; (2) Lauren the Canadian; and (3) Ceri living in Lusaka, Zambia.
After we returned to camp, the three of us were given our wash-wash buckets.
The wash-wash bucket cleaning routine started from the top down. The water was
first used to clean our faces, and then we proceeded to work our way down. Each
time I washed my face, a layer of brown dust could be seen on the white cloth.
Even if I had just washed my face five minutes prior. No matter how hard I
tried, I couldn't get the dust out from underneath my nails. I tried soaking my
hands in the wash-wash bucket after I was done with the water, but it did
little to nothing. Mussa was surprised at how white the tips of my nails were.
I explained to him that it was an illusion from the acrylic nails I had put on
shortly before the hike. It is possible I am his first hiker to have had
acrylic nails. I got my acrylic nails put on shortly before we left for the
trip. I figured I would at least start the hike looking my best.
After feeling somewhat cleaner and somewhat refreshed, we met in the mess hall
for our hot tea and snacks. Dinner followed shortly thereafter around 6:00 pm.
For dinner, we were served cucumber soup, fried chicken, white rice, green
beans, and cabbage and fried pineapple for dessert. As always, kudos to our
chef as the meal was delicious. Up until that point, we had wrongly thought
Liberot was the chef. We would constantly tell him "asante sana" and
how amazing all of the food was. We hadn't realized we had both a chef and a
waiter until Mussa informed us Liberot was not the chef. Mussa called the chef
into the mess hall to meet us because we wanted to thank him directly for our
delicious meals.
The sun went down while we were in the mess hall. As soon as the sun went down,
the temperatures dropped, but the stars were unbelievable. It felt like the
view of the stars got more and more incredible the closer we got to them. Mike
and Nick teamed together on night two at camp to try to capture some great
pictures of the stars. They were successful.
The star pictures were a fun
adventure. Michael and Lenore had brought me a DSLR camera that I bought
using my tax rebate and I was still figuring out how to use it. Since it
was ridiculously cold outside, Michael and I sat inside the tent with the
camera mounted on a tripod in the foyer with a remote shutter button
inside. We set everything up first, then opened the outer doors of the
"Hubble Space Camera" and only opened the inner door enough to stick
our head out, change settings, and reposition. Pictures of the operation
are on the Facebook photo album.
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The
Milky Way as seen from Shira Hut
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As we crawled into the warmth of our sleeping bags, we were delighted to have
survived Day Two. However, the daytime was far more pleasant than the
nighttime. The nighttime brings the heavier winds and the colder temperatures.
By far the worst thing of the camping experience was waking up before the sun
rises with the pressing need to use the restroom. Using the restroom at night
was quite an ordeal. First, you crawl out of the cocoon that is your sleeping
bag. Then you have to find the flashlight and toilet paper to take with you.
Finally, you have to put your jacket and shoes on and leave the warmth of the
tent, which offers protection from the strong gusts of wind.
Before falling asleep, we could hear the coughs of our guides and porters from
all the dust inhaled along the way.
DAY
THREE OF HIKE
Of all the mornings at camp, the
morning on Day Three, Thursday, August 29th, was my absolute favorite because I
didn't beat the sun up! It was so wonderful to open my eyes in the morning and
be able to see the yellow ceiling of our tent instead of darkness.
Shortly after I was awaken, Liberot passed by our tent with his daily and
cheerful and pleasant, "Good morning" and "How did you
sleep?" To let him know we slept well, we would respond, "Great, like
a fat baby." We, in turn, would ask him how he slept, and he always
responded, "Like a fat baby." He then politely asked us how we wanted
our tea and if he could open our tent flaps to serve us hot tea. We were always
eager to let him do so. The tea was the best part of waking up! To explain the
"fat baby" response, each night before we went to bed, Mussa, would
inquire whether we ate enough because he wanted us to have full bellies so we
could sleep like fat babies.
We enjoyed our tea, put on our hiking pants, gaiters and sneakers, stuffed our
hiking bags back up and proceeded to breakfast. Breakfast consisted of bacon,
egg pancakes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and porridge. No breakfast was ever served
without a pot of porridge.
After feeling energized from our breakfast, we set out for our Day Three of
hiking adventure around 8:10 am. Since we got an early start, we were one of
the first groups to roll out of camp and start our journey. The morning started
with a slow and gentle ascent through the dry, boulder-strewn terrain of the
Shira Plateau towards the western slopes of Kibo as we left virtually all
vegetation behind. At first, our path meandered somewhat, rising and falling,
and then continuing for a steady incline.
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Hiking
toward the Lava Tower
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It wasn't long before the porters
caught up to us, but after a couple of hours, all of the porters veered right
at the junction with the Lemosho Route toward the campsite while we continued
our steady ascent to Lava Tower. The hike to Lava Tower on the Machame Route is
only trekked for acclimation reasons. Trekkers who were not feeling well or
needed another day at the lower elevation veered right with the porters
straight to the campsite instead of continuing on to Lava Tower.
We learned the following day that the three girls we ke running into along
the way all got sick and chose to take a day of rest instead of continuing on
to Lava Tower. Sarah and Ceri felt better after their day of rest, but sadly,
Lauren had to turn back.
