Start: 3837m @ Shira Gate

Finish: 3976 @ Barranco Camp (max altitude 4600 @ Lava Tower)

Distance: Approx 10-12km

Duration: 7hrs

6:30am! Rise and shine! Like yesterday, I was awake from about 5:30am, having slept not too badly. It was noticeably colder overnight, apparently close to zero. Hhhmmm… maybe I would need to sleep in more than boxer shorts.

 

 

It was straight into a nice bowl of warm water to freshen up, and then brekky. This morning was millet, toast, eggs, and even pancakes! You read correctly. I was eating pancakes. Plus sweet sweet coffee, Africafe no less (so punny, so good!).

Again, CC and I were feeling remarkably fresh, with little sign of tiredness or any aches and pains. How strange! We expected to be cactus from early on, but our bodies felt good. So by 8:30am we were off again.

 

 

The start hike was through an alpine like region. The sun was beaming down on us and it was super warm. We couldn’t believe our luck with the weather. While we were told “the mountain has its own weather” as a means to be prepared for anything, the mountain was certainly looking after us.

 

 

 

 

 

Today was challenging off the bat. While it didn’t seem as steep as the start of yesterday, being at almost 4000m meant being breathless from the start. Again it was fairly steady up and up. It was a gravelly and rocky trail.

 

 

In what seemed like no time at all (well 3.5 hours), we had reached our lunch spot… Lava Tower! We were now located at about 4600m, our highest point yet. For lunch the team set up our mess tent so we could stay for a couple of hours. Again, this was a feature of Machame route, having the opportunity to get to 4600m and stay for a bit to get our bodies used to the lower oxygen levels.

 

 

Lava Tower is a tower of solidified lava (duh) that shoots up about 100m. It certainly made for an ace lunch spot. We certainly had no interest in climbing it (and I’m not sure our guides would have let us anyway) but lo and behold, there was Filipe saying hi from the top. Of course he climbed to the top!

 

 

Christopher called us for lunch. You are not going to guess what we had. Quiche. Yep, quiche. How on earth he made an amazing quiche who knows! But it was delicious. We also had a delicious veggie soup to load us full of calories.

It was about now that neither CC nor I was feeling at our best. It was our first time over 4500m so clearly our bodies were telling us that something was up. Both of us were really just a bit tired and headachy, my headache a little worse than CC’s. I had a feeling that it was probably more from trekking 4 hours in the beating sun, but I’m sure the altitude played a part.

We didn’t hurry lunch as Mhina and Aris were happy for us to acclimatise and also the second half of our day was heading downhill believe it or not. So we hung out there for about 2 hours before loading up again and heading toward camp.

 

 

 

As mentioned, we headed downward from Lava Tower. For me, downward wasn’t so easy. It was OK, but I must say I felt I struggled a little more than I had to by this point. CC was a powerhouse whereas I was a bit more cautious. I think it was mostly due to my lack of experience hiking and I also found I had to concentrate a whole lot more. But luckily this was a pretty short session of only about 2 hours. At 3:30pm we had arrived at Barranco Camp. Yes!

 

 

 

 

We were treated as usual to some hot drinks, popcorn and biscuits. It was sitting down to a snack that Mhina threw us a curveball. He suggested that we could combine our day 4 and 5 into one day. They were originally to be 2 short acclimatisation days of 3-4 hours each. However both Mhina and Aris felt that we were hiking really strongly and that we would not get much benefit from the extra day. Ultimately it meant that we would summit a day earlier than originally planned. Aarrgghh! It was all too real!

After talking it through, CC and I decided to go for it. If Mhina and Aris believed in us, then we could do it! We liked the idea of not having days sitting around, as well as hitting the summit a day earlier. Mhina also suggested if we did that then maybe on summit day we would not come down so far, and stay at an intermediary camp, which sounded OK by us too. It was all coming up CC and Butt!

 

 

Excited but tired after our day, we had another great dinner (zucchini soup, beef stew and pasta) and then hit the sleeping bags for rest before our (now) epic two-legged day.

 

Start: 3000m @ Machame Camp

Finish: 3837m @ Shira Camp (max altitude 3900m)

Distance: Approx 6-8km

Duration: 4hrs

Day two began with a 6:30am wake up call, although both CC and I were awake. I slept not too badly, just a little restless and not quite a deep sleep. Put that down to excitement, jetlag, and being on a thin camp bed. But I was nice and snug in my sleeping bag, and I did feel fairly refreshed, so all good. Chatting with Tony that morning he told the story of how he woke through the night to use the bathroom to find a park ranger watching over the camp AK-47 in hand. Apparently that was normal… I was not sure whether to be worried or not!

