Africa Ahead: Tanzania Part III – Kilimanjaro Part I

Kilimanjaro from our hotel room

My first view of Kilimanjaro came on the morning after our arrival to Moshi. Stepping outside our hotel room, the mountain and its snow-capped peaks rose high in the clear sky above everything around it. Before I get to hike (the second part of which will be in another post) here is some good to know background info.

The Mountain: Mount Kilimanjaro, at 5,985 meters high, is the tallest mountain in Africa. It is located in Tanzania near the border with Kenya. According to our info packet the name, Kilimanjaro, has various interpretations from “Mountain of Greatness,” “Mountain of Whiteness,” to one interpretation which means “impossible journey.”

Hasmin, Mel, and Me at the Machame Gate

The Machame 6-Day Route: According to our information packet is considered to be the most beautiful route up Kilimanjaro and is also nicknamed the “Whiskey Route” (note this did not influence my decision to take this route). One of the great things about the Machame route is that it takes you through all types of climates and ecospheres.

The Equipment: The first thing we had to do was rent necessary equipment for the trek which included hiking boots, a sleeping bag, hiking poles, rain pants, rain jacket, balaclava (face mask thing), and more. Basically we had to rent everything they had. Finally once we’d packed everything into two bags (one of which would be carried by porters) we were off.

Our tireless guide Juma...napping

The Guide: Our guide was a 5’5” 90lb Tanzanian named Juma who had just returned from a 6-month hiatus from the mountain. What he lacked in size he made for in experience as he had climbed the mountain hundreds of times. His interaction with us usually revolved around him saying in his soft, barely-above-a-whisper voice “pole pole” (pronounced pole-A) which means “slowly” in Swahili. Although he was our guide he probably spent more than 80% of the trip hiking well behind us. He was also prone to mid-hike naps.

One of the porters using the head balancing technique

The Porters: There is nothing more impressive than struggling with all your might to literally pull yourself (pack and all) up through a vertical wall of jagged rocks to half a ledge and to repeat this process for 20 minutes and then to watch a porter do this while balancing huge bags, tents, sacks of food, and various equipment on their heads or the backs of their shoulders sometimes scaling the wall while having no free hands. On Kilimanjaro the standard is generally 3-4 porter for every climber. They rush ahead through each part of the trip so that camp and food are ready upon our arrival and are also responsible for getting water and other things throughout the trip. Any comfort we enjoyed on the trip was a direct result of their tireless efforts.

Camp Day 1

The Camps: The end of each day finished at a large campsite shared by all the climbers. Porters would arrive early and set up our tents and just had to find the right color tents. There were generally pit latrine toilets located at each of these places which were generally in pretty poor conditions (certainly by US standards), but no worse than what I expected or have seen in many parts of Malawi.

The Nights: December is summer in this part of Africa, but night time on Kilimanjaro is definitely winter. Every night the temperature dropped below freezing with it falling to below -20 degrees Celsius further up the mountain. Unfortunately, the sleeping bag I rented was woefully inadequate and each night I’d go to sleep wearing more and more layers of clothing. Sleep also proved to be a problem because of a constant need to urinate since everyone is strongly encouraged to drink large amounts of water to help combat altitude sickness. Unfortunately this meant waking many times to brave the elements in order to release my H2O build up. The upside to this was getting time to see the incredible array of stars, more than I’ve ever seen sparkling in clusters up above. In the long run though, lack of sleep would cost me late in the trip as I managed only 2-3 hours of sleep a night.

Machame Route Day 1: Sometimes muddy, but easy to follow

Hasmin and I in front of a giant tree

Day 1-The Rainforest: The first day took us through a rainforest in thick, humid air with everything damp and giant trees providing cover from the sun and much of the rain. The path was well-kept and easy to follow and for the most part not too steep, just a steady incline. It really was a very pretty walk through the jungle. At one point we passed a group of porters resting. Mel immediately offered to help them carry their weight and somehow I ended up with the giant sack on my shoulders. After struggling through maybe 400 meters I stopped and set it down sweating. Then Mel tagged in and promptly went almost a km uphill carrying the weight embarrassing both me and the porter. Soon we arrived at the first camp and signed in.

Mel putting us all to shame

Me shortly before collapsing

The view the morning of day 2.

Day 2- Trees to Rocks: The second day began with a breathtaking view of the peak, seemingly directly over us, which would become a daily gift as the cloud cover often present at dusk was gone at dawn. With the sun out it was warm and Hasmin, Mel, and I set off up a relatively steep incline, surrounded by hundreds of other climbers and porters. This was the start of high season on the mountain and it meant that unfortunately we had to share the journey with many others that crowded the narrow path. We were out of the rainforest now and as we moved further and further up the trees grew increasingly sparse. At one point, after a brief restroom break (restroom in this case and almost every case on trek meant a spot behind a boulder or trees a couple yards from the path), we climbed atop a couple boulders at the ledge of a steep drop to get a better view of the surrounding mountainside. As we all looked on we spotted clouds gathering maybe a half kilometer below. We watched, amazed at the speed it began rising toward us, like a gravity defying avalanche rushing upwards in our direction. Within minutes the clouds had reached us and we were shrouded in a dense fog.

Pre-fog we had a great view of the surrounding landscape

With the fog our camp looked like the setting for a horror film

We returned to the path, having let most of the other hikers pass us, and enjoyed the space as we marched onward and upward. There was a light rain coming down us for the rest of the hike, but we reached camp around 3pm and then went off to find a cave in the area that Juma had told us about. With the help of the porter we found it and then returned just in time to get cover from a huge downpour that flooded our tents with our bags inside them. When the rains stopped the porters moved the tents to drier ground and we tried to dry clothing that had gotten soaked in the rain. As the sun slowly showed its face I spent the time looking out over the expanse below as the clouds slowly departed unveiling minute-by-minute a breathtaking view of surrounding peaks and the world below. Tomorrow Lava Peak awaited.