Just before noon, we arrived at the base of Lava Tower, which was at 15,250 ft
above sea level. Robert caught up to us by the time we made it to Lava Tower
and he stayed with our bags while Mussa guided us up Lava Tower. Prior to
leaving for the trip, Mike had the grandiose idea that we should all climb Lava
Tower. At the time, he did not realize what was involved to climb Lava Tower.
Perhaps, if he had realized what was involved, he might not have requested it.
Had Nick known what was involved, he certainly would have requested it. Excluding
actually summiting, this was my favorite part of the entire hike. I was
much more comfortable with the technical climbing thanks to time spent at the
Gainesville Rock Gym and Lake Wauburg's Carolina Wall, plus a couple tougher
climbs since moving to Malawi.
Lava Tower is a vertical protrusion of volcanic rock poking skyward out of the
mountain and is 150 ft tall. The route we took up Lava Tower was basically rock
climbing or bouldering, without the ropes. During our climb up Lava Tower, we saw
several metal anchor points for rope climbing ropes. Many may have turned back
after seeing the metal anchor points, realizing that perhaps this was not the
smartest idea, but we just kept on climbing. About half way up there was a 20
foot vertical face that we had to climb right up. The most frightening part was
a 15 foot lateral with a ten to fifteen foot drop with minimal foot and hand
holes.
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Lenore
bouldering up Lava Tower.
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I was relieved when we finally made
it to the top. According to Nick's GPS, the top of Lava Tower was at 15,396 ft
above sea level. A fun little fact is that the top of Lava Tower is higher than
the highest mountain in Switzerland, the Dufourspitze (the highest point in
Western Europe). From the top of yesterday's short acclimation hike to the
top of Lava Tower, our total elevation gain for Day Three was 2,801 ft.
We enjoyed the spectacular views at the top of Lava Tower, took a few photos,
and called down to Robert who was at the base of Lava Tower to take a few
photos of us from where he was standing. The only thing you can see in the
picture of Lava Tower that Robert took (if you look extremely closely) are tiny
lines of our outstretched hands waving to Robert.
Going down Lava Tower was far worse
than going up (agreed). The 15 foot lateral spot was worse from the
opposite direction and I found it extremely difficult to find foot and hand
holes that I could reach. Fortunately, Mussa was patient with me and assisted
my limbs make the reach.
After surviving Lava Tower, we enjoyed our boxed lunch at the base of Lava
Tower before descending back to camp. Our lunch boxes on Day Three contained
chicken, bread and cookies. Robert brought us the thermos of zucchini soup to
add to our lunch. Our favorite part of every meal was always the hot soups. We
learned while we were eating our lunches that most people do not climb up Lava
Tower. In fact, only two or three groups attempted to do so after us, and may
have only requested it after seeing us at the top. Many tour operators will not
even bring their clients up it because of the danger involved.
We departed Lava Tower around 1:45 pm. The trek to Barranco Campsite from Lava
Tower was fairly steep. We ran into minimal vegetation again and some interesting
trees on the way down, and we made it to the campsite around 3:30 pm.
Barranco Campsite was at 13,077 ft above sea level (so less than 500 feet
higher than the campsite on night Two of the hike). Barranco Campsite had
gorgeous views of Kibo's southern face, the Western Breach route and the mighty
Heim Glacier, but it was one of my least favorite campsites because it was not
as private as the first two campsites. As we walked into the campsite, it
looked like a military campsite with all the tents spread out over the plain.
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Baranco
Camp with the Earth located somewhere
beneath those clouds in the background.
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Our
camp. Green tent is our mess hall, the brown tents are staff quarters
and
the kitchen, and the dome tents are our quarters.
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Day Three wasn't nearly as dusty as
Day Two, but it was still dusty. Day Three was, however, significantly colder
than Day Two. Our jackets/sweaters stayed on nearly the entire day, except for
very brief intervals. Any time we ventured to take our jackets off, strong
gusts of wind came piling in forcing us to put the jackets right back on. Mussa
insisted that I keep my jacket on for the rest of the day, even if feeling warm
at times. We always happily listened to any instructions from either of our
guides.
We were always given our wash-wash buckets before snack and tea time. The
wash-wash buckets had to be immediately positioned into the foyer area of our
tents with the exterior tent flap zipped up to prevent piles of dust from
finding their way into the wash-wash bucket. After our wash-wash routine, we
went to the registration book to prove that we made it to Barranco Campsite.
One of the men who signed in that day claimed to be 86 years old! Unbelievable!
I hope he made it to the top.
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The
view of Kibo from Barranco Camp
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For dinner, we were served cucumber soup, bread, spaghetti with meat sauce and
a pancake dessert. The Italian in me favored this meal above all the others.
After dinner, as was the routine, our wonderful guide, Mussa, gave us the briefing
of the next day.
After our tummies were full like "fat babies," we settled into our
tents for bed. As we were using the light from our flashlights to get situated,
we observed a stream of floating dust particles in the ray of light. Falling
asleep was never a problem (with the exception of the eve of summit day). In
fact, I always tried to stay awake to 9 pm, hoping that maybe if I made it to 9
pm, I could make it until morning before having to use the restroom. I think I
made it to close to 8:30 pm on night three.
