I started
out late from Arusha on Saturday because we had to pick up the two guys going
with me up Kili from the airport. I thought they were Italian but then I heard
their names: Carlos and Pablo, and I asked my guide, Iddi: “They are Spanish,
right?” They are. That night we slept in Mama Clementina’s hotel that is a
charity hotel supporting young girls through their education. After a good
night’s sleep we headed for the office to make the last payment and arrangement
and to meet the rest of the crew. Then we set off for the Machame Gate that
would be our starting point on our Kili trek. There we had to wait a long time
while we were registered, the last money was paid and the bags and other things
were weighed. We meet our two other guides here: Nasoro and Seba. Carlos has
tried to reach Uhuru peak once before, so he knew all our guides, though Seba
had been a cook before. It was finally time to start our trek, so we began,
leaving Iddi behind to do the last paperwork. This first stage of the trek was
about four to five hours through the rainforest. It was incredibly beautiful,
you could really see it was a rainforest because there was moss everywhere, and
I got my fresh air to breath. We just walked along and talked about all kinds
of stuff, like we would continue to in the next few days, but that I no longer
remember. The trek was about a 1200 meter gain in altitude from the gate at
1800 meter to the Machame hut, where we would be sleeping, at about 3000 meter.
So the path was steep in places, even with stairs made of wood in quite a few
places. Because all the climbers had set off at different times there wasn’t
any queuing as there would be the next couple of days, which was really nice
because then you could really experience the magic of the rainforest. The
Machame hut is at the edge of the rainforest, and just before we arrived we
walked through a mist, the trees had also gotten smaller so it added to the
mystery that is Kilimanjaro. We were sleeping under the trees so we had cover
from the wind. I can tell you, the food was really good and much more varied
than I have gotten used to, so during the time on the mountain I got known as
the one in our dinner tent always eating the most, if there was only one piece
left, I got it. The next day we set off sometime after 8 am in the line already
formed on the way to the next camp. It started out the steepest part (though I
seem to remember it continued for quite a while) so it was good that there was
a line and that we always had to stop and wait for porters to overtake us. It
was a beautiful day as we walked along a ridge leading us closer to the
mountain, so we could see a lot of things surrounding us. Sometimes when we had
just reached one top, we could see tiny people already on the way to the next
one, so we knew which way to go. This trek was only some 3 and a half hours, so
we reached the Shira cave, the next camp, before lunch and had a nice warm one
there. In the afternoon we walked a little more to the Shira hut which is a
camp for a different route up Kili. This was just an hour both ways so we had
time to enjoy the scenery and the splendid Kili. The altitude was now around
3800 meters, the sunset over the Shira mountains was quite incredible. The next
day, day three, we had to walk up to a place called lava tower at around 4600
meter I think and then down from there to the camp which was about the same
altitude as the Shira cave, because we had to get used to the altitude, but not
get too much at once. When we reached the lava tower I had a bit of a headache,
but it got better as soon as I sat down and had some lunch. From there it was
only, mostly, down. This stage took some five to six hours. I really like the
next camp, the Barranco camp, because you can see both where you came from and
where you are going and it is this piece of flat land that is just stunning.
What we could see of the beginning was the breakfast (Barranco) wall, one of my
favorite parts of the route. Because it is a wall, a very easy wall to climb,
but it meant that we could use our hands as well, so it was really fun. On top
of the breakfast wall we could see the summit, or at least close, and feel that
it wasn’t long at all now. From there we still had a long way to go before reaching
the last camp at Barafu – a lot of valleys to cross. At one point we stood
quite high up and we could see we had to go way down, before going higher than
we were already, though I had started to hate going down only to go further up
again, we did it – pole pole (slowly) and were eventually at Karanga. A camp
that I was supposed to sleep in, because I had booked seven days, but as Carlos
and Pablo had to do it in six, to catch their plane on the same day as going
down, I wanted to do it with them and continued with them to Barafu. Both
Carlos and Pablo are 42 years old, engineers, from Madrid and good friends.
Pablo has a wife and three children, one girl around 12 years old, one boy who
is eight – almost nine, and a little girl that is one year and some months.
Carlos has a fiancé. Pablo’s little girl is the same age as the guide Nasoro’s
daughter. This next part of the stage was some of the hardest, a kind of test
for the summiting as there was a lot of fog so that we couldn’t see all that
much and it was just up and up. But miraculously we reached Barafu after some
six hours in total and got a good night’s rest (not so much sleeping) before attempting
the summit. We had decided to start later than usual. Most climbs start at
midnight, this is what Carlos did last time, and one of the contributing
factors to him having to come down before the summit. We started around 2:30 to
3 am this meant that we could see everybody higher up on the mountain because
of all of the flashlights, but it also meant we were alone on out stretch of
the mountain. So we went in our own tempo with Nasoro in the front, we had a
few short breaks along the way to get some warm tea and rest a little bit. Then
the sun came up, most people would see that from the summit, but as we were
climbing towards the west, we had a splendid view of the sun behind us. After
the sun had gone up we did the rest of the climb in the daylight, which was a
big help because then you could see that there wasn’t so much left. Though of
course there still was some two to three hours left. As I wasn’t taking any
altitude medicine the further up we got the more you could feel it, it was like
a pressure in the head. Then we reached Stella point at 5700 and something,
from there we could see the actual summit, but it was still quite a way to 5895
meters. When we reached the summit the headache had started to get worse, it
was really nice to be there and have done it, but I was like: yeah, let’s get
down again now. As soon as we started going down the headache lessened. It was
so much fun going because we (or at least Nasoro and I) were practically skiing
down through the rock debris. Which was nowhere near as hard as going up where
every step took effort, here you just have to move your feet fast and avoid the
rocks and you’d be fine. It took six or seven hours up, but only one down to
Barafu again. After a good warm lunch we had to go further down to the next
came, which took some three hours. But it wasn’t nearly as much fun as there were
a lot of stone steps and things that were easy to fall over after a long day.
We eventually reached the Mweka hut, we were going down via the Mweka route
which is only for descend, Machame is only for ascend. I had a few blisters on
my feet, but otherwise I was fine, though my mood could have been better. The
next morning the crew was singing and dancing for us and afterwards we gave
them their tips. The night before we had learned that there were more porters
with us than we had originally thought there would be. Something we could have
avoided if we had been introduced to them in the beginning, which I wanted to,
but there never seemed to be time for it. There was a cook, a waiter/porter
named Adam, who was the only one except the guides that we really talked all
that much to and nine porters, I don’t remember all their names, but there was:
Jackson who was always listening to reggae music, Ibrahim whom I thought was
younger than me but turned out to be 21, he was carrying my bag, Goodluck who
seemed charming, but was missing one of his front teeth so maybe he did not
have so much good luck. I don’t really remember more of their names as I only
heard them that one time, but I remember their faces. Then we went the last two
to three hours down, it was better than the day before as there were not that
many stones and only a few big steps. Then we reached the end of our trek and
signed out, we drove together back to Moshi town where I was staying at a hotel
called the Kindoroko Hotel. Because I paid for seven days, so I got to spend my
last night in a hotel, with a hot shower and cable TV. So I spend the rest of
the day eating lunch, taking showers, watching movies, and sleeping. I remember
that some five or something years ago I made a list of things I wanted to do –
a bucket list, the only thing that I originally wrote on it, that I wanted to
do all those years ago, that has anything to do with this trip, was to climb
mount Kilimanjaro. How is that for a dream come true? It exceeded all of my
expectations and so much more. Just do it!
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