Tanzania - Mt. Kilimanjaro

So I failed epically on last weeks promise to finish my Africa blogs!  I do have somewhat of an excuse since I was without internet at my new flat until last night.  Now I am up and running and I have lots to catch you all up on, but first I have to finish writing about my Africa trip!  This is the most important (and maybe most awaited) entry from my trip, since it was the whole reason for the trip in the first place!! It was funny, on the trip we were all saying how all we were focusing on and preparing for before the trip was the Kili climb and that we almost forgot about the safari and the Zanzibar portion! 

I left off on my last "Africa" post after we had spent about 4 days on safari in the Serengeti and we were on a small plane (being flown by Annie...still SO jealous I could scream!) headed to the Kilimanjaro Airport.  We had about a 2 hour drive to our hotels for the night, the Kilimanjaro Mountain Resort. Let me tell you, this place was a treat!  It was such a nice place to spend the last night before we were going to be camping in tents for the next 6 nights with no running water or toliets.  We spent most of the afternoon in the swimming pool, gooding off and having out obligitory Kilimanjaro beer...they say it helps with the altitude, ha!  I, in true "lauren fashion", almost sprained my ankle the day before our climb...not surprising!  We were all taking running jumps into the pool and I slipped and fell into the pool (luckily).  Never fear, there is definitely a picture of me mid-air, flailing about with a look of pure terror on my face.  I am NOT, however, going to post that picture on my blog (for one, I am in a bathing suit and for two, the look on my face is truly embarrassing).  If you are so inclined, the picture is posted on my shutterfly site, you can go hunt for it if it really means that much to you.  Luckily, my ankle was only sore for a couple of hours...I can honestly say that I remember exactly what I was thinking at the exact moment the camera caught me mid-air with the look of horror.  I was thinking "OUCH...no friggin way did I just sprain my ankle the DAY before this climb...how typical!"  We also tested out the underwater feature on my camera and got some pretty good pics!  After our swim we had our preparation meeting with Paulo, when he explained everything we would need to know about the mountain, what to expect each day, etc...I was thoroughly horrified by the end of the meeting, even though Paulo kept referring to this as the "easiest part of our trip"  or as a "piece of cake".  I kept asking for my cake {one day we actually GOT cake on the mountain, i had 4 pieces, it didn't help}

The next morning we all brought our "Kili" bags down to reception, this of course after Annie and I packed and repacked our Kili bags about 10 times the night before.  We had a duffel bag that had been provided to us and we were only allowed to pack in that one bag, and it couldn't weigh more than 15kg...it had to fit our sleeping bag in it and everything!  That may sound like a lot for 6 days, but I had a small pharmacy with me if you will remember. We had to drive for a little over two hours to get to the base of the mountain where we would meet our porter and guides.  Luckily, I was in the Land Cruiser that did not get a flat tire as it was about 100 degrees outside!  We took the Rongai route, which is the only route that goes up the northern/Kenyan face of the mountain, so it took a while to get there.  When we arrived we were met by our 39 porters and guides. thirty nine. There were 10 of us climbing, but we had 39 porters!  We were quite literally a small village moving our way up the mountain.  Of the 39, we had 6 guides who stayed with us during our hike each day and helped up set our pace, made sure we were drinking enough water and kept us heading in the right direction.  The rest of the 33 were porters.  These guys are amazing, they truly have the most difficult job on Earth!  They carried, not only our 15 kg bags (on their heads, none the less!) but also their own bags, enough drinking water for all 50 of us, all of our food for the next 6 days, our tents, etc.  And not only did they carry this, but they would stay behind at camp each morning after we set off for the day and pack camp up then within an hour they were already flying by us on the trail and had our next camp set up and a hot dinner ready for us by the time the 10 of us made it to the next camp.  Ridiculous!

So after we met our guides, we set off!  Our pace was so slow it was almost embarrassing. I really couldn't believe how slowly they were making us walk.  This was honestly what I was most worried about, the pace.  You see in my everyday life I am a slow walker, I always say that I like to meander through life.  When you add an upward slope to the mix, I'm even slower.  I was so worried that I would be lagging behind at the back of the pack everyday trying to keep up.  But we seriously walked so slow I was at the front!  I have photographic proof!

The first day was actually a really nice hike, it was pretty warm down at the base, but for most of the day we were in the rainforest so there was lots of shade. The incline wasn't very steep and we only hiked for about 4-5 hours.  Our first campsite we had all to ourselves, one of the benefits of hiking the much less used Rongai route. We all got settled into our tents and then had our first dinner on the mountain.  I was shocked at how good the food was on the trip.  They cooked everything on a couple of gas burners and they turned out food that I wouldn't be able to cook in my kitchen at home!  Annie and I shared a tent the whole time, and we were SO glad that we were sharing with a friend.  There is absolutely no privacy in these tiny tents and they are tight quarters! Plus, it was FREEZING at night, so we snuggled.

