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DREAM. DISCOVER. EXPLORE.

See new Mt Kilimanjaro 2009 write up below, pics to follow soon… click here for an awesome local tour operator, headed up by the friendly, professional and energetic Samson!

See our group @ the top here!

So what’s next?
Something very exciting is brewing, it involves more mountains AND a becak (WTF?!! Google it!) in a far eastern country with the friendliest people in the world, and known more recently post-Sept 11 for being the most populous muslim country in the world… look out for updates in 2010-11.

Mt Kilimanjaro – Sept 17-26, 2009

The Swahili expression for ‘slowly’ is ‘pole pole’ (pronounced ‘polay polay’) and should be the maxim for all climbers ascending Africa’s highest point, Uhuru Peak (‘Freedom’ Peak) on Mt. Kibo, at 5,895m/19,340 ft. Although the trail is not technically difficult, the lack of atmosphere at that height means every step has to be won at a snail’s pace, more reminiscent of the pace outside an old folks’ home or a hobbled chain-gang as in ‘Cool Hand Luke’ or an old Zombie film.

The final ascent is best made starting from one of the high camps, (in our case Barafu, at 4,640m/15,223ft). To avoid getting trapped behind slow-moving groups, it is best to start walking at midnight latest for the +/-6 hr ascent, with a hearty dinner/breakfast an hour before. The route although not particularly steep, is up an unrelenting ridge and on mixed soft ash and hard lava, but only having short stops (5 min. each 2 hr.) mean it can be exhausting, even walking very slowly. The scattered pinpoints of light from the head-torches of people above never seem to disappear over the crest, onto the level ground at Stella Point. Here, the ridge ends, leaving only 1km and 165m vertically, to the top. At this point things get more interesting; first the dawn is beginning and one sees to the right, and 30m below, the crater floor itself, a 300m diameter bowl which collapsed in the past. Next, the gradient is much flatter, and the peak itself is evident, with a small crowd of summiteers frantically taking photos. Better still, to the left and below the ridge, lies a solid wall of glacier ice, part of the ‘receding hairline’ of the formerly extensive cover. (This is not a recent phenomenon – 11 years after Hans Meyer’s first ascent in 1890, he was astounded to see a huge retreat in the ice had taken place). Finally, the ubiquitous outline of Mt. Meru to the south and the enormous shadow of Kibo projected onto the clouds to the west, show dramatically in the gathering light.

So, how did we get here and was it worth it? Well, I suppose it was that Once-In-A-Lifetime experience, firstly the achievement of reaching the highest we have ever been (outside a plane!) and next the freedom of trekking without worrying about our daily work and seeing wonderful sights. For me a geologist, some of the trail was a busman’s holiday, but a leisurely way to bag another volcano! The mountain complex, 40km across at its widest, was formed 750,000 years ago (coincidentally for those of you familiar with Indonesian volcanoes, this was about the same time as the enormous and catastrophic Toba eruptions in N.Sumatra.). Originally consisting of three peaks which were from W to E, Shira, Kibo and Mawenzi, the western volcano blew apart and collapsed, so the Shira is now only represented by a lower central cone and a broad plateau, across which the first two days’ trek took place.

Day 1
The first morning (after a brief visit to the airport to recover Andy’s brain and the rest…) we had taken a 4WD ride from Moshi, past plains with zebras and giraffes, through plantations and up to the Londorossi Gate where we registered and had all our gear weighed. The government has recognised the commercial potential of trekking, as the fee for foreign hikers is $110 per person per day (that for locals including porters is only $1!!). That means $880pp for the planned 8 days – since the cost of our trip was $1,550, the profit margin now seemed much less at $670pp, out of which Samson’s company had to pay for food, tents, porters and the hire of the car, transfers etc. After these preliminaries, we bounced off to the road-head at Moram barrier (3,395m), where after sorting out the porters’ loads, (and Andy managed his first major re-pack), we finally started walking, for a few hours to Shira 1 camp (3,500m). Note the unambitious distance and height gain – the whole principle is to climb high, sleep low, as we are constantly reminded every time we see a programme on Everest. Thus we had deliberately chosen a long period (7 days for ascent) with relatively low camps in order to acclimatise as much as we could. Even when we had done this, however, at the highest camp we still found ourselves puffing and panting with light exertions. It cannot be emphasised enough the necessity to acclimatise and the main failure (for example 50-75% of people on the 4 day Marangu route called the ‘Coke Route’) is due to AMS or Acute Mountain Sickness, which applies to young or old, famous or unknowns, fit or unfit and varies from time to time. The week before, there was a high-profile failure on our route. Roman Abramovich himself had tried the ascent and he had failed. But his ‘day job’ is more worth returning to perhaps?

