-some idiot that obviously never hiked at altitude before.
We arrived in the Tanzanian unofficial capital of Dar es Salaam in the early afternoon on a bright June day. Immediatley the bright colors of the orange dirt, clothes that people wore and the lush vegetation was welcomed after a year living near the desert. Even as our plane prepared to land on the shores of East Africa the colours of the earth and vegetation were vibrant.
After a day in Dar we arranged an 8 hour bus to the Northern region at the foot of Kilimanjaro. The trip was filled with tiny villages boasting all types of tribes with their colourful clothing, spears and piercings. All attempts to pierce my lips and hunt with a spear proved pathetically futile. We based ourselves for a few days in the larger, friendly town of Moshi.
From this northern city we started our climb of Kilimanjaro. Along with our support staff we also had a Spanish couple join us. They had just gotten married and he was a true, slightly out of his mind, mountain man. But she didn't really seem to know what she was getting into. (this made for rather entertaining exchanges of Spanish passion on the hill - translation: "what the hell have you gotten me into you...".) He planned this part of their trip and glossed over many of the challenges with "no problem, no problem". Loco.
For 4 days we slowly hiked for 7 hours a day towards our final climb. These days were very easy, very slow, very tame walking days. They say the key is to go "Pole, pole" (slowly, slowly in Swahili) and we certainly did that. The final summit day starts at 11pm when we are awoken and prepared to go up. On this final day we cover a 2000m climb (combined day and night) in about 12 hours. We start that day at 3800m and end at 5800m. Victoria (the Spanish girl) fell very ill that night