Kilimanjaro 2013
Kilimanjaro 2013
“Because it's there.” - George Mallory
It all happened so suddenly with an email including the lovely line "Now I have a feeling that you may already have done this but just thought I'd check?! ". Yes I was being asked had I climbed Kilimanjaro and a bit later on in the message saying that if I hadn't done this yet did I want to go?
Climbing Kilimanjaro is something I've always loved the idea of doing and combined with the fact earlier in the day I was struggling to get the computer to do something complicated, having not taken a PhD in "connecting to the Internet via Virgin Media" my mum had said why don't you go for a walk.... there may have been a trailing 'round the block' part to the comment but misinterpretation can lead to much more fun in life.
I have heard that visualisation is a very important strategy for success in life, so I decided to have some extra lie ins and visualise myself running up a mountain as part of my training....sadly it didn't quite work as I grew a lump which I thought might turn into a backpack on my spine (after learning to ignoring the cyst 8 months later it finally blew up like a volcano, clearly inspired by the trip up the mountain). I read a book saying how cold it could be up mountains so I thought I could save some money by making myself need less layers of clothes and have a layer of blubber surrounding me, so drank lots of double cream. Again this didn't seem to work apart from not needing moisturiser as the dairy fat was seeping out my pores. I decided finally to adopt a different training regime and finally went for the most sensible thing I could think of, which was in a spur of the moment decided to walk some of the Camino de Santiago the week before, and as I was travelling with my friend Rachel who dances stuck a dance weekend into my busy schedule to make sure that we could do some awesome dance moves on the top of Kilimanjaro.
The Camino
"Travelling is also a form of meditation. While living fully in the present and enjoying every single moment, time slowly dissolves." Claus Mikosch.
The Camino was amazing and would love to do the whole thing at some point, I only did 150km for it. It taught me that the 20km a day you do as part of DofE wasn't just a small random amount for teenagers to gain a sense of satisfaction, but a good distance! The first day I did over 50km of walking and running. I loved overtaking lots of people, but I was a little tired the first evening and my running shoes had fallen apart. Shopping that evening involved walking slowly to the shop and cursing every single step as my body was suffering. The distances decreased as I did the Camino. Anyway needless to say at the end of the trip to Spain I had destroyed my body and had tendinitis, I personally blame it on a lack of cream as part of my diet. From this I learnt that maybe I wasn't quite as immortal and infallible as I had thought.
Life was brought down to survival for me on the Camino: sleep, eat, walk and then repeat. It was an amazing journey and helped clear the cobwebs from my mind. *
This isn't quite true I had some really inspiring conversations along the way, made new friends, leading to other foreign adventures and I had time to contemplate life and smile.
Maybe something which really summarises the Camino is the following quote.
“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves, and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again—to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” Pico Iyer
Off to Tanzania
“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
So the day before the trip I was now a proud owner of two new pairs of walking socks and my recently acquired collection of plasters and compedes as a result of lessons learnt from the Camino
I always enjoy holidays being a surprise and so I decided not to worry too much about the introduction pack, but read it enough to ensure that I packed the essentials. I felt like I was getting ready to do a Ryanair flight to a cold country whilst I was testing that my numerous layers would work together. So this was 7 layers of upper body clothing and 3 required for below. I decided to hire some clothes in Tanzania as I didn't want to be cold at the top, as I remembered how cold Africa was last Summer at night when trekking from Cape Town to Nairobi.
Day 1: Moshi
'If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.' - The Dalai Lama
Travel is a funny old business: Rachel set off an hour after me from England and then arrived 8 hours before me. Was it because I missed a flight due to perusing duty free? No just because I'd taken a much cheaper set of flights. My plane arrived early in Moshi and I was hit with the $50 for a visa, a classy visa with a photo of me, I wonder if I might even fill my passport up before it expires in 2018. Rachel didn't get a printed visa despite landing in the same airport.... dodgy dealings????? Also they seemed to have no change for one of the $20 I had handed over, and I had to ask a fellow tourist for change.
They asked me for the yellow fever certificate which surprised me as I was pretty sure there isn't any yellow fever in England.
We were staying in a lovely hostel which had a great atmosphere. Rachel had already acclimatised and met Emily Champagne (such an awesome surname) who was also coming on our trip. We were staying in a little hut in the garden of the hostel and I knew I was in Africa when I got 1 or 2 mossie bites, on the other hand so much better than bed bugs (Something I suffered once on the Camino)!
We were told there was a restaurant across the road. So we asked for the menu, which caused a bit of confusion until we realised it was either chicken and chips or chicken and rice:-D. There was a wedding going on next door and it looked like they were having amazing fun and eating some really exciting food. It was the season for wedding as there were quite a few van with live bands playing whilst driving around whilst I was staying in Moshi.