The next morning, after barely sleeping a wink (due to the fact we were on a slope and kept sliding down!), we were woken by our porters at 6 am with "morning tea" and "washy washy".  Seriously, this kind of camping is awesome! The porters wake you up and ask if you want coffee, tea or hot chocolate...how many sugars, milk, they make it just how you want it.  Then they pass it through your tent and you get to stay in your sleeping bag and have morning tea while waking up a bit!  Then they bring you a bucket of hot water for "washy washy." To be honest, I didn't even bother after the first day, I just gave myself a wet wipe bath and used the hot water to soak my feet in!  We had breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, fruit and oatmeal and then we were on our way for day two on the mountain!

Day two was going to be quite a bit longer than day one, we hiked for around 8 hours the second day, athough we did get about an hour break for a hot lunch!  The second day wasn't very steep, we were crossing around the side of the mountain, so it was just a gentle slope, but a very long time to be on your feet.  Day two was going well until it started raining. And raining.  And raining.  The last two hours of our hike it rained steadily the whole time.  Genius that I am, felt like I had spent too much money on equipment already so I didn't buy the waterproof pants like they "highly recommended".  I did have a rain jacket and a rain cover for my daypack (thank goodness!) but from the waste down I was absolutely drenched!  I'm not going to lie, it was pretty miserable.  Oh and I also had a pretty epic fall, again, not surprising at all!  To my defense the rocks were really slippery and we were going down a big rock face at the time. 

We finally made it to our camp that night and it was still raining and kept at it through most of the night. It was impossible to dry any of our wet clothes, so I had a disgusting bag of mildewed clothes when I got back! We were all pretty miserable that night, but when we woke up the next morning, it was a beautiful day and I woke up to a fantastic view from my tent!

The peak you see is Mawenzi.  Mt Kilimanjaro actually has three peaks; Kibo is the highest and the one we were going to conquer, Mawenzi is the second and served as out campsite for the next night, and Shira is the third and smallest. With the sun shining, we set off towards Mawenzi.  This day was a little steeper than the other days, but was also shorter at only around 5-6 hours total hiking.

This is our group of 10 at 4000 meters, were were all pretty excited about this milestone!

As you can see, a little steeper this day...

This is us at the top of the Mawenzi ridge on our acclimatizing hike. Most days after we arrived at our next camp we would go on an acclimatizing hike, these were only about an hour or so, but they would help us acclimate to the altitude better.  As you can see the altitude had started to affect us all!!

This night we slept at the base of Mawenzi and it was C.O.L.D. We woke up early, around 5 am, on our 4th day and headed off. We were all getting excited and nervous as this was our final day before our summit attempt!  This was a long day to say the least. I think we hiked around 8 hours this day.  First we had to decend from Mawenzi and cut across to the saddle. Don't get me wrong, the downhill was a welcome change, but why did I have to go up the day before just to go down the next day???  The saddle was the most deceiving thing you've ever seen!  We could see our next campsite as a spec in the distance. It only looked like it would take a couple of hours to get there, oh how wrong we were! about 5 hours later we finally had conquered the saddle.  The saddle is almost completely flat (except for the last half hour, which was pure hell bliss) but it is grueling.  First off, it is never-ending, second we are above 4000 meters and altitude is starting to really affect your breathing and third, did I mention that it is never ending!!! 

This is the whole group about to take off across the saddle.  Basically, it is that whole stretch of land between where we are and the base of Kibo. Oh yeah...that's Kibo!!!

So the above picture may give you some idea of how difficult the summit climb is. Like I mentioned above, the saddle took us about 4-5 hours to cross and it was relatively flat.  You can see that Kibo is obviously jutting up pretty steeply and we climbed from the base of Kibo to the top the next day, so that is a lot of altitude to gain in one day!  So we finally made it across the dreaded saddle to our next campsite, Kibo Hut.  This is the base camp for the summit and where all trails converge.  It is a much bigger camp with a lot more people, it reminded us that we weren't the only people on this mountain! We had an early dinner and then were meant to go to "bed" by about 6 pm just to be woken up at 11pm to start getting ready for our middle of the night summit attempt!  I say "bed" because we clearly didn't sleep!  It was so friggin' cold there was no way I could sleep.  Plus the altitude apparently affects your ability to sleep as well.  If anyone is keeping track, at this point I had only "slept" for a combined total of maybe 5 hours the entire 4 nights we had been on the mountain.  Delerium.  So we "woke" up at 11 pm and put on our million layers, which the sheer act of getting dress had me out of breath!  I wore 5 layers, top and bottom and was still freezing.  You do the summit hike in the middle of the night because the mountain is made up of scree (loose gravel) but in the middle of the night it is so cold that the scree freezes into a more solid form making it easier to walk up. How convenient. I, of course, wasn't ready on time so I didn't have time to eat a full breakfast or re-adjust my backpack to accomodate for the 4 extra layers of clothes I had on under it so I got off to a rocky start. 