 

 

Breakfast was another great meal. We kicked it off with porridge, and then eggs, just how we liked them! I opted for scrambled with some cheese. Yep, I had choices. Toast, paw paw, and coffee round out the sustenance for the morning and getting us ready for onward and upward.

We were sorted fairly quickly, and by 8am were leaving the camp. We bid adieu to Filipe and Tony, knowing would see them on the trail or at next camp, and off we went. Conditions were amazing… it was beautiful and sunny, no sign of the rainy season that finished up earlier that month. All we had was bright sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

The trail was very steep to start, and as such we hiked along quite slowly. Mhina led the way although he asked both CC and I to take turns in leading, allowing us to set a pace we were comfortable with. The terrain was instantly different to yesterday, with the rainforest having made way for more scrub like conditions and rocks. We were slowly moving above the clouds and had amazing views of Mt Meru as we made our way. Meru would look over us quite a lot during our trip.

 

 

We made frequent stops during our days hike. Many times it was to soak up the amazing vistas we were being treated to. Often we would just be focused on the hiking and making progress, so it was important to take stock every now and then that we were climbing high over the African landscape. The stops were also good to take a quick rest. It was quite a steady, relentless upward hike, and we found that even a stop for just 5 minutes would reset the both us and we would be feeling tip-top and ready to keep going.

 

 

We also a new type of terrain in the latter stages of the days hike… rocks. To be honest I was not sure exactly what the trails would be like, but after just two days we soon found out they would be quite varied. This last hour was clambering over rocks… definitely not your typical hiking trail! During this scrambling we reached peak altitude, about 15 minutes from camp.

 

 

We got into camp around 12pm, a nice early finish. While we did not do huge amounts in terms of duration, we had ascended about 900m, which for acclimatisation we didn’t really want to do anymore. Part of the reason for choosing the Machame route was its better success rate and its focus on acclimatisation.

 

 

We headed to the registration hut and signed in. First! We had beaten everyone else to camp. Well, except our support team who had powered ahead and had everything set up. They set us up in a sweet spot, right on the edge of a cliff, so we could look out over the valleys of the mountain. We didn’t see the ground below however, as we were now above the clouds and could just see lovely white pillows below. We even had a camp toilet just nearby, the first of many loos with a view we would have on our trip.

 

 

The other hikers wandered in over the next hour and settled in. The weather was nice and sunny (if a touch windy) so most were out and about. Tony busted out a kite he had been carrying (why not I guess) and proceeded to run an impromptu kit flying session. Weird I never thought to bring a kite 🙂

Having settled in Rashili our chef delivered another stellar lunch, this time carrot soup, as well as yummy toasted sandwiches of capsicum, tomato, onion and cheese. I could get used to this.

The arvo was all about relaxing at the high altitude to let our bodies get used to the low oxygen levels. We chatted for a long time with Tony and Filipe, as well as our new Canadian friends. There was something about sitting on the side of a big mountain chatting to fellow intrepid travellers from around the world.

 

 

At 4pm Mhina and Aris led us on a short walk. This was in part about more getting used to the altitude, but also to see some sights that were in the vicinity. We checked out the nearby Shira caves, which in days gone by some porters would use to sleep in. Contrary to my expectations, that were actually nice and warm! We also wandered up to a nearby ridge so we could look out over the nearby plains. While some animals would apparently make it on to those plains, all we were greeted with were the massive ravens that seemed to follow us everywhere we went. The ridge also seemed to be the first place where large pile of rocks greeted us, a sight we would grow used to over the coming week.

 

 

 

 

After about an hour of gentle hiking we got back to camp for more popcorn and milo. Not a bad way to wind down for the day. I settled in with Mhina and Aris playing some “Last Card”, their variation of Uno. Seemed it was not quite as straight forward and there seemed to be new rules each hand! But I got the hang of it, winning a few hands before spending some time chatting more with the other hikers.

Rashili upped the ante with dinner again, with leak soup, chicken and chips and cucumber salad, and banana fritters filling our bellies. So good!

Even though it was a warm day, when the sun goes down at 3800m it get chilly quite quickly. It was straight to thermals and beanies to keep nice and snug, but even then, by 7:30pm it was very dark and misty and so it was time to relax in the tent. In what would become quite normal, by 8pm I was sound asleep.

 

Start: 1800m @ Machame Gate

Finish: 3000m @ Machame Camp

Distance: Approx 10-12km

Duration: 5hrs

It begins! I can’t remember at what point this hare-brained scheme started but it doesn’t seem like that long ago. I had always wanted to do an epic, high altitude hike. Everest base camp was it for a long time, but over the past few years Kilimanjaro had crept up to be the main contender. Why? I liked the idea of hitting the “highest” of something, in this case highest peak in Africa and most importantly the highest free standing mountain in the world. There were also tough times happening at Everest, and to be honest I had heard that the trek to base camp was becoming pretty crowded. So Kili had the edge.