Day 2: Weru Weru
"It's good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."- Ursula K. Le Guin
The next day Femka (A Dutch girl who was staying in our hostel) took Emily, Rachel and myself for a walk into town. We had a great cup of coffee in an old colonial building. Then we went to Gladys, an equipment shop in town which turned out to be a little dodgy. My thermorest hated air and had to be re inflated about 3 times a night, the sleeping bag was concerned that I might my tummy might get too hot and liked opening up in the middle, a down jacket which just wanted everyone to have a feather, and finally walking poles which wanted to be a bow from a bow and arrow. I also left my drivers licence as my deposit which I was scared at the end whether it would be held to random as one of the poles was properly broken my the end of my trip.
We had a lunch with some other travellers, one was a German girl who had come over for some missionary work and was finding the language barrier to be vast as she only had an English-Swahili and English German dictionary to use.
We then went to Weru Weru where we were staying for one night before setting off on our trip. It was a nice room but I couldn't quite believe that the following day I would be climbing Kilimanjaro! We failed to meet our group as we had been told to meet at 6, but in fact the meeting was at 4.30, the worst bit was we were already there by then! (This is maybe the most dull sentence I could write but I hope it illustrates the concept of TIA - This is Africa: don't expect anything to happen as you might expect)
I enjoyed the line in the Explorer brochure which said we could 'relax by the pool', what they meant was the water was green and might be used for the camels to drink so couldn't write 'relax in the pool'.
For dinner we had some soup, stew and some white foam based wheat product - cake I guess. The guide came and checked that we had all the layers that we needed, I still needed to hire some water bottles as I was told the disposable ones are not allowed up a mountain, so I had to give Gladys more money!
Day 3 (4/10/13) : Drive to Londorossi Gate; trek to the Lemosho Glades
"There are only three real sports: bull-fighting, car racing and mountain climbing. All the others are mere games." - Hemmingway.
We started with a ride in a safari Jeep to the start, the Londorossi National Park Gate on the western side of Kilimanjaro. It turned out that TIA was in operation, that is 'This Is Africa' so we got up early and there was lots of waiting around and having no idea what was going on. For example a long break by a mini shop, which gave me me the opportunity of buying chili banana crisps, which were very tasty. Check in took a while, but it was good seeing all the porters bags being weighed to make sure they didn't have more than 20kg of other peoples baggage.
We then went along to Lemosho roadhead (2100m) through some very pleasant forest. I wasn't impressed that they wanted us to walk in a line slowly following the guide and also shocked by the number of people walking the supposedly quiet Lemosho route. I confess being in a line put me in a grumbly mood, and soon found happiness by worming my way to the front of everyone and the guide.... a much better view:-) Lunch contained a curious white bread and honey sandwich which required to lubricate your throat to help ensure your mouth wasn't too dry. Was I asked that night that I ensure that I stayed in line and behind the guide on the first night in camp?.... Maybe.
Our first camp-site was Big Tree camp (2780m).
I think it started out as silliness but as we had to put out details in a big ledger every night we stayed somewhere. I put different job titles down. The first night I was a lighthouse painter, specialising in the red stripes. Another job title which is fun is Tonsorial Adjuster: this is another way of saying a barber.
Day 4 : Walk to Shira Camp
"You climb for the hell of it." - Edmund Hillary
The trek today started off through grassy moorland and heather with some scenic volcanic rock formations of the plateau.
We could see Kibo Peak floating above the clouds, the highest peak of Kili's three peaks, which last erupted over 150,000 years ago.
Camp for today is Shira One Camp (3500m)
Job: Miniature bonsai tree gardener.
Day 5: Walk to Moir Hut
"I've climbed with some of the best climbers in the world, more importantly, to me, they are some of the best people in the world. That's another reason why I climb." - Jim Wickwire.
Today was a good mixture of terrain from the moorland of the Shira Plateau to the broad upland desert beneath the Lent Hills.
Our camp is close to Moir Hut (4175m), an old place researchers used to stay which looks like the tip of a rocket.
In the early eve we went for an optional walk over lots of large rocks, an accident waiting to happen up to an altitude of 4300m.
Sadly there wasn't an opportunity for a sundowner at the top, but there at least was time to make messages using cashew nuts and have Kili as the backdrop.
Job: Biscuit architect, focusing on getting the right level of crunch and aiming to put some unami in every crunch.
Day 6: Trek to the Lava Tower
"The best climber in the world is the one who's having the most fun." - Alex Lowe.
Today involved walking on the lava ridges beneath the glaciers. One of our group dropped out as sadly their legs were feeling like jelly. Monday evening's camp-site was partially enclosed with a rock wall with a massive rock looming over us on the other side.
It was really misty and we went for a walk and it was amazing as it cleared on the way back and had a great view of the hanging glaciers at Arrow Glacier (4830m).
Rachel put a brave face on it and struggled up and fought through the nausea. The landscape today made me think a very Martian landscape. At night it was amazing seeing the silhouette of the rock with the starts and moon in the background.
Job: Inventor, developing the radioactive toaster. Not really radioactive as such but a smoke detector build in for the ideal brown colour when it starts to catch.