After we had fallen asleep, Mike and I woke up to a sound that resembled
crackling thunder. It turned out it was giant rocks falling down the side of
the mountain. Mike and I soon drifted back to sleep feeling secure that the
rock slide was far enough away from the campsite to do any harm. Nick slept
through it all together.
The location of our tent on night three of the hike was not on flat ground.
Throughout the night, our bodies slowly continued to slip and slide toward the
bottom of the tent. I woke up periodically throughout the night realizing
Mike's head was two feet above mind. I'd skoot myself back up to the top of the
tent, only to slowly slide back down. It kept the night interesting. Night
three of the hike was a lot noisier than the prior nights, as well, since our
campsite was not as isolated.
DAY
FOUR OF HIKE
When we crawled outside of our tent
after our glass of hot tea on the morning of Day 4, August 30th, we realized
our bucket of wash-wash had frozen over during the night by more than one inch!
The benefit of it being so cold outside all the time is that our drinking water
throughtout the day was always cold.
The clouds obstructed our views when we first woke up, but the sky cleared by
the time we left the mess hall after breakfast. For breakfast, they served us
hot porridge, french toast, fruit, and all the hot water and hot tea one could
want.
The hike on Day 4 started by climbing up Barranco Wall, which by my estimates
from the base of Barranco Wall to the top of Barranco Wall, is 800 ft high.
Barranco Wall literally looked like a giant wall made out of rugged rocks. The
path up Barranco Wall was a narrow and steep vertical climb, and often required
crawling over and through rocks. Fortunately, it was bright, sunny and
beautiful our whole way up Barranco Wall. It took us nearly 90 minutes to climb
up Barranco Wall.
Once we made it to the top of
Barranco Wall at 13,876 ft, we stopped for a brief snack break. While we ate
our snack and took a brief bathroom break, the clouds reappeared and moved
right over us, blocking nearly all of our visibility, and taking away our
warmth from the sun.
After enjoying a quick snack, we walked along the top of the wall into the
clouds and then proceeded our journey back down. Then there was more up and
more down. At one point, the down was rather frightening as we had to make our
way down (an almost dry) rock stream bed with occasional algae and ice which
made it slippery (my least favorite part of the entire hike).
As we descended closer to camp, ferns, heather and other greenery reappeared
along the rock and dirt path. To make it to camp, we had one final stretch of a
shallow ascent.
Upon arriving at our campsite, Karanga Camp, I spotted our distinguishable
bright blue rectangular bathroom tent and was happy to learn that our campsite
at Karanga Camp was relatively isolated from the other campsite. In fact, our
campsite was more than 100 ft higher than the registration tent. The extra 100
ft in elevation is exhausting. Despite all of our efforts on Day Four, Karanga
Camp is only at 13,235 feet, which is only about 157 feet higher than Barranco
Campsite.
The Karanga campsite is above the Karanga Valley, which was not visible to us
when we first arrived. Those on the 6 day Machame Route continued on right past
us to the next campsite. I was somewhat jealous as I watched them walk by us,
knowing they would get a hot shower one day before us. I was not
jealouse knowing that they would get almost no sleep before attempting the
summit that night. We picked the 7-day Machame Route, as opposed to the
6-day, because most unsuccessful attempts up Mt. Kilimanjaro are because of
altitude sickness. While the success rate on the 6-day is still pretty high, we
figured we might need the extra day to acclimate since we live at sea level.
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View
of Kibo from Karanga Camp
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Our guides had us sign the
registration book first before dropping off our stuff at camp and serving us a
delicious hot lunch, which consisted of soup, bread, a salad platter that had
cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, tomoatoes, onions, peas, hard boiled eggs,
potatoes, green peppers and some kind of raw meat.
After lunch, the three of us played Bao in our tent. What seemed bad at the
time turned into an unexpected blessing. Nick's chickpeas for his Bao board
spilled out all over the place. As a replacement, he collected little rocks
from our campsite to use for the camp. Mike then got the wonderful idea to
collect little rocks for the beautiful Bao board Nick had made for us as our
wedding present. Now we have a Bao board that was hand carved in Malawi with
rocks as the playing pieces from Mount Kilimanjaro.
We were interrupted while playing Bao by visitors at our campsite. Ceri and
Sarah stopped by to say hello. The five us went into the mess hall and enjoyed
each others company with hot tea, popcorn and nuts. Our team gave us more snack
food to share with our guests. It was nice to get to interact with some new
people and make some mountain friends.
It was during snack time that Mike realized he had lost his wedding ring on the
mountain. Poor Mussa had the whole camp searched upside down trying to find
Mike's ring. We knew it wasn't at camp. At first, we had assumed it had been
lost earlier that day on Barranco Wall. After much investigating while looking
at our pictures from the trip, we came to the conclusion that the ring was lost
when he took his gloves off to climb Lava Tower. It wasn't until we were home
for quite a little while and I was finishing emptying out MY hiking bag did the
ring show up. It must have slipped off his finger into my bag as he was
stuffing the sleeping bag in my hiking bag one of the nights. After I found his
ring, I asked him if he would marry me again as I let him know I found it.
