Day 1 – February 25th
Slept 3 hours due to excitement and not wanting to oversleep the alarm. Arrived at the airport and checked into Business Class on Ethiopian Airways. Well at least I did. When I booked this trip my (now) husband was not going so I used the remainder of my miles collected through two years of consulting to book business class. When he booked we were too cheap to pay cash for another business class ticket so here we are. Despite my offers he has decided to stay in coach so I relax on my lay flat bed while his 6′ 4″ frame is squeezed into Economy.
We have a connection in Addis Ababa. Thankfully it’s not a long layover since the two nights without sleep is starting to get to me.
Day 2
Panic moment. We finally arrive in Kilimanjaro airport and now standing between me and a shower and a nap is a airport agent asking for my documentation of Yellow Fever vaccine. I went to the travel clinic and this was not mentioned. I’ll blame it on the lack of sleep but in my most confident voice I announce that “We’re from the US so we don’t need it”. The guy didn’t really have a response so waved us by. We already had our Visas so breeze through immigration.
It’s at this point I decide I should visit the restroom before getting in this mini-bus for however long, but the only one I see is back pre-immigration. Clearly I was past rules at this point so walk back over the border, use the facilities, then walk back through an unused immigration line and give the guy a wave. My (now) husband is pretty furious about that whole scene.
Most of the luggage at the airport is Northface or REI duffle bags so ours blend in quite well. Once we get our bags we find our driver and then it’s off to the hotel. Hotel is very modern and nice and contrasts with the relative poverty of the rest of the town. Shortly after check-in it’s time for the big moment – meeting our guide.
Our guide is Saidi, who first introduces use to the phrase “Pole Pole”. It’s Swahili and pronounced to rhyme with “holy holy”. It means “Slow”. Due to the altitude the key to summiting Kilimanjaro will be “Pole Pole” and slowing down the pace.
Day 3
We meet Saidi in the morning and along with our third group mate are on our way to the Londorossi gate. Along the way we stop to pick up supplies and an array of porters and an assistant guide who will be joining us.
Once we arrive at Londorossi gate the porters and guides busy themselves with getting our group checked in and the gear weighed since there are limits to how much each porter is allowed to carry. Our cook, Aziz, serves us a nice lunch of avocados, bread, mango juice and cucumber sandwiches.
Once we leave Londorossi we drive for another 30 minutes to the Lemosho gate at 6890 ft. We leave around 2pm and hike 4.8 miles in about 3 hours. Once we arrive in camp we settle into our afternoon routine of tea, popcorn, and cookies on a table that even has a table cloth. We rest for a bit and then it’s on to a dinner of cucumber soup, potatoes, and beef stew before spending the night at Big Tree Camp at 8695 ft.
Day 4
We are awoken at 6:30 to a knock on the tent and a tray of hot water and an assortment of teas, coffee, and hot chocolate. This starts what was to become our drink of choice on this trip – half hot chocolate, half Milo. I had never had Milo but was certainly a fan by the end of this trip. Breakfast today is porridge, toast, eggs, sausage (hot dogs), and fruit.
Around 8:30 we set off in route to Shira camp. We walk in the rain forrest for about an hour and a half before hitting the alpine dessert. Another hour or so and we stop for lunch. In my prior experiences with hiking mindset I am thinking I would be content with some cold wrapped sandwiches and packaged crackers given we are in the middle of nowhere. Imagine my surprise when we show up to the lunch site and the porters have set up a full mess tent for lunch and even set up our porta-potty. Which was good because a side-effect of the Diamox we took for the altitude was having to go to the bathroom a lot which was only further exacerbated by the copious amount of water we drank to help with the altitude. Lunch was pumpkin soup, sandwiches, pasta, and fruit sauce.
The climb after lunch was steep with lots of rocks. We reached Shira camp at 11,417 feet around 3pm after hiking 4.5 miles for the day. Dinner was a feast of pumpkin soup, fried chicken, rice, fruit, fried bananas and ugali. Wikipedia has the details on Ugali but all you need to know is it is the most filling per spoon (hand) full food I’ve ever had. My (now) husband made the mistake of telling the guide how much he liked it so each night we kept getting more and more and between three people really had to work to make a dent.
This is our lunch site with the mess tent and private toilet
Shira Camp
Day 5
We’ve now gotten into a morning routine of the hot chocolate and milo, washing hands and faces in a container of warm water, and the usual breakfast of eggs, porridge, hot dogs, fruit, and toast. On the eggs – our guide each day carries this crate of eggs up the mountain, one drop and there goes breakfast.
We leave around 9 and walk on rocks and relatively flat ground for a few hours before coming to some steep rock steps to get up to our lunch of cucumber soup, oranges, sugar cane, pancakes, and spaghetti omelettes with vegetable sauce. The spaghetti omelettes were awesome and a few months after our return tried to replicate them and even with all the conveniences of a full kitchen they didn’t taste nearly as good.
After lunch we had another hour hike and along that way came to a rock cave that due to the location out of the sun had huge icicles. We end the day at Moir Hut at 13,650ft. Dinner was pancakes, ugali with beef sauce, mangos and the usual hot coffee/tea selection. Each night one of the guides comes into the mess tent and along with a briefing on the plan for the next day also checks our oxygen saturation through a device placed on the finger. If it gets too low, you have to descend. Thankfully we are all ok but the guide decides to mention that the altitude will make it harder to sleep. So of course that night all we can think about is that guidance and struggle to fall asleep.
Moir Hut Camp
Day 6
Today started off cold and windy and after the usual breakfast routine left camp around quarter to nine. Before we left we got the opportunity to meet all of the porters. Amazing that for only three trekkers we had 11 porters, a cook, and two guides. This ratio was later topped when we met a group that had 68 porters for 8 clients and even one that had 21 porters for a single trekker. I can only assume they were hauling up a full king size bed and a couple cases of fine wine.