Day 7: Trek to Karanga (4035m)
“Climbing is as close as we can come to flying.” - Margaret Young
Tuesday: we were woken at 6.15, but sadly morning drinks didn't arrive (camping and getting drinks brought to you tent, a weird mixture of luxury and basics.)
At 7.30 we started off with a steep descending path at first and it was nice dropping back into an altitude with some vegetation as the previous day it had been lots of rocks, although we saw 'martyred Jesus' on a rock face.
I really enjoyed the impressive scenery as we dropped into my favourite place on the walk, the base of the Great Barranco Valley (3960m) which has towering cliff surrounding it with the clouds still below.
I was happy as I didn't have too much of a headache.
I found that the altitude was starting to get to me and was starting to give me headaches. I think Rachel suggested a pilates breathing technique which seemed to really help. Slowly in through my nose until my lungs were full and then exhale fully through my mouth. I guess it might have also been helpful as it gave me something else to focus on.
For lunch we had an amazing view and we had dried out pancakes and pieces of potato, half an orange and fried bread, cucumber and tomato sandwich. which was better than the dried bread sandwich.
It was amazing having the clouds below us all day. It then involved a bit of climbing and scrambling over rocks as we climbed the Barranco Wall, I decided to follow Chenga, the chief guide, as I was hoping the pace would be a bit more pacey.
The last bit of the days walk was odd as we saw the camp and then had to use lots of energy to descend and then ascend to reach it.
We were staying at Karanga, which means 'peanut' and this relates to the shape of the Karanga valley. Everyone was very tired when we arrived.
A typical day
"There are 86,400 seconds in a day. It's up to you to decide what to do with them" - Jim Valvano
I now have an idea of the pattern of a day as so here goes my attempt to describe a typical day.
For breakfast there is porridge, to my mind I would describe it as corn soup but rather sickly sweet. It was a great substance to warm you up. I became a bit of a Milo addict as time went by, it was especially nice when it was made using ginger tea.
A typical breakfast might also consist of eggs, toast, sausage and pieces of orange.
Lunch consisted of components randomly chosen from the following: Honey and bread sandwich, pancake, pineapple juice, banana, fried bread sandwich, chicken wing and boiled potato. One lunch we had stew which was excellent.
Dinner was always really good. There was usually a variety of soups: courgette, carrot and even cucumber soup. Mains we would had by this point were mince and pasta, chicken and rice and beef stewed.
One of my favourite deserts was pineapple pieces.
Despite the warmth of the day it was freezing cold and night, and despite a four season sleeping bag it could be cold - I guess 4 season sleeping bags keep you alive but not warm in extreme conditions. It was still not warm with 2 shirts, 2 jumpers and two pairs of trousers.
"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." - Sir Rannulph Fiennes.
It was amazing how the altitude slows you down and everything becomes much more of an effort. Unsurprisingly at that altitude the drinking water was icy cold, and water boils at 86OC at 4000m
The air was very dry at this altitude and I wondered if I was getting a cold as my nose was very dry and sometimes I woke up with my mouth feeling furry due to being dehydrated.
The thermorest must of had a puncture as it required blowing up every so often, usually when the pain of having some rock on the ground jabbing me through the ground became too painful, or I couldn't find a position to avoid it.
Sadly technology doesn't seem to like altitudes, my Nook e-reader died - maybe it was the altitude or maybe the dust. I did try to sort it out, but the large cooking knife might not have been the ideal too, when it came to trying to put it back the screen broke.
It was exciting seeing Moshi below as little pin pricks of light.
One of the songs we had been trying to learn was for Jambo Bwana.
Jambo, Jambo bwana (Hello, Hello Sir)
Habari gani? (How are you?)
Mazuri sana. (Fine)
Wageni, Wagari bishwa,
Kilimanjaro (Tourist you are welcome to Kilimanjaro)
Hakuna Matata. (No worries)
After learning to say hello the next bit of Swahili we all learnt was Pole Pole, which means slowly slowly, as opposed to use both your poles. The other common phrases were 'twenga twenga' - meaning lets go. and the other one was 'poa poa' which meant I'm good if asked 'Habari gani'?, how are you?
Job: Waterslide tester.
Day 8: Trek to Barafu Camp
“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”- Ed Viesturs
As the next day we were going to ascend to the top we were given in a lie in... until seven! and I was woken up by the head of the sun which was pleasant. One of the poor guides tripped and broke the three Thermoses with the last of the ginger tea in and so we had cinnamon tea instead which was nice. The walk was a little monotonous in the morning, also known as a gentle ascent on compact scree, with a rocky terrain.
Three hours later we saw tents I thought were ours, but sadly had to go a little further to reach ours. My scalp was feeling quite itchy and thought about trying a powder shampoo. We were having dinner tonight at 5.30 as we were being woken at 11pm and were going to start walking at 12! It is a bit scary facing going from 4800m to 5895m and walking for over 12 hours. Lots of our group are on Diamox, and I did contemplate it, but I didn't like the idea of trying it without finding out what the side effects of it were.