During lunch, we were informed that after today there would be no more
opportunities for our porters to gather water for the next two days. While the
porters would carry at least 40 liters of water to ensure there was plenty of
water for drinky-drinky, there would be no more water for wash-wash. Therefore,
once it was time for wash-wash, I spent probably close to an hour with my last
bucket of wash-wash for the next couple of days trying to make myself as clean
as possible. While I was taking a long time with my last wash-wash, Mike and
Nick went back to the sign welcoming us to Karanga Camp so Nick could take a
picture next to the sign in which he corrected the spelling on the sign to
"Karonga Camp," which is the name of the district Nick is living in
Malawi. It was during this adventure that my Malawi Airtel SIM card actually
was lost when I had taken it out of the phone to put in my Tanzanian SIM
card. Sadly, it did not show up in Lenore's bag, however it was replaced
with causing only a minor headache.
That's Better.
Each day, my hair became more and more brittle and straw-like. I brushed it
each night, which was rather painful. The dirt falls out of it in piles. I had to
brush my hair on the foyer area of the tent to prevent excess dirt from
layering the floor of our tent. I gave up on the dry shampoo after night three.
I think it made my hair feel worse.
Dinner time came quickly. We enjoyed a delicious onion soup, bread, rice,
cabbage and meat sauce and fruit salad for dessert. We always enjoyed the happy
smiles of Liberot while he served us our meals. While we were eating dinner,
the clouds gradually cleared once more until we had a spectacular view of
Kibo's southern face. By the time we left the mess hall after dinner and our
briefing for the next day, the sky turned dark and we could see the city lights
of Moshi far below us.
DAY
FIVE OF HIKE
After our daily morning ritual on
Saturday, August 31, 2013, we departed our campsite to hed to Barafu Hut. For
breakfast, we were served bread, porridge, sausage (hot dogs), egg pancakes,
tomatoes and cucumbers. I ate very little of our delicious breakfast because I
was fighting an upset and achy tummy.
The hike on Day 5 of the trek was only approximately 3 hours. It was a short
hike on compacted scree. The scenery along the wide path was barren. Often
times, we crossed over shattered rocks and stones. At one particular point, it
sounded like we were walking over broken glass as we walked on top of the
shattered rocks. We gained altitude unrelentingly, but it was cold the entire
day. I never even considered removing my gloves or jacket on Day 5. While our
path was wide and open on Day 5, the clouds obstructed our views for most of
the hike.
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This
stuff sounded like broken glass as you walked on it.
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Whenever our beloved porters passed
us on the hike, we always smiled and told all of them "jambo" and
"asante aana," which means "hello" and "thank you very
much." Our porters were superhuman. It's amazing the amount of weight they
can carry.
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Our
porters carrying everything for our camp.
Sarah and Ceri behind them singing Disney songs.
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We arrived at our campsite at Barafu
Hut around 11:00 am. Our campsite at Barafu Hut was at 15,330 ft, so just over
4,000 ft below the summit. The term "Barafu" means "ice" in
Swahili, which was quite fitting based on the temperatures all day. The
campsite at Barafu Hut is famous for its rumor that a woman died at Barafu Hut
when the toilet she was sitting in collapsed and slid down the hill side. Not
the most dignified way to go, and a definite plus to having our toilet tent.
Since we had gotten to camp so early that day, the porters hadn't finished
setting up camp yet. That was the moment we realized that not only did our
porters always do a wonderful job setting up the campsite each day, but they
also cleaned the grounds before we arrived by picking up all the scraps of used
toilet paper and other trash along the ground. For the most part, the mountain
was fairly clean, especially when considering the amount of traffic it gets on
a day-to-day basis, but that was probably mostly because the porters and other
workers did a wonderful job at cleaning up after all the slobs.
For lunch, we were served bread, cucumber soup, fries, tomatoes, cucumbers,
some local fried thing that had eggs, cucumbers, carrots and other stuff in it.
I stayed away from most of the food served at lunch and tried unsuccessfully to
fill up on bread due to my upset stomach that had been bothering me for a day
at that point.
After lunch, we had our briefing for summit day. Both Mussa and Robert gave the
briefing. Every other night it had just been Mussa. The briefing was quite
intimidating as they explained to us that we would be woken up later that night
at 11 pm. The temperatures that never warmed up throughout the day were even
more intimidating as we wondered how cold it would be in the middle of the
night without any warmth from the sun. When I asked Robert if he was betting on
us, he replied, "Why not?" Mussa's reply to us was, "It is a
piece of cake." Then he paused and continued, "with ice cream on
top." We all smiled with Mussa's statement because on Day One of the hike
he asked us if we liked ice cream. We responded, "of course" and
"everybody likes ice cream." Everyday thereafter until summit day, he
told us the hike up Kilimanjaro was a piece of cake with vanilla ice cream on
top. Once we had summitted and made it back down to camp, we joked with Mussa
that we forgot to get ice cream from the top and had to go back up.