Flora and fauna on these two days was sparse, with the white flowers of the Heliochrysum and everlasting flowers being the main sights along with Proteas (the national flower of S.Africa) and groundsel. There are not many animals evident also but some birds such as the ubiquitous chat and white-throated ravens. Luckily for us, apart from a short light shower, there was no more rain for the entire trip. The rainy season starts in November, but at present, it looked as if it had been a drought.

Shira 1 (3,500m) was an unprotected slightly windy site to the east of the cone which represents the remains of the collapsed Shira crater. Next day, we were to descend, then climb back up to a small ridge called Shira Cathedral. Here the clouds swirl up the cliff and back on themselves to die in the sun, but the effect is spectacular, like a huge never-ending fire. Also along the ridge can be seen thin, resistant bands of rocks- these are termed ‘dykes’ and were intruded vertically into the unconsolidated lavas. The camp gave Andy yet another opportunity to repack – we had a large amount of kit (see Appendix and photo at the end) and here is an example of what we carried individually: Andy: 1 tonne of assorted household goods; Nick: One condom, pee bottle and hair lacquer, James: Ungainly ski poles, kool sunglasses and various electronic items, Tim: 4 Diamox tablets, Inflatable Japanese girl, Kili guidebook and bog paper.

Day 2
Meanwhile, On On! to Shira 2 camp (3,900m) which nestled in a depression a bit more protected than S-1 There we saw a lot more, quite tame birds; cheeky little chats and saucy, scavenging ravens, as before, and a beautifully coloured dove. The next morning was sunny and we had a bit of a diversion – a tourist in the group with African Adventure had had $1,500 stolen and the park rangers rushed round shouting at all the porters to get in line for a search (hence the large queue in the photos). This delayed our start by 2 hours but heck… we were in no hurry! It was good to see that the rangers took this so seriously and also not a big surprise to see that the cowboy groups still have some shady porters, which is why we were glad to have picked a smaller local group where they know all their people. We didn’t get the impression that there is much crime, but in Moshi town we were warned not to go without a taxi at night on our own, one has to be a bit careful.

Day 3
The next camp, Moir (4,175m) was a bit more interesting – it is well sheltered and at the end of a massive lava flow with a 20m wall, although the disadvantage was that we didn’t get the sun until late in the morning. In order to do our acclimatisation walk in the afternoon we trooped off eastwards up to the Lent Hills, where we climbed to about 4,400m. En route we were able to receive a signal for the phones so the boys sent out their ‘Tweets’ and Facebook updates to our followers and fans. By now the guides were giving us names – they were called the ‘M’totos’ and I was ‘M’zee’ (pronounced ‘m’zeh). Nick being a junior old farte, was dubbed ‘M’zee kidunga’. At night we were amazed by the clarity of the stars as the Milky Way shone overhead and we saw a fireball descent slowly across the sky to the west – a sight I had not seen since I was a kid and most spectacular. The M’totos amused themselves taking great experimental time exposures, which are in the photo selection. There were not so many campers here – only about a couple of dozen – at some sites there were about 200 foreigners. Published usage of the routes showed that our route combined with the two others from the west and SW would only be about 35% of the total of 7 routes on the whole mountain, so we were expecting quite a crowd at the top!

Day 4
Next day we traversed eastwards at around the same level for the start, then climbed up to Lava Tower at 4640m for lunch. Here we saw one new animal, albeit tiny – a mouse with striped back rather like a mini-chipmunk; it made short work of the sandwich scraps. Passing down through a zone with large blocks of green dolerite, we descended towards Barafu camp, passing lots more caves which are the remains of lava tubes and into a more fertile valley with huge lobelias and giant groundsel plants twice as high as a man, until we debouched into a broad plateau where the camp spread out and was larger than the previous ones by far..By now the weather pattern was after lunch, the mist rose, later disappearing then clouds come and finally if we were lucky a bit of sun at the end of the day. We were ‘sleeping low’ at 3960m, to enhance our acclimatisation.

Day 5
To the encouragement of Nick calling fanya haraka m’zee Andy (get yer ass in gear!), I finished another re-pack and looked up at the huge ‘breakfast wall’ of the Barranco. This was to be one of the steepest climbs we had on the entire trip and was difficult because several hundred walkers and porters were all telescoped into the series of bottlenecks until we surmounted this obstacle. . Looking back we saw to our dismay where the water is collected, a the confluence of a couple of glacier-fed stream, but BELOW the broad are used as an open-air toilet for those avoiding the toilet huts.. Having said that, we had no trouble with the water, although in this case I decided to use chlorine tablets, but had not used them before or after. It is probably due to the dryness that nothing gets washed into the system for now, until the rains begin perhaps. Water is one of the most important items, principally to stave off the effects of AMS, one of the symptoms of which, paradoxically, is water retention, which swells the brain or lungs depending on which type of oedema one gets! The disadvantage of taking Diamox is that it makes one pee – something to be avoided in the cold nights! We survived the whole trip with only two or three preventative Diamox tabs and James had one Phenergan at the top where his headache got too bad, otherwise we didn’t need any drugs – man.