The toilet here consisted of a porcelain floor, with no foot guides too and too small a hole given the state of the toilet.
Day 9: Trek to the Summit
"Life is brought down to the basics: if you are warm, regular, healthy, not thirsty or hungry, then you are not on a mountain. Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall - it's great when you stop."- Chris Darwin
I struggled to fall asleep as I was far too excited about making our ascent to the summit. I awoke and started off the night with a cup of hot water, I had filled the Thermos at lunch with hot water and I thought it work a treat when I woke and was cold in the morning before.The moment had come to wear my summit clothes and become a yeti monster, well maybe more of a Michelin man. It was weird putting so many layers on: a t-shirt then another t-shirt, a ski jumper, a tracksuit jumper and then a fleece jumper, a fleece jumper and finally a downing jacket on. On the bottom thermal underwear, long Johns, tracksuit bottoms and then ski trousers. I also thought maybe I was trying to catch a Ryanair flight and avoid paying baggage charges. I had some hot drinks but could not face the maize porridge.
Before we set off you could see a stream of lights heading up the mountain, it was exciting to see and almost magical. When we set off it was pitch black and the only thing you could see where the tiny pin pricks of light running in zig zag line up where the path up the mountain must be, giving an indication of where we needed to go. I started off the walk feeling very excited and with adrenaline pumping. It felt like a mystical experience with the lights and knowing we were going to join this 'pilgrimage' to the top. The first three hours were not too bad, however, I didn't want to know the time and as I felt it might scare me as to how slowly time was passing. I asked Genaro to whisper the time to Louisa as I was scared about how strong my motivation was. I was doing my best to Pole Pole, walk slowly slowly, when a guide said to close the gap, when I was pushing myself as hard as I could. I dropped back and some other tiny comment caused me to shout that I was doing my best and I was doing my best to be slow and it wasn't easy to close the gap (I went from angry English to calm English.)
Climbing Kilimanjaro was not about conquering the mountain, but finding my own inner strength. I found it tough and sang a little to myself. Two scary moments on the walk were seeing a man who had tripped and fallen and was taking a long time to get up and the other was when a woman had a panic attack and our guides tried to distract us with getting us to 'Oggy Oggy Oggy, oi oi oi'
It suddenly made sense doing all the slow walk training, even though at the time it was frustrating.
One of the group stopped at 5000m due to dizziness and I thought that it would be very hard carrying on without the group and . One of the things I found interesting was that I decided that I didn't want to listen to music as I climbed but would prefer to hear the click click of my walking poles, taking in the view of Moshi from above and seeing all the stars.
It was at points one of the most tough mental challenges climbing to the top, every time I got a mini headache I did pilates breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth.
One of the toughest things was dealing with the scree we were climbing to ensure that I didn't slide back.
It was like the beginning of a new world when a spot of orange appeared in the sky and very slowly spread signalling the beginning of morning. Roughly around six in the morning a breathtaking view of Mount Morro behind us.
Sadly we were supposed to be at Solar point by six but reached it by seven.
The view from solar point was good and could see the crater. The guides were there with cups of tea which were greatly appreciated.
The walk to the actual peak took about 45 minutes ad the view from there was utterly amazing with a view of the glacier and the sounding area, with clouds below.
I felt like I walked with a bounce in my step as I knew I'd made it and felt like I was, and I was, on top of the world. When I got to the peak I stayed there for 20 minutes but it scared me as at least 5 zombied people walked past me and some who had oxygen supplies view small tubes to their noses.
The views were beautiful and I was very surprised how happy I was with lower oxygen level and I felt euphoric. Everyone else eventually arrived and I enjoyed having the energy to jump at the top and do a ballroom drop with Rachel.
Rachel and I left last with Paul talking about how the wind blew some dirt onto some of the glaciers making them dirty.
It's funny how I never considered how tough it would be getting down.
Firstly my hat blew off and I was shattered having to chase it off and it was amazing how far Rachel and Paul got.
We started to go down scree and told to run/slide down and I was surprised no one else from the group seem to be around or even just ahead.
Rachel seemed to be a natural at scree running and sliding, but my hunger combined with my shoe falling apart hindered me.
I fell over once and I luckily did not hurt myself. I felt I must be the last person in the group and I tried to go faster, but I was hot and I had used up all my energy and I needed food.
I caught up with Gerrard and Annabel and I found it tough keep up with them. When I had caught up for a bit I put too much weight on my stick and it bowed and I fell over sideways. A local & tourist helped bend it back up into a line so it was mostly useful. I felt so broken at this point I was scared of moving in case I fell as it involved a steep descent with sharp rocks which could rip the flesh from your bones if you fell and precipitous drops which would only be okay if you were a cat.
A falling cat's terminal velocity is 100 km/h (60 mph) whereas that of a falling man in a "free fall position" is 210 km/h (130 mph).