We spent the next couple of hours relaxing, washing ourselves with our body
wipes (since there was no water for wash-wash), and preparing our layers for
summit day. The layers I picked out for myself for summit day included a
non-cotton tank top, full body Hot Chilis, pajama pants, double layered ski
pants, fleece, wind protective jacket with fleece lining, thick down jacket,
hat, neck warmer, two pairs of socks, and my ski gloves. We made sure that the
layers touching our skin had no cotton in them because once wet, cotton has no
insulating properties. I was wearing about the same amount; I felt like the
marshmallow man.
At some point between lunch and dinner, the sky finally cleared and we had a
wonderful view of the remaining hike ahead us. Even with the sun out, it was
still cold.
Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. I had brought a book for the trip
but never ended up opening. I only read to get myself to sleep this day, and
it helped me fall asleep before it even got dark. I was expecting a lot of
down time at camp, which did not turn out to be the case. Our team kept us
fairly entertained between all the eating and snacking and tea time.
Dinner was served at 5 pm, a little early on Day 5, so we could all head to our
tents and attempt to get some sleep before summit day. Dinner consisted of
bread, zucchini soup, vegetable and meat sauce, white rice and passion fruit
for dessert. Due to my upset stomach, I only had a little bit of the meat
sauce, and tried to fill myself up on bread and white rice. I jealously watched
as Nick never held back from eating large portions of everything that was
served (hey, good food that I don't have to cook is not common in my life).
By 6 pm, the three us made our way to our tents to try and get a few hours of
sleep. I wiggled myself into the cocoon that was my sleeping bag and stared up
at the ceiling of our tent that was still bright yellow since the sun had not
gone to sleep yet. As the time went by, the yellow got darker and darker until
it finally got completely pitch black. I was upset to still be awake to notice
the transitioning color of our ceiling. My upset belly only got more and more
upset as the night progressed and I left our tent for the bathroom tent at
least 4 times between 6:30 pm and 11 pm. At most, I got 1 to 1.5 hours of
sleep. Mike didn't do much better than I that night, but he probably got at
least 2.5 hours of sleep. I got a good 5 hours, but was woken up in the
middle of the night by the howling wind.
The wind was so violent while we were trying to sleep that I was afraid our
tent was going to fly away. I was hoping Mike and I and all our belongings
weighed enough to keep the tent planted on the ground. One of the metal stakes
to keep the tent grounded flew out during the night.
All too soon, it was 11 pm and Liberot walked by our tent with his cheerful and
charming, "Good morning," and "How did you sleep?" We
wiggled ourselves out of our cocoon sleeping bags, put on our remaining layers
(as we slept in our first two layers) and met in the mess hall where we were
served bread and porridge. My stomach was bothering me so much, I barely was
able to eat a piece of bread.
Once midnight creeped up on us and it was time to start our ascent to the top
of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mussa made sure we were properly dressed and asked us if
we were ready to "rock and roll," which was his common phrase
throughout the hike to make sure we were ready. Mussa asked us if we felt warm.
I answered that I was warm at our current elevation at Barafu Camp but was
worried about the temperatures as we gained altitude. We put our headlights on
our heads and proceeded to start our final climb.
DAY
SIX OF HIKE
The final ascent on Sunday,
September 1, 2013, started off bitter cold, and only got colder the higher we
climbed. There were no barriers to protect us from the strong winds. The
coldest temperature Mike's thermometer recorded throughout the night was 12
degrees, which does not include the wind factor. My toes were so cold, even
with multiple layers of thermal socks, that I actually started worrying about
frostbite.
The initial part of the ascent was extremely rigorous and challenging as we
followed our fearless and incredible leader, Mussa, up small cliffs. We were
basically climbing up a rock wall, similar to the climb up Barranco Wall. The
differences being that we were warm during our climb up Barranco Wall, we were
at a lower elevation, and we didn't need headlights to see where we were going.
Hiking with headlights and below the moon and stars was intimidating and a
challenge by itself. We could see the little lights of the groups in front of
us far in the distance, constantly reminding us how high we still needed to
climb.
Robert met up to us in the earlier part of our ascent and before our first
brief breaking point. He came out of nowhere and with no headlight on. He
obviously could not have been going pole pole up the mountain. I was amazed he
was able to see anything at all without a headlight.
We took a two minute break once we came to a pile of high rocks that offered a
barrier from the violent gusts of wind. No break was ever longer than 2 to 3
minutes because it was too cold to stop moving for longer than that. I was
eager to take my backpack off. If anything, my backpack was lighter on the
prior days, but it felt like it weighed 50 tons during our ascent to the
summit. Mussa must have realized how difficult it was for me to carry my
backpack as he volunteered to take it from me. Any other time, I would have
insisted on carrying it myself. At that point in time, however, I did not even
pretend to insist on doing so. I just gladly gave him my back and said,
"Asante sana to infiniti." Mussa taking my backpack from me was truly
a lifesaver. My back continued to ache from having had the backpack on for the
next two hours or so. Eventually, Mussa insisted on taking Mike's backpack from
him and traded Mike my backpack for taking his. Nick's poor back never got any
relief and boy did it hurt. By the time we reached Stella Point, my back was
hurting worse than it has ever hurt before and the bag that couldn't have
weighted much more than 15lbs felt like the heaviest backpack I've ever
carried, and that's saying something.