Next stop was to be Karanga camp (4,035m), almost the same height as Barranco, although much to our dismay, we didn’t have to do an acclimatisation walk this time. Our trail traversing eastwards now turned north onto one of a series of ridges which are broad lava flows descending from the top, which unfortunately we could not see due to the mist coming up and lingering. Otherwise, this camp is a bit exposed and dismal and is also the last point where water can be collected. Here we met a lively Norwegian group making a film and some South Africans, Brits, Spanish and Aussies. These few days were a bit frustrating because the walking times were relatively short and no height gained, but this was deliberately in order to acclimatise and afterwards we realised we could not have shortened this period, boring as it was.

Day 6
After another short trek we arrived at the final camp at Barafu (4,640m), adrenalin now starting to kick in as the countdown to the ascent that mattered began. The steep west side of the ridge with the camp is great for clouds and birds to ascend and we saw the usual ravens and chats but also a lammergaier swooping along and a flock of swifts, presumably feeding on insects caught in the up draught. So – hakuna matata (no problem), we had a long rest in the afternoon and prepared our gear for the final leg, which was to start at just before midnight. My head torch, although only 4 years old, was like a carbide lamp from the coal mines in comparison to the new light, long-lasting AAA battery powered, LED ones, so m’zee got the usual ribbing from the m’totos. In addition the soles of my boots were starting to separate from the uppers, so I had visions of nipping up in flip flops. So much for all those months of planning!

Day 7
23.00 Breakfast – porridge, tea etc. fill the thermos flask with hot tea, lots of water, cameras, down jacket etc etc. ready for the off…

24.00 Started creeping up the final ridge at an excruciatingly slow pace, although as we progressed, we found ourselves creeping past the big groups. (Here it helps to have a zip on your fleece and down jacket so you don’t have to keep putting them off and on as the going gets hot & cold).

06.00 Arrived at Stella Point (5,730m), having had a brief attack of exhaustion around 5,600m, as we had not really stopped much but I soon recovered after hot drinks and some grub (including a life saving Twix bar from mon fils). We had been having on /off, low level headaches at the back of the head, but these passed and no-one really had serious problems.

Now dawn could finally be seen as a red glow over Mawenzi to the east and we felt better already! Shortly after, on our left we saw the cliffs of the glaciers below us and on the right, the crater floor.

06.30 The walk up the remaining ridge to Uhuru Peak (5,895m) seemed further than we expected but is not steep and soon we were at the signpost queuing to get our photos taken before the legions of walkers arrived – luckily we were relatively early., but not quite as quick as the drugged up Norwegians.

Exhilarated and a bit ‘narked’ with light-headedness, we strolled down taking pictures and videos (later we discovered my stupid new camera had an option to turn the effin’ sound off, so we missed out on the sound track). Fortunately, the alternative way down from Stella is a scree, very similar to a piste, so we were able to zoom down in less than three hours. This is where the gaiters come in – we wondered why these were on the kit list, but they can be used here to stop all the dust getting into your boots.

09.00 arrived at Barafu again, in nice hot sunshine, to a 2nd breakfast (and a final re-pack) for the long trip down to Mweka Camp at 3,080m. The trail is dusty and not steep so this took quite a while (+/-3 hours). En route though we saw lots of interesting birds as we got back in to the lower climatic zones. Arriving near Mweka we felt so dusty and tired we decided to skip the last night at Mweka and make a dash for the park gate, another 4 hour trog, but with the bonus of a good wash, a beer and a safari next day to see some animals which we have missed on this route – perfect choice, best unanimous decision made all trip!

18.00 Arrived at Mweka Gate (1,630m), having walked for nearly 15 hours but ready to hit town. All that remained was to say asante sana (thanks a lot) to the porters and guides, divvy up the gear we were giving away and pay a generous tip (porters don’t get paid a wage). Samson, Ian (guides), Remy (‘stomach engineer’ i.e cook), Benson (cook asst.) and the 6 porters all gave us a memorable song and dance to wind up the proceedings and then we were off to civilisation once more! We had covered approx. 60-70km walking, ascended/descended a cumulative 8,800m (same as Everest!) in 6 days. It was a superb experience and a privilege to have had such a fine team and good trekking company and we wish them well in their future in a very competitive environment with difficulties in high tax on tents and so on.

Well – what’s the next one?

Written by Andy Wight, 6 October 2009
Edited by James Wight, 28 October 2009.