Eventually I made it back and Rachel had only been back for 15 minutes and I failed to say hello to Emmanuel and just need food and sleep. Food was a little soup and some pancakes. The hours sleep went by too quickly before it was time to pack up and descent to 3800m to Millennium camp. It was nice having that feeling of success and weird how the guides seemed to care less about us and not need us to walk as slowly. Emily was struggling with her knees. Rachel and I walked along, with the buzz of success, and it was weird having the clouds coming closer and closer to our level and eventually walk in them.
Day 10: The Trek down from Millenium camp
“The adrenaline and stress of an adventure are better than a thousand peaceful days.” Paulo Coelho
It was strange in the morning looking at the photos from the top, it almost didn't seem real that we'd been at the top and looking at photos helped bring back the memories, which were weaker due to lack of proper sleep.
There was a great bit of a sing song from the guides before we left.
The final group photo!
The tour guides didn't seem that fussed about us as a group, and so Rachel and I did a few little mini runs.
At some points I decided I was going to race down after a group of porters..... partly because of the fun of it but also because it felt quite jarring on the knees going down step by step. It was an absolute blast running town, my brain was it a state of flow, and all my concentration was required to make sure I timed each step perfectly as falling................. let's not go there.
There was a great bit where I felt I had to do a slow motions Matrixesque move. A porter in front starting turning with massive tent poles on his shoulder and I had to twist my head and body to the side to avoid having extra ventilation holes in my head.
I think the porters were highly amused at me running past them and I enjoyed seeing other tourists moving to the side as porters and I ran past them.
In the evening we went to a bar restaurant to celebrate the climb. It was amazing watching some of the locals having dance offs.
At some point a local had been showing too much interest in Rachel and I came to rescue her and ended up in a bit of a dance off which was sort of fun, but wasn't quite sure how aggressive the guy was.
One of the guide was also being a bit too keen on one of the girls in the group and enjoyed trying doing an Italian Aerial move on him to suggest maybe he should back off.
The last days
We then went to Weru Weru where we were staying for one night before setting off on our trip. It was a nice room but I couldn't quite believe that the following day I would be climbing Kilimanjaro! We failed to meet our group as we had been told to meet at 6, but in fact the meeting was at 4.30, the worst bit was we were already there by then! (This is maybe the most dull sentence I could write but I hope it illustrates the concept of TIA - This is Africa: don't expect anything to happen as you might expect)
I enjoyed the line in the Explorer brochure which said we could 'relax by the pool', what they meant was the water was green and might be used for the camels to drink so couldn't write 'relax in the pool'.
For dinner we had some soup, stew and some white foam based wheat product - cake I guess. The guide came and checked that we had all the layers that we needed, I still needed to hire some water bottles as I was told the disposable ones are not allowed up a mountain, so I had to give Gladys more money!
Day 3 (4/10/13) : Drive to Londorossi Gate; trek to the Lemosho Glades
"There are only three real sports: bull-fighting, car racing and mountain climbing. All the others are mere games." - Hemmingway.
We started with a ride in a safari Jeep to the start, the Londorossi National Park Gate on the western side of Kilimanjaro. It turned out that TIA was in operation, that is 'This Is Africa' so we got up early and there was lots of waiting around and having no idea what was going on. For example a long break by a mini shop, which gave me me the opportunity of buying chili banana crisps, which were very tasty. Check in took a while, but it was good seeing all the porters bags being weighed to make sure they didn't have more than 20kg of other peoples baggage.
We then went along to Lemosho roadhead (2100m) through some very pleasant forest. I wasn't impressed that they wanted us to walk in a line slowly following the guide and also shocked by the number of people walking the supposedly quiet Lemosho route. I confess being in a line put me in a grumbly mood, and soon found happiness by worming my way to the front of everyone and the guide.... a much better view:-) Lunch contained a curious white bread and honey sandwich which required to lubricate your throat to help ensure your mouth wasn't too dry. Was I asked that night that I ensure that I stayed in line and behind the guide on the first night in camp?.... Maybe.
Our first camp-site was Big Tree camp (2780m).
I think it started out as silliness but as we had to put out details in a big ledger every night we stayed somewhere. I put different job titles down. The first night I was a lighthouse painter, specialising in the red stripes. Another job title which is fun is Tonsorial Adjuster: this is another way of saying a barber.
Day 4 : Walk to Shira Camp
"You climb for the hell of it." - Edmund Hillary
The trek today started off through grassy moorland and heather with some scenic volcanic rock formations of the plateau.
We could see Kibo Peak floating above the clouds, the highest peak of Kili's three peaks, which last erupted over 150,000 years ago.
Camp for today is Shira One Camp (3500m)
Job: Miniature bonsai tree gardener.
Day 5: Walk to Moir Hut
"I've climbed with some of the best climbers in the world, more importantly, to me, they are some of the best people in the world. That's another reason why I climb." - Jim Wickwire.
Today was a good mixture of terrain from the moorland of the Shira Plateau to the broad upland desert beneath the Lent Hills.
Our camp is close to Moir Hut (4175m), an old place researchers used to stay which looks like the tip of a rocket.
