Our first big mountain experience! The Machame Route of Mt. Kilimanjaro, highest mountain in Africa at 5895m. We are a team of 10 - JD, Dr. JRP and myself, plus our local guide Paul, an assistant guide, 3 porters, 1 cook and 1 assistant cook. We've packed light - our Canadian Tire Spalding tent, some cheapo sleeping bags, and wind-breakers. Food will be provided, though we each have our favorite bars - Mesotech, Vector and Powerbar. Our porters carry our travel bags plus their own personal effects. We carry day packs only, with water and cameras.
The first day takes us through the jungle, large trees and vine-covered slopes, to a campsite at 2200m, where the porters cook us a meal. We wake wearily on the second day and break camp, starting up now through broken trees and more rocky outcrops. We camp at 3200m, and start to feel the first effects of the altitude. Day 3 we plod on, up through a moonscape to a place called the Lava Tower at 4000m. Jr is definitely feeling the effects of the rapid height gain. The porters want to camp here and take us up the more direct Western Breach route, but we convince them to continue along the Machame route. The route continues back down to 3700m and a gorgeously situated camp. We can see the entire western wall of the mountain, with glaciers dropping from the summit down among the mists and low clouds. Very cold night, our sleeping bags arent nearly warm enough - we sleep in every stich of clothing we own. Early the next morning we head up the Barranco Wall, picking our way through one of the steeper sections of the route. We cross horizontally across the mountain to our last camp at 4500m. JD moving very slow, but moving. I throw up dinner, rushing from the tent to the edge of a cliff just in the nick of time. We are all definitely feeling the effects of the altutude now. Atfter maybe a few winks of sleep, we are up very early on summit day - midnight. The idea is to arrive on the summit for sunrise. We stumble out of the tent with headlamps and start our way up following our assistant guide.
We arrive at Gilmans Point - the crater rim, still before sunrise. Windy and cold, we are delerious from the altitude. We stumble along the ridge till the summit sign comes into view - Highest Point in Africa! Still dark, but we can start to see the glaciers off in the distance, we are above evrything. The conical silouette of neighbouring Mt. Meru is off to the west. We take a few pictures, then begin the long road down retracing our steps.
We stumple back to camp, taking in as many views as we can. Back to camp by 11 am and straigh into a comoatose sleep for a couple of hours. But we are tired and hungry and dirty. We decide to go all the way down right away, bypassing the last camp on the way down.
Arrive back in Moshi, exhausted. We give the porters our tents and gaitors...wont be needing those anymore on this trip. Off to the beach in Zanzibar!
We arrive at Gilmans Point - the crater rim, still before sunrise. Windy and cold, we are delerious from the altitude. We stumble along the ridge till the summit sign comes into view - Highest Point in Africa! Still dark, but we can start to see the glaciers off in the distance, we are above evrything. The conical silouette of neighbouring Mt. Meru is off to the west. We take a few pictures, then begin the long road down retracing our steps.
We stumple back to camp, taking in as many views as we can. Back to camp by 11 am and straigh into a comoatose sleep for a couple of hours. But we are tired and hungry and dirty. We decide to go all the way down right away, bypassing the last camp on the way down.
Arrive back in Moshi, exhausted. We give the porters our tents and gaitors...wont be needing those anymore on this trip. Off to the beach in Zanzibar! 