As we hiked it warmed up and we reached Lava Tower after about 2-3 hours at 15,230ft. Lunch was bread, oranges, and potato stew. During lunch it started sleeting so we changed into rain gear. We finished the hike down to Barranco Camp through the rainy sleet and mist which made for an awesome sight with the green, and streams, and even a waterfall. Around 3:30 we arrived at Barranco Hut @ 13,000 ft.
Day 7
Today we left camp around 9:30 ready to tackle the first challenge for the day, the Barranco wall. As we were walking over to make our way up the wall, we saw a bag fall off the top point and tumble many times on the way down as everyone hooted and hollered. Not a comforting sight given we needed to climb this wall.
The Barranco Wall was a challenge requiring scrambling on hands and knees and lifting ourselves up rock walls. At one point, at the “Kissing Rock” we had to hug (“kiss”) a large rock to avoid a plunge off the other side. Once we arrived at the stop we wound our way into the Karanga Valley. After making a steep rocky descent into the bottom of the valley we had a 20 minute steep ascent to make it to the top of the valley where Karanga camp was. Once we made it we had an awesome lunch of mango juice, spaghetti omelettes with meat sauce, pumpkin soup, sugarcane, and some local corn bread like rolls. At this point in the trip I had developed serious sugar withdrawal so thought mango juice was heaven. Withdrawal got to the point that later in the trip I was willing to trade almost anything for one of my husband’s gatorade powder packets.
Day 8
Today was a slightly later wake-up since our hike was only 3-4 hours. We had a steep and winding climb out of the Karanga camp with loose dirt and lots of switchbacks. We arrived in Barafu camp around 1:30 to our own little secluded campsite with an incredible view of Mawenzi peak. The toilet in this camp was placed on the outside of our site right next to the edge of a cliff. It even made the list of the World’s Most Extraordinary Toilets
We had lunch in camp and then took naps in preparation for the summit day. We had an early dinner and then the guides gave us the summit briefing. The plan was to wake up at 11pm, tea in the mess tent at 11:30 and leave for the summit at midnight. The guides let us know it would be 5-6 hours to Stella point and another hour to Uhuru point (the true summit). From there it would be 2.5-3 hours back to camp for a rest before heading another 3-4 hours down to lower camp. I fell asleep between 8:30 and 9 and managed to get a few hours sleep before our 11pm wake up call.
Summit Day!
After our 11pm wake up call we quickly packed our bags and got dressed before some tea and biscuits in the mess tent. It was cold so clothing for the day consisted of: baselayer pants, snow pants, baselayer shirt, sweater, light down jacket, windproof jacket, light gloves with mittens over, balaclava, hat, 2 pairs of socks, and some hand and toe warmers. We ended up leaving camp around 12:30am.
Since it was still dark despite the full moon we had our headlamps on. As we continued our steep ascent it got colder and windier and the air got thinner so it was harder to breathe. We saw a couple of people getting sick from the altitude on the side of the trail. At 7:20am we reached Stella Point at 18,885 feet in time to see the sunrise after hiking for close to seven hours. After waiting for the rest of the group we continued the 45 minutes up to Uhuru Point at 19,341 ft at 8:55am.
Prior to this I has always wondered why people didn’t spend more time at the summit to savor the accomplishment and take it in. I found out it’s a simple answer: It’s cold and you’re tired and hungry. In this theme we took the required summit photos and then started down. The hike down was quicker but still challenging given the steep decline and loose dirt. At one point we were even “skiing” and sliding down the loose dirt and rocks. Finally around 11am we reached camp and took naps for a hour and a half before having lunch and leaving for the lower camp.
A little over three hours and many falls later (we were so tired we were not great about picking up our feet so kept tripping) we arrived at Mweka Hut at 10,000ft around 6pm. We had dinner shortly after and then passed out after a very long day.
Day 9 – Last Day on the Mountain
We woke up around 7am and quickly packed and had breakfast. After breakfast Saidi lined up all the guides and we were able to express our gratitude to them and then they sang to us.
The hike down from Mweka Hut to the exit gate was all downhill but thankfully in many places stairs were built into the trail. A little after 11 we reached the exit gate and signed out for the last time. The group had prepared a buffet lunch for us of rice, pasta, chicken, and meat sauce. I also had a Safari beer – which despite being warm, tasted amazing. They also had a guitar player who played Swahili songs along with “La Bamba.” After lunch we had the porters gather around and Saidi presented us with our certificates (more on that later).
We then loaded up the Land Cruiser with our gear, 2 guides, 5 porters, and the guitar player and headed to Moshi. In Moshi we dropped off some of the porters and visited the souvenir shop before piling back into the van for the 2 hour drive back to the hotel in Arusha. It was at this point we realized the summit certificates (entrusted to my husband) were missing. We searched the van but could not find them. Saidi mentioned he lived in Moshi so could check there when he was back so I tipped him an extra $20 for the offer of help. It was here where we said our goodbyes and I was able to take my first shower in over a week. We had dinner at the hotel and took advantage of the exchange rate where two beers with a tip came to 10,000 Tanzania Shillings or ~$5.
Last photos of the certificates before their disappearance
Epilogue – Return of the Certificates
Over 6 months after the trip we received a letter in the mail from our third trip companion and to our surprise in the envelope was our missing certificates! After we left Saidi went back to the souvenir shop in Moshi and found that they were left on the counter. He then gave them to our trip companion back in Arusha who was staying a few extra days. Our trip companion then took them with her onto her next stop in Australia before mailing them to us on her return to the states.