In the early eve we went for an optional walk over lots of large rocks, an accident waiting to happen up to an altitude of 4300m.
Sadly there wasn't an opportunity for a sundowner at the top, but there at least was time to make messages using cashew nuts and have Kili as the backdrop.
Job: Biscuit architect, focusing on getting the right level of crunch and aiming to put some unami in every crunch.
Day 6: Trek to the Lava Tower
"The best climber in the world is the one who's having the most fun." - Alex Lowe.
Today involved walking on the lava ridges beneath the glaciers. One of our group dropped out as sadly their legs were feeling like jelly. Monday evening's camp-site was partially enclosed with a rock wall with a massive rock looming over us on the other side.
Rachel put a brave face on it and struggled up and fought through the nausea. The landscape today made me think a very Martian landscape. At night it was amazing seeing the silhouette of the rock with the starts and moon in the background.
Job: Inventor, developing the radioactive toaster. Not really radioactive as such but a smoke detector build in for the ideal brown colour when it starts to catch.
Day 7: Trek to Karanga (4035m)
“Climbing is as close as we can come to flying.” - Margaret Young
Tuesday: we were woken at 6.15, but sadly morning drinks didn't arrive (camping and getting drinks brought to you tent, a weird mixture of luxury and basics.)
At 7.30 we started off with a steep descending path at first and it was nice dropping back into an altitude with some vegetation as the previous day it had been lots of rocks, although we saw 'martyred Jesus' on a rock face.
I really enjoyed the impressive scenery as we dropped into my favourite place on the walk, the base of the Great Barranco Valley (3960m) which has towering cliff surrounding it with the clouds still below.
I was happy as I didn't have too much of a headache.
I found that the altitude was starting to get to me and was starting to give me headaches. I think Rachel suggested a pilates breathing technique which seemed to really help. Slowly in through my nose until my lungs were full and then exhale fully through my mouth. I guess it might have also been helpful as it gave me something else to focus on.
For lunch we had an amazing view and we had dried out pancakes and pieces of potato, half an orange and fried bread, cucumber and tomato sandwich. which was better than the dried bread sandwich.
It was amazing having the clouds below us all day. It then involved a bit of climbing and scrambling over rocks as we climbed the Barranco Wall, I decided to follow Chenga, the chief guide, as I was hoping the pace would be a bit more pacey.
The last bit of the days walk was odd as we saw the camp and then had to use lots of energy to descend and then ascend to reach it.
We were staying at Karanga, which means 'peanut' and this relates to the shape of the Karanga valley. Everyone was very tired when we arrived.
A typical day
"There are 86,400 seconds in a day. It's up to you to decide what to do with them" - Jim Valvano
I now have an idea of the pattern of a day as so here goes my attempt to describe a typical day.
For breakfast there is porridge, to my mind I would describe it as corn soup but rather sickly sweet. It was a great substance to warm you up. I became a bit of a Milo addict as time went by, it was especially nice when it was made using ginger tea.
A typical breakfast might also consist of eggs, toast, sausage and pieces of orange.
Lunch consisted of components randomly chosen from the following: Honey and bread sandwich, pancake, pineapple juice, banana, fried bread sandwich, chicken wing and boiled potato. One lunch we had stew which was excellent.
Dinner was always really good. There was usually a variety of soups: courgette, carrot and even cucumber soup. Mains we would had by this point were mince and pasta, chicken and rice and beef stewed.
One of my favourite deserts was pineapple pieces.
Despite the warmth of the day it was freezing cold and night, and despite a four season sleeping bag it could be cold - I guess 4 season sleeping bags keep you alive but not warm in extreme conditions. It was still not warm with 2 shirts, 2 jumpers and two pairs of trousers.
"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." - Sir Rannulph Fiennes.
It was amazing how the altitude slows you down and everything becomes much more of an effort. Unsurprisingly at that altitude the drinking water was icy cold, and water boils at 86OC at 4000m
The air was very dry at this altitude and I wondered if I was getting a cold as my nose was very dry and sometimes I woke up with my mouth feeling furry due to being dehydrated.
The thermorest must of had a puncture as it required blowing up every so often, usually when the pain of having some rock on the ground jabbing me through the ground became too painful, or I couldn't find a position to avoid it.
Sadly technology doesn't seem to like altitudes, my Nook e-reader died - maybe it was the altitude or maybe the dust. I did try to sort it out, but the large cooking knife might not have been the ideal too, when it came to trying to put it back the screen broke.
It was exciting seeing Moshi below as little pin pricks of light.
One of the songs we had been trying to learn was for Jambo Bwana.
Jambo, Jambo bwana (Hello, Hello Sir)
Habari gani? (How are you?)
Mazuri sana. (Fine)
Wageni, Wagari bishwa,
Kilimanjaro (Tourist you are welcome to Kilimanjaro)
Hakuna Matata. (No worries)
After learning to say hello the next bit of Swahili we all learnt was Pole Pole, which means slowly slowly, as opposed to use both your poles. The other common phrases were 'twenga twenga' - meaning lets go. and the other one was 'poa poa' which meant I'm good if asked 'Habari gani'?, how are you?