While we were resting at the breaking point with the tall rocks, I sat upright
and just stared out at the stars right in front of us. The stars were directly
in front of us, above us, and all around us. I felt like if I reached my hands
out in front of me, I could grab one. I also felt like if I closed my eyes,
they would never open.
My water bladder froze within two hours. We knew this would happen. Mussa told
us to put water bottles upside down in the interior pockets of our jackets. He
explained that they need to be upside down because the top of the water bottle
will freeze first.
Since we were getting so high, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish if the
lights from the headlights of the groups in front of us were people or stars.
The headlights were easily recognizable while the people kept moving, but if a
person was taking a break, it sometimes looked like a star. I also, at times,
confused stars for headlights. Mike and Nick said they preferred seeing the
headlights than knowing just how high the summit really was.
The ascent once we passed the series of rocks was like walking up the beach at
a 35 to 40 degree angle. Instead of sand though, it was dirt. We ascended up
the mountain very slowly taking extremely short steps. Never did our heels and
toes pass the other. At times, our feet would slide backwards. As we got higher
and higher, the air thinned, and I started to get only a minor headache, which
may have solely been from my heavy breathing. At times, I felt like I was
breathing so hard that I was going to hyperventilate, which has been a problem
of mine in the past. I forced myself to take deep breaths, but even that was
physically exhausting. I felt like I had to catch my breath after every 10
steps or so.
Nick and Robert were chatting up a storm the first half or so of the ascent. It
was nice hearing their voices, but I stayed silent because I didn't want to use
up any energy on talking. I was trying to reserve as much energy as possible. The
chatting somehow stopped half way up. I might've been getting a little tired.
I was trying to engage Michael and Lenore in the conversation to keep their
mind off climbing, but it was no use. Mussa told me he missed seeing my
smile. I told him I was smiling on the inside, but smiling consumed too much
energy at the moment.
The steps got harder the longer and higher we climbed. Mussa kept giving us
words of encouragement and telling us how strong, able and determined we were.
He told us we were a strong group. Any time I stopped to catch my breath (which
was often), Mussa would ask me after I did whether I was ready to rock and
roll. I always replied that I was ready to rock and roll and tried to give him
a small smile.
I felt like I was drunk without any of the benefits. I felt dizzy, weak, light
and all out of sorts and was tripping over myself, finding it increasingly
difficult to maintain my balance. Never once did I consider turning back, but I
often wondered what inspires people to do this because being at such a high
altitude is absolutely miserable. The altitude wasn't that bad for me, it
was only moderately miserable. The sore back and frozen toes is what made
it severely miserable for me.
Of course, most of my body was also cold. The parts of my face that were
exposed were cold, as were my toes. My core was toasty. The down jackets we
rented with all of my other layers definitely kept me toasty. I actually
unzippered the down jacket and the jacket underneath it to let some cool air
in. My warm snowboarding gloves kept my hands so warm and toasty, it was almost
too much, and I took off my gloves for a decent portion of the ascent to let my
hands cool down. It took me four snowboarding trips to find these gloves.
My hands get cold easily and I bought a new pair of gloves every ski trip. It
wasn't until our most recent ski trip that I came across these amazing gloves.
It was not encouraging when we saw a girl we had talked to throughout the week
being rushed down the mountain at lightning speed because of the effect the
altitude had on her. She had started in a group of 3 like us, but only 1 made
it all the way to the top. Watching her being rushed down was mentally hard on
all of us as we all hoped there would be no need to rush any of us down.
At around 4am, Mussa lied to us and told us we only had another 45 minutes or
so left to reach Stella Point. We all had a pretty good feeling he was lying,
but it still felt good to believe we could be closer than we really were.
Fourty-five minutes later, the final 45 minute push to Stella Point was the
steepest and most difficult part of the trek. We had read in several places
that the goal is to make it to Stella Point because once you make it to Stella
Point it is a relatively easy stroll to the summit. Eventually after 5.5 hours
of a strenuous and physically and mentally exhausting hike, just after 5:30 in
the morning, we all made it to Stella Point. Those 5.5 hours were the worst 5.5
hours of my life. I won't necessarily agree with that, but I think it is the
single most challenging thing I've ever done. It was so horrible.
I also don't agree with that. You have to push yourself to the limit to
know where your limits are and to know who you are. I looked at Mussa and
Robert with all the respect in the world and said, "I don't know how you
do this all the time." Mussa shook his head in agreement and replied,
"It is very difficult."
At Stella Point, our lovely guides gave us hot tea to sip on. Mike and Nick
thoroughly enjoyed the tea (best little thing our team did the entire trip).
I had tried eating a couple of crackers for extra energy on the way to Stella
Point and failed to even eat a whole cracker. I managed to drink most of my
tea, but wasn't able to finish it.
As soon as we passed Stella Point, there were spectacular glaciers and ice
cliffs all around us and the sun slowly started to come up providing us with
warmth. The views all around us were breathtaking, even more so with the sun
rise.
