Getting to the top of africa

With the whole lost luggage fiasco we ended up with no break between safari and climbing kili...i just know you'll all be very sympathetic...lol... we arrived at the lodge from the safari and the briefing for kili was starting in 5 minutes. We met the group and got all our instructions. The most pertinent for us was the information about how much each person was allowed on the mountain - 15 kilos. No idea how 15 kilos translates into gear but we were told the guy in the morning would have a scale.

Bit of a frenetic morning with last minute packing, bag weighing (both of us well under 15 kilos), loading vehicles, and finally we're off. It was a longish drive to the starting point with a couple of stops on the way to do paperwork and hire a few extra porters.

We start hiking about 1pm and our group sets off at a blistering pace. Having been on the road for so many months we haven't exactly trained for this as intended. (In the past 3 months I've (kathryn) skipped rope twice and run 3 times in my hiking boots and called it 'kili training'...lame i know...). The road is incredibly dusty and it's not quite the slow scenic start we expected but we're happy to be on the way. We meet up with our guides and porters and take a break for our box lunch.

The afternoon is much better as we're off the road although it's still very very dusty. We can see the snow capped peak of kili in the distance but 8 days from now seems such a long way off at this point. We've decided to hike the Shira route as it's longer than Machame and Marangu which means more days to acclimatize. Plus it's described as harder trekking and more scenic which appeals. The nice thing is how far off the beaten path it is - much more secluded, in fact for the first 5 days we don't see any other groups at all.

A word about our group - there's 12 of us total. A surprisingly large canadian contingent, a good number of brits, and the always present aussie. It's a fun group and nice for us to be back with our peeps after so much independant travel and broken english conversations.

41 guides and porters. Yep - 41 people to get 12 tourists to the summit. And each day the porters practically run by us with tents and bags balanced on their heads getting to camp ahead of us to set everything up. Not only do we not carry our gear we don't even have to set up our own tents or do any cooking. We figure this is about the swankiest trekking we've ever done.

But it gets better...each morning we're woken with 'hello, how you sleep? coffee, tea?' and a warm mug with beverage of choice is handed in to us. Then half an hour later 'hello, washy wash water is ready' and a hot basin of water is placed just outside our tent. Basically for the entire trip we don't really have to think about anything. We're told when to wash, when to eat, when to walk...you get the idea.

What seems at the beginning to be fairly easy soon becomes hard. As we go up higher the temperature drops drastically and we're soon winter camping. At one site the snow comes down so much the porters have to brush it off the tents. Thank goodness i rented that down jacket!!! i wrap it around my feet each night in the sleeping bag and it makes getting through the night a bit more bearable.

For most of the week we're above the cloud cover which makes for some spectacular sunsets and very cold washes. The basin of warm water is hard pressed to get all the dirt off and we're a pretty grimy mess. i can honestly say i've never been so dirty in my life. and i did discover that hair reaches a terminal point after 4 days. it didn't really get any worse between day 4-8 of not washing it. At least that's what i think but it's not like i saw a mirror in all this time!!

On the 6th night we hike to the summit. we leave camp at midnight all bundled up and start going up. we have to climb 1200 metres to get to the top. we're all walking 'poley poley' (slowy slowy) in a line with our headlights shining. it is very steep and at this altitude it's very hard to keep your breath but the plan is to get to the top at sunset. we have 5 guides with us and the deep gutteral sound of them talking swahili breaks the night darkness. and a few hours in they treat us to some singing which is amazingly motivational. very african type of music with call and answer and a lot of 'kiliminjaro, hakuna matata' (which for those that have seen the lion king you'll recall means 'no problem'). with their singing it took on a bit of a spiritual feel...the sounds in the darkness of the night and the physical struggle going on with my body.

we made it to the first summit about 5:30am and the new moon was just peaking over the horizon and the first hint of sun was coming up. it was really cold and the guides quickly gave us hot water and tea and then started us walking again. The quick start was strategic on their part as we were walking before even realizing we were on to the actual highest point. Another 45mins (i think, not really sure) and we reached Uhuru peak. the last hour was other worldy - there really is no other way to describe it. walking the rim of a volcano with a glacier on one side and the sun coming up. about as close as i think i'll ever come to feeling like i'm on another planet.

we made it to the top at about 6:30 am and were both a bit overcome with emotion. it was unexpected to feel it so strongly but it had been a tough struggle getting here. pictures all around and then they moved us out pretty quickly. the cloud was moving in and i think they were concerned about getting us down before getting too cold and breathing in the moist air.

getting down was very painful. it wasn't a trail but instead we had to sort of ski through the scree (the loose rock and gravel). there was no way i could do it very fast as it requires unbelievable balance so Last, one of the guides basically came down the mountain with me and we skied the scree together, him holding me firmly the whole way down. every time i turned around kirk was coming down like he'd been doing this his whole life. My personal escort kept saying, 'kirk is fine kirk is fine' every time i looked behind me.

Back at camp we had a couple hours to sleep and then lunch, and then a painful 2 hours walk further down to another camp. and finally on the last day we walked the rest of the way down. it was steep and unbelievably painful on the muscles.

finally we arrived back at the lodge and had a few hours to clean up. and 'clean up' meant a lot of scrubbing to get all the dirt out. and of course that night was a big dinner where we all drank too much and had a great time reliving the highlights and forgetting all about the sore muscles.

And now we're doing some major R&R on a beach in Zanzibar. It's heavenly here with white sand beaches, turquoise water, and sunny days. We're staying in a hut right on the beach and have spent a few days doing nothing but lounging and napping. It's a perfect end to the tanzania adventure!

And of course we're starting to near the end of our travels. We have another week or so here and then a week in england before the final flight to toronto. but that's another thought for another day...for now i must go and find a cerveza for the serious card playing that is going to happen tonight. for those following the ongoing rummy score...at just over 11,000 points it's neck and neck with kirk up by a handful of points!!

see ya'll soon...

k and k