Job: Waterslide tester.
Day 8: Trek to Barafu Camp
“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”- Ed Viesturs
As the next day we were going to ascend to the top we were given in a lie in... until seven! and I was woken up by the head of the sun which was pleasant. One of the poor guides tripped and broke the three Thermoses with the last of the ginger tea in and so we had cinnamon tea instead which was nice. The walk was a little monotonous in the morning, also known as a gentle ascent on compact scree, with a rocky terrain.
Three hours later we saw tents I thought were ours, but sadly had to go a little further to reach ours. My scalp was feeling quite itchy and thought about trying a powder shampoo. We were having dinner tonight at 5.30 as we were being woken at 11pm and were going to start walking at 12! It is a bit scary facing going from 4800m to 5895m and walking for over 12 hours. Lots of our group are on Diamox, and I did contemplate it, but I didn't like the idea of trying it without finding out what the side effects of it were.
The toilet here consisted of a porcelain floor, with no foot guides too and too small a hole given the state of the toilet.
Day 9: Trek to the Summit
"Life is brought down to the basics: if you are warm, regular, healthy, not thirsty or hungry, then you are not on a mountain. Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall - it's great when you stop."- Chris Darwin
I struggled to fall asleep as I was far too excited about making our ascent to the summit. I awoke and started off the night with a cup of hot water, I had filled the Thermos at lunch with hot water and I thought it work a treat when I woke and was cold in the morning before.The moment had come to wear my summit clothes and become a yeti monster, well maybe more of a Michelin man. It was weird putting so many layers on: a t-shirt then another t-shirt, a ski jumper, a tracksuit jumper and then a fleece jumper, a fleece jumper and finally a downing jacket on. On the bottom thermal underwear, long Johns, tracksuit bottoms and then ski trousers. I also thought maybe I was trying to catch a Ryanair flight and avoid paying baggage charges. I had some hot drinks but could not face the maize porridge.
Before we set off you could see a stream of lights heading up the mountain, it was exciting to see and almost magical. When we set off it was pitch black and the only thing you could see where the tiny pin pricks of light running in zig zag line up where the path up the mountain must be, giving an indication of where we needed to go. I started off the walk feeling very excited and with adrenaline pumping. It felt like a mystical experience with the lights and knowing we were going to join this 'pilgrimage' to the top. The first three hours were not too bad, however, I didn't want to know the time and as I felt it might scare me as to how slowly time was passing. I asked Genaro to whisper the time to Louisa as I was scared about how strong my motivation was. I was doing my best to Pole Pole, walk slowly slowly, when a guide said to close the gap, when I was pushing myself as hard as I could. I dropped back and some other tiny comment caused me to shout that I was doing my best and I was doing my best to be slow and it wasn't easy to close the gap (I went from angry English to calm English.)
Climbing Kilimanjaro was not about conquering the mountain, but finding my own inner strength. I found it tough and sang a little to myself. Two scary moments on the walk were seeing a man who had tripped and fallen and was taking a long time to get up and the other was when a woman had a panic attack and our guides tried to distract us with getting us to 'Oggy Oggy Oggy, oi oi oi'
It suddenly made sense doing all the slow walk training, even though at the time it was frustrating.
One of the group stopped at 5000m due to dizziness and I thought that it would be very hard carrying on without the group and . One of the things I found interesting was that I decided that I didn't want to listen to music as I climbed but would prefer to hear the click click of my walking poles, taking in the view of Moshi from above and seeing all the stars.
It was at points one of the most tough mental challenges climbing to the top, every time I got a mini headache I did pilates breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth.
One of the toughest things was dealing with the scree we were climbing to ensure that I didn't slide back.
It was like the beginning of a new world when a spot of orange appeared in the sky and very slowly spread signalling the beginning of morning. Roughly around six in the morning a breathtaking view of Mount Morro behind us.
Sadly we were supposed to be at Solar point by six but reached it by seven.
The view from solar point was good and could see the crater. The guides were there with cups of tea which were greatly appreciated.
The walk to the actual peak took about 45 minutes ad the view from there was utterly amazing with a view of the glacier and the sounding area, with clouds below.
I felt like I walked with a bounce in my step as I knew I'd made it and felt like I was, and I was, on top of the world. When I got to the peak I stayed there for 20 minutes but it scared me as at least 5 zombied people walked past me and some who had oxygen supplies view small tubes to their noses.The views were beautiful and I was very surprised how happy I was with lower oxygen level and I felt euphoric. Everyone else eventually arrived and I enjoyed having the energy to jump at the top and do a ballroom drop with Rachel.
Rachel and I left last with Paul talking about how the wind blew some dirt onto some of the glaciers making them dirty.
It's funny how I never considered how tough it would be getting down.
Firstly my hat blew off and I was shattered having to chase it off and it was amazing how far Rachel and Paul got.
