Cycling past the roof of Africa was too much of a temptation to simply bypass. It is also a welcome break from the saddle and the road. It’s not quite the same without Katie and it would have been a fantastic next step in her mountaineering experience. However, now I have first hand experience I will know what to expect when I bring her here. There are three of us in our group, in fact there seems to be only three of us on the whole mountain!!! We have yet to meet or see anybody else. In addition to Sadie, Gerrit and myself we have John, our guide and 6 porters come cooks.
Day 1
We met John (our Guide) in Arusha and after a succession of stops between there and the mountain we slowly accumulated all the members of our team. I think it was very much a case of picking up friends and colleagues with whom he has worked before. Once the Land Rover was uncomfortably overloaded (11 people in a car designed for 7) we merrily made our way to the main Kilimanjaro National Park entrance to sign in before heading to our star point. I wish I could say that this was all as smooth as the guide book in the pouch on the back of the seat in front described it:
‘The Rongai Route:
On the first day clients usually sign in at the main gate between 8 and 10 in the morning before continuing along the scenic route around the mountain to the Rongai Forest were the trek begins. Beginning shortly after lunch there is a short leisurely walk through the pine forests to first camp.’
If I had to write a description for a guide book based on our experience it would go something a little like this:
‘The Rongai Route:
On the first day you will be due to be picked up at 08:00am but all things being African, it will be closer to 08:45am. After a little delay at the main office, the journey to the main national park gates will take approximately 3 hours (allowing an extra hour for detours). After signing in the real adventure begins… You will spend almost 6 hours digging out various vehicles (including your own) from mud up to your knees in the poring rain (Incidentally Alex, our driver, was an exceptionally good driver). Arriving a few minutes before sun set means you will delay the short walk through the pine forest until the following day.’
Despite the slightly unorthodox procedures it was actually remarkably enjoyable. Our team is a fantastically eclectic mix of characters each with a slightly quirky twist to their story. In any case we get on very well with everybody. Having had to camp at the base of the route means we are camping at 1950m.
Day 2
Provisions are very tight as the logistics was carefully (or possibly not) choreographed so that we have the right number of porters and food to last us the 6 days we will be on the mountain. In light of this we have to make up the ground that we lost yesterday and have to walk all the way through to camp 2. The walk is only around 12km but we need to climb from 1950m to 3500m, so we will spend most of the day walking very very slowly, or as the locals say ‘poly poly’. As you would imagine the scenery made a dramatic change as we ascended, going through the pine forest we were meant to do yesterday, before crossing into the indigenous tropical forest, then in into the shrub land and finally into a relatively sparse grassland.
The team of cooks have managed to produce some pretty spectacular meals given the rudimentary utensils and equipment they have. For breakfast every morning they are proving us with porridge, fresh fruit, sausages, eggs and vegetable omelet. For lunch we get a small goody bag with all sorts in it and in the evening we get another fully garnished meal including soup, chips, vegetable stew, meat and a fruit salad for desert. The walking was relatively easy going and we took regular breaks filled mostly with a lot of drinking. For those of you unfamiliar with altitude one of the most important things to remember is to stay hydrated. I’m glad to say that the temperature has also dropped sufficiently and I slept like a baby (The first time since I was at 4200m with Katie back in Ethiopia).
Day 3
The other great rule of altitude is ‘get used to doing nothing!’ 90% of all your time at altitude is spent doing absolutely nothing. To be more specific you are actually acclimatising but in order to do that efficiently, you need to do as little physical excursion as possible. In a bid to keep to this theory we have covered an enormous 4km today and since arriving at 4200m we are sitting around in our tents doing very little. I have spent much of the morning filming and typing up this post, whilst Sadie and Gerrit are doing… errr not entirely sure but they are in their tent.
Every morning the weather is absolutely beautiful with crystal clear skies as we look out over the top of the clouds covering the Amboseli National Park down below. I try to do as much filming as possible at this time of day because by mid morning the clouds start to role in and a thick fog prevents you from seeing very much. In fact yesterday afternoon we heard a light aircraft flying incredibly close to us and this morning we heard via phone that it was on the news that a light aircraft carrying 4 passengers crashed into Kilimanjaro at about 16:00 yesterday afternoon because of the cloud.
We are due to make our summit attempt tomorrow night and I’ll write a short post from the top.