Promply at midnight we started our ascent. I was quite flustered from the whole no food, awkward backback issue.  About an hour into the hike I was done.  I knew there was no way I was going to make it to the top. My backpack was not adjusted properly and was causing my sciatica in my back to act up, I was freezing, I was starving and I wasn't able to drink enough water since it was packed away in my backpack. {word of advice for anyone who wants to hike in general...buy a camelbak! I didn't have one and it is very difficult to reach around and get your bottle out of your bag, especially with 28 layers of clothes on} On the way to the top we had 5 check points along the way to know we were on track and also to take a small break (1-2 minutes small! If we stopped longer than that we would start to freeze).  At this point we were still about 45 minutes from our first marker and I was this miserable, I didn't see how I could make it to the top.  Isaac, one of our guides, literally saved me! He offered to carry my backpack for a while so I could rest.  After this, I figured I had to carry on at least to the first check point. In my mind I had already decided that I was going to turn around at the first check point.  So for the next 45 minutes I just kept thinking "left, right, left, right" to keep moving one foot in front of the other. Somehow I made it there, I was still really considering quitting.  At this point they decided to split our group of 10 into two groups, the "fast group" and the "slow group".  I don't think I need to tell you which group I got allocated into!  This made me feel a little better as I knew I could keep my pace slow and now I wasn't worried about holding any of my other group members back.  So I decided to keep on going. 

The second checkpoint was another 2 hours away.  This entire 2 hours, alternated thinking my usual "left, right, left" with "you can do this, you can do this, you can do this" and also a little "how embarrassing will it be to tell everyone at home you didn't make it" {just for good measure} and good thing I did because somehow I made it to the next check point!   They told me the third checkpoint was only about 45 minutes away and it was called Jamaica Rocks...I liked the sound of that.  So I kept on going.

About an hour later we were at Jamaica Rocks, now you have to keep in mind that it is pitch black outside and all you can see is directly in front of you from the light of your tiny head torch.  I was ectatic to be at Jamaica Rocks, the next stop was Gilmans Point!  When you looked up into the darkness all you could see were little trails of head lamps weaving their way up the darkness. It was really cool, but also really discouraging, I kept thinking they looked so far away!  We started weaving out way around some boulders and climbing up and over some.  I didn't mind too much, I was still just concentrating on keeping one foot in front of the other at this point. After about an hour the sun started to rise, we faced back to watch it for a few minutes and it was an amazing site.  It also gave me hope that we must be close to Gilmans point since we were supposed to watch the sunrise from Gilmans Point...so we couldn't be too far away, right?? 

Me and my life-saver, Isaac, at sunrise

So I turned back to face the mountain and look up to see how close we must be now that the sun was shining its light onto the mountain. This was the second time that I was sure I had to quit and go back down.  I was staring up at a never ending boulder field up, up, up. I was exhausted. I had no energy. I had barely been able to drink a liter of water (I should have had at least 2 by this point).  I was so done. This was all an internal battle I was having with myself.  I never actually voiced that I wanted to quit, but I think they all knew it.  Somehow we kept each other going.  Jamaica Rocks took us over 2 hours to get up, I was so weak at this point that I kept falling over.  Not because I would trip, I would literally just take a step and fall over. 

See exhibit A.

This picture should also give you a good picture of what Jamaica Rocks looked like. Needless to say, I no longer like the sound of Jamaica rocks!

At one point, I remeber hearing Annie (who was in the fast group), cheering me on from Gilman's Point.  That gave me a lot of encouragement to go on and also that we couldn't be far away.  I was wrong again, it was still about 45 minutes before we finally reached Gilman's Point.

My first steps up on Gilman's Point

By the time we reached Gilman's the fast group had already gone on to Uhuru Peak, the true Summit of Kilimanjaro.  Our group decided to finish at Gilman's. Gilman's is actually the top of the mountain. Kibo is a giant crater and Gilman's is on one side and Uhuru is around on the opposite side standing only a couple hundred meters higher, making it the true summit.  It is a 3 hour round trip journey to Uhuru and I was so weak I couldn't stand, literally...you saw the picture of me falling and it wasn't the only one!  Plus, it is considered a successful summit attempt to reach Gilman's Point and you get a certificate and everything...so count me DONE!

Me, looking across the crater at Uhuru, thinking "No thank you"

The "Slow Group"

The worst part was that we still had to go down!  It took us about 2 hours to go down what had just taken us 7 hours to go up!  It was exhausting, but at least I got to "ski" down the scree! The gravel was now loose since the sun was up, so you literally just run straight down letting the gravel carry you down.  It was actually really scary at points and I had a few tumbles, but none of them hurt, it was actually kind of fun to roll down!

This is from the bottom of the scree hill looking back up, you can see my tracks down.

I know this post has been so long, so I'll spare you the details of the next two days descending the mountain.  The highlights are that the journey down was much more difficult than I anticipated. I forgot to put on my sock liners and got some wicked blisters on the last day to show for it.  My knees were killing me. I was so ready to be off of the mountain. No shower for 6 days. Yeah that about sums up the descent!

Here is a picture of us with our 39 porters and guides on our last morning on the mountain.  They sang us some songs and were on there way!

This last picture is me with my new luggage for the rest of the trip. I left my backpack with the porters on the mountain and all we could find for me to put my stuff in was this awesome mail sack.  It got dubbed the "white ball" and I even shrink wrapped that sucker at the airport and sent it home with me to London!

That's all for now....up next, Zanzibar!