We started to go down scree and told to run/slide down and I was surprised no one else from the group seem to be around or even just ahead.
Rachel seemed to be a natural at scree running and sliding, but my hunger combined with my shoe falling apart hindered me.
I fell over once and I luckily did not hurt myself. I felt I must be the last person in the group and I tried to go faster, but I was hot and I had used up all my energy and I needed food.
I caught up with Gerrard and Annabel and I found it tough keep up with them. When I had caught up for a bit I put too much weight on my stick and it bowed and I fell over sideways. A local & tourist helped bend it back up into a line so it was mostly useful. I felt so broken at this point I was scared of moving in case I fell as it involved a steep descent with sharp rocks which could rip the flesh from your bones if you fell and precipitous drops which would only be okay if you were a cat.
A falling cat's terminal velocity is 100 km/h (60 mph) whereas that of a falling man in a "free fall position" is 210 km/h (130 mph).
Eventually I made it back and Rachel had only been back for 15 minutes and I failed to say hello to Emmanuel and just need food and sleep. Food was a little soup and some pancakes. The hours sleep went by too quickly before it was time to pack up and descent to 3800m to Millennium camp. It was nice having that feeling of success and weird how the guides seemed to care less about us and not need us to walk as slowly. Emily was struggling with her knees. Rachel and I walked along, with the buzz of success, and it was weird having the clouds coming closer and closer to our level and eventually walk in them.
Day 10: The Trek down from Millenium camp
“The adrenaline and stress of an adventure are better than a thousand peaceful days.” Paulo Coelho
It was strange in the morning looking at the photos from the top, it almost didn't seem real that we'd been at the top and looking at photos helped bring back the memories, which were weaker due to lack of proper sleep.
There was a great bit of a sing song from the guides before we left.
The final group photo!
The tour guides didn't seem that fussed about us as a group, and so Rachel and I did a few little mini runs.
At some points I decided I was going to race down after a group of porters..... partly because of the fun of it but also because it felt quite jarring on the knees going down step by step. It was an absolute blast running town, my brain was it a state of flow, and all my concentration was required to make sure I timed each step perfectly as falling................. let's not go there.
There was a great bit where I felt I had to do a slow motions Matrixesque move. A porter in front starting turning with massive tent poles on his shoulder and I had to twist my head and body to the side to avoid having extra ventilation holes in my head.
I think the porters were highly amused at me running past them and I enjoyed seeing other tourists moving to the side as porters and I ran past them.
In the evening we went to a bar restaurant to celebrate the climb. It was amazing watching some of the locals having dance offs.
At some point a local had been showing too much interest in Rachel and I came to rescue her and ended up in a bit of a dance off which was sort of fun, but wasn't quite sure how aggressive the guy was.
One of the guide was also being a bit too keen on one of the girls in the group and enjoyed trying doing an Italian Aerial move on him to suggest maybe he should back off.
The last days
I had a lovely last day going off and exploring the town, the hostel was almost totally quiet as Femka had organised a weekend trip away, and then become ill so only she was there. Although we were joined by Milana and Branco (sibilings) who were about to Trek the following day and it was amusing at his lack of preparation and not believing in the fact it was phenomenally cold at the top. I think they were walking together, with a group of about 7 locals to support them!
I wish I'd had one more day as Femka was going to the Chemka hots spring which looked amazing.
When I was at the airport two Canadians I was walking to said that when they did it 2 days after me, a Australian lady and also a porter had died, the lady had died because they had tried to push her too hard and that there was often competition between the groups to see if they could get others to the top
Rwanda
"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, 'As pretty as an airport." Douglas Adams
It was going to be my easiest set of flights ever. Moshi to Rwanda and then to South Africa to see my aunt.
When I arrived in Rwanda they asked for my yellow fever certificate, I couldn't find it and looked everywhere, I had a memory to ensuring I'd placed it somewhere to keep it flat. They even took me to the air plane to check my checked in luggage. I did find one page of the yellow document. I was told that I wouldn't me allowed to fly and that I would have to have an injection to continue on my journey and may be placed in quarantine for 6 days when I arrived in South Africa.
When I was told I could not fly, on top of some other news, that night after trying to explain everything I ended up slumping to the floor and ended up hyperventilating, and my eyes started trying to flood the airport. I got even more stressed as some Canadians told me everything would be okay. It was touching looking back at how locals said please stop and calm down, told me it would be ok, and it took me a long time to do so. This should have been one of the easiest flights I would have had in Africa and it all went wrong over a piece of paper which would be incredibly easy to forge.
They offered to let me fly if I assumed all the risk associated with being deported back from South Africa and I wrote out 2 pages of A4 paper to say that I flew with that in mind.
I was seriously scared as I was about to land in Johannesburg and I had no yellow fever certificate, but luckily there was a strike on and Serge was in charge of the airport and bag inspection.
I then had an amazing time with family in South Africa.
"Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett
posted by Peter at 3:47 pm
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