Then one day my bud CC says “are you interested in climbing Kili?”. “Hell yeah!” I reply, and next thing we know, flights are booked and the climb itinerary is worked out. We are climbing in May!

 

 

Zoom forward some months and here the two of us are, loaded up at the Machame Gate at Kili, our guides finalising the paperwork needed for us and our 13 strong crew (yes, 13 people for the two of us) to be able to enter the national park and start our 7 day (soon to be 6 day) long hike to the top of Africa and back. To this point we had both trained hard and done some altitude training as well. Did I feel prepared? Well, as prepared as I could be for something I really didn’t know how I would go (especially the altitude)! But at midday on this first day we were just ready to rock and roll.

 

 

Seeing our team all loaded up was both comforting and daunting. How on earth were they carrying so much! Our chef (yes, we had a chef) had dozens of eggs strapped to his pack! It was good to hear though that the national park takes the welfare of the porters very seriously, and that they can carry a max of 20kg (and are weighed throughout the trip to ensure this). That went a fair way to explaining our big crew.

It is about now I should introduce you to our main guides. Mhina was the head guide and was a great guy with a big phone. Yep, it was about the size of an iPad mini. It was hard to miss as throughout most our journey he would be on it when he had reception, organising this, that, and the other for us (or just checking in with Walter, the tour company manager). Mhina had summited 200-300 times according to his estimations. He seemed pretty easy going, however was quite adamant that he would be keeping an eye on us and that we were to let him know if we felt a bit ill before taking anything so he could check us out and provide expert advice. Perfect blend of chill but serious when he had to be. Our assistant guide was Aris and he was a tall relaxed dude with approaching 200 climbs under his belt. We felt super comfortable with both Mhina and Aris straight up and knew that we were in good hands.

 

 

 

After a small delay with some African payment system issues, we were off! Our trek started in the rainforest on a fairly well defined and looked after path. More like a regular hiking trail that we would be used to. Incline was obviously heading steadily upward, but a nice (relatively) gentle introduction for our first day. There was not really any wildlife to speak of… we were on the lookout for monkeys, but alas did not see any on our way up. Birdlife too was at a minimum, with only some massive ravens (with a distinctive white collar) to be found.

 

 

 

 

 

At one point we hit well kept steps to get us heading upward at a steeper clip. So far so good! The weather was slightly overcast, which meant it was nice cooler conditions for hiking.

 

 

 

We hit the lunch point after about 6km and this was our first indication that we would not be wanting for anything on this hike. Salad, fresh fruit, avocado, bread, muffins and fruit juice all awaited for us on a picnic rug in the sun. Tasty! The ravens hung about waiting for us to leave any meagre scraps for them, at some points becoming more brazen as they approached the rug. Sorry guys, not today!

 

 

 

Filled bellies, we kept hiking. More steps with the odd flatter portion kept us going for another few hours. At about 5:30pm we arrived at Machame Camp. I was not sure what to expect of the campsites, but this was a quite big, well looked after site, with dedicated (bush) toilets. Luxury! I had the feeling that while this would be a tough climb that it would not be completely roughing it. We also met up again with Tony and Filipe, two American dudes who we initially met on the plane to Kili from Doha. Both hailing from LA, Filipe was a fitness instructor and Tony one of his clients, who like us had decided Kili was there to be climbed. It was good to see them again and start to establish a good camaraderie with them, especially since it was likely we would be on the same trail for the next week. We also met two lovely French-Canadian gals from Quebec, as well as Ryan, an enigma of a college student from NY. It was fascinating to see the types of people who decided to do something like this. While we were all quite different, clearly we had the same spirit of adventure inside.

 

 

 

We checked in to camp (as we had to do for every camp we visited) and awaiting for us was our sleeping tent as well as a large mess tent (that would also double for sleeping quarters for much of the crew). We had only settled in for 5 minutes when Christopher, our waiter (yes, waiter), greeted us with a friendly welcome and warm bowls of water to freshen up. No sooner had we done that than we had our choice of hot drink. Milo! Yes! and Popcorn! Now this was getting crazy.

 

 

CC and I had a little rest for a bit, although we were both feeling a-ok. We had no idea how we would pull up or how our bodies would go, but so far so good.

Dinner was at 7pm and we had the first of our amazing 2-3 courses dinners. Tomato and ginger soup kicked it all off which was delicious, and then it was fresh fish and rice. What? Weren’t we on the side of a mountain?! Little did we know this was just the start of a gourmet hike.

Even though we both felt good, all we really wanted to do was rest. It was dark and the cold had come in, so there wasn’t too much to do but rest (not a bad thing). By 8:30pm it was lights out, resting for our next day, and probably first serious day of climbing.