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Walking
the last little bit from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak
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The summit was less than an hour
from Stella Point and not very steep. Nonetheless, we were still gaining a
small amount of altitude and I found this challenging. Even though the sign at
the summit was visible in the distance, the steps to get there seemed
impossible. We managed to make it to the summit at 6:25 am. As we stared at the
green sign, in jest I said, "We did all of this for a green sign!" I
then seriously remarked, "Ask me in a week if that was worth it." It
didn't even take two days before I was sure that all of that work on summit day
was definitely worth it. It was truly an incredible experience I am very
grateful to have had.
Contrary to Lenore's experience, this was one of the happiest moments in my
adult life. I was so thrilled we had made it and my dream had come
true. All through the hike there was that nagging feeling in the back of
my head that something could go wrong and I could fail to summit. Even
for months before leaving for the trip, I was being extra careful around my
village to not injure and ankle or do something that would ruin my chances of
reaching the top. On that last little bit before Uhuru Peak, I almost
cried in joy three different times and had to step off the trail to pretend
there was a picture I wanted to get while I composed myself.
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Summit Team
Parr at Uhuru Peak, the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Roof of Africa
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We ran into our newly made friend, Sarah
from Chicago at the top as well as a guy from Mark's group (the guy from Boca).
We didn't see Mark. I hope he made it.
After we took our pictures at the sign, I was eager to get to a lower elevation
as soon as possible. I instantly started to feel better as soon as we started
our descent back down to Stella Point. I felt rejuvenated with strength and
energy with every step I took down back to camp. I was suddenly in a better
mood and felt more like myself. I was smiling again and passing words of encouragement
to those still heading up. The faster we descended, the better I felt. Even my
stomach started to feel better.
We overheard a girl at Stella Point talking about heading back down. There were
several people around her trying to convince her to keep going. I chimed in
also trying to give her encouragement and explaining that the worst of it was
behind her. I don't know what she decided. I hope she decided to head to the
summit and not back down to camp.
The way down the mountain was much quicker and easier than the way up. It was
basically like sand skiing down to our prior camp, with skiiing sticks and all.
It was actually fun. I didn't think it was right to be allowed to have that
much fun without even wearing a helmet or signing a waver. I was laughing like
a kid the whole way down. During our sand skiing adventure, Bon, one of the
porters, met up with us and grabbed both Mike and Nick's backpacks and took
them down the rest of the mountain. He grabbed them and threw them both on his
back as if they were as light as feathers. I suppose even the weight of both
backpacks was significantly lighter than what he was used to loading around all
over the mountain.
We made it all the way down to our campsite at Barafu Hut in less than an hour
and twenty minutes. Our wonderful team of porters smiled and cheered for us as
we got to camp. Once we made it back down to Barafu Hut, just before 9 am, we
were able to take a quick nap and pack our things. The first thing I did upon
arriving at camp was eat most of the container of cheddar cheese pringles that
I had been craving since the first night at camp. We were given pasta and bread
for brunch. I went to my tent, started stripping sweat soaked layers, and
literally passed out asleep in the middle of taking off my trousers.
After brunch, we walked swiftly to our last campsite, Millenium Camp, at 12,500
ft. As we came across the trees again, I realized just how much I had missed
the trees. I was ready to keep on going to the base of the mountain to get to our
lodge. I think I was alone on this feeling. I was sore, mostly from the
skiing, but also I'm sure some was from the summit push. When we arrived at
Millenium Camp, it was actually hot in our tents, a feeling we had forgotten.
It got colder in the evening, but obviously, nowhere near as cold as the
summit.
The Millenium Campsite was probably the dustiest of all our campsites. Dust was
everywhere. We had read that some hikers had really enjoyed flip flops while at
camp so we brought ours with us. I never even had the slightest desire to put
them on because my socks and hiking shoes helped keep my feet away from the
dust and it was so cold at camp. I saw some of our porters and Mussa wearing
flip flops around camp without socks. I looked down at Mussa the first time I
noticed him wearing flip flops at camp and asked, "Aren't your feet
freezing?!?!?" I did wear my Chacos with socks most days at camp.
Most hikers on the Machame Route continued on to Mweka Camp. Our guides stopped
at Millenium because it was more isolated as very groups shared our final
campsite. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.
Our final dinner during the hike was a local dish, which was some kind of
banana stew and mashed potatoes (unfortunately for Nick who can't eat bananas).
After dinner, Mike and I jotted down some things, in no particular order, we
were most looking forward to upon our return to civilization: (1) sleeping on a
level surface; (2) not having to put shoes and wind gear on to use the
bathroom; (3) being able to wash our hair and take a nice hot shower; (4) a
real pillow; (5) being able to move our legs while we slept and not be forced
to sleeping on our backs; (6) being able to stand up while getting dressed; (7)
always having a suitable toilet; (8) not having bathroom walls fall into you;
and (9) not being able to feel rocks below us while we slept. The things we
will miss the most: (1) morning tea served to us in bed; (2) afternoon tea and
snack time; (3) going to bed at 7 pm; (4) the views; and (5) the thing we will
miss the most is the team of wonderful people making this experience the best
it can be. Honestly, at this point, I was ready for a nice how shower, but
mostly I was just sad to know the whole experience was ending. My comrades
didn't seem to feel the same, so just went ahead and agreed about how nice it
would be getting off the mountain, when in reality I never wanted to
leave. If they would've asked, I would turned around right then and
started back up.
DAY
SEVEN OF HIKE
Realizing how much I would miss
Mussa, Liberot, Robert and the rest of our tent, I was sad when Liberot came by
our tent with his daily and cheerful, "Good morning" and "How
did you sleep?" and if he was permitted to open the flaps of our tent to
serve us our last morning hot tea (they had run out of milk powder). We
enjoyed our morning tea and packed up our hiking bags and headed to the mess
hall for the very last time. We were served porridge, bread, sausage (hot
dogs), egg pancakes, tomatoes and cucumbers.
After breakfast, our wonderful team (with the exception of an ill porter that
had to be taken down the mountain and Robert who took him) that we are all so
fond of gathered around for the tipping ceremony. They sang an upbeat song for
us and we told them how much we appreciated everything they did for us. We
announced our tips for the porters and the helping porters and gave the
envelopes of money to Mussa to distribute. They smiled and clapped for us after
we announced the tips. We handed our tips directly to Mussa and the chef.
Everyone seemed quite pleased with the amounts of the tips. They sang us
another song and then we said our goodbyes. I went around and gave every person
on our team a thank you and good bye hug. I really hope they did like our tips
because they were all so friendly, hardworking and truly made our trip special.
We took the high amount from the range given to us from TAWC and then added to
it.
While I was eager to get back down
the mountain so I could get to the lodge and take a hot shower, I was sad to be
leaving our beloved team behind, knowing it was the last time we would ever see
them.
By 8:15 am, we started our descent down the mountain. We still had a lot of
elevation to lose in a short period of time, but never did it feel dangerously
steep. I had been nervous about the steepness on the way down because parts of
our Peru hike last year had felt dangerously steep at times, and was relieved
to learn it was fine. It was nice having trees and flowers and bushes surround
us, as opposed to barren land.
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Hiking
back down through the clouds and the forest.
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On the way down the mountain, we
spotted countless monkeys in the trees. It was a lot of fun watching them move
around the trees and interact with each other.
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Monkeys!
It was just odd seeing wildlife other than the same three crazy species of
birds.
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We made it down the mountain by
noon. We picked up our certificates verifying that we made it to the summit and
then Mussa filled them out. They then fed us our final lunch, an egg burger (hamburger
with a fried egg on top, which is amazing), that was served to us by our
chef. We also got the opportunity to say good bye and thank you to Robert and
give him his tip because he met us at the bottom of the mountain.
After our final good byes, we hopped into the truck with our driver and Mussa
and proceeded to head to our lodge. We first stopped at the airport because
Michael had gotten an email that our lost suitcase had made its way to the
Kilimanjaro airport. It had, in fact, made it to the Kilimanjaro airport. I was
elated that I would have clean clothes to wear later that night and our final
days in Africa. This bag also had all the hiking gear that had brought for
me, which I had just finished climbing Kili without. Basically, you don't
need as much fancy gear as you think, but it would've been nice. The
other thing in the bag of mine was phone parts, which it seems were stolen and
I ended having to pay to get the phone fixed in Arusha after the safari.
We finally arrived at our lodge between 2 and 2:30 pm. We were greeted with
juice and hot towels to clean ourselves and then we had to say our final good
bye to Mussa. It was sad departing from Mussa, although, I am sure he was eager
to get home to his wife and three kids (two boys and one little girl). It must
be hard to leave one's family so frequently for a week or more at a time.
We all got dressed and
proceeded to have a nice formal dinner at the lodge. First we had drinks by the
fire. I was extremely excited to order South African Cabernet, as I had stayed
away from wine even before the hike started. Michael and I enjoyed some cold
beers, which were amazing. I had taken a can of Kilimanjaro beer up with
us, and drank it at Millenium Camp after summiting (Michael had one sip and I
poured one sip out for the mountain), but there is nothing like a good, cold
beer. I did have wine with dinner, just to class it up a little.
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Our
warm fire back at Arusha Safari Lodge
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We had a wonderful and relaxing
evening and then proceeded to tuck ourselves into bed. It was so nice to crawl
into a real bed, without two layers of clothes on, without socks on, and being
able to walk to the bathroom barefoot in the middle of the night and early in
the morning. I woke up thinking I was still on the mountain and looked around
me to make sure I was really in the lodge before putting my feet on the ground
without hiking shoes. While I was glad to have the comforts of the lodge, I
really missed our team of wonderful men who helped us up the mountain. We
couldn't have made it without their guidance and support.
Overall, the trip is one of the most
incredible things I've ever done. If you're the special type of insane like me
that enjoys a little self-torture for the sake of an adventure, I'd recommend
it. I've always liked climbing mountains, but there's nothing like being on the
biggest one on the continent and one of the biggest in the world. Kili is
one of the three tallest in the world if you measured it from top to
bottom,which to me is more impressive than starting at a super high base and
going a little higher above sea level. Would I do it again? In a
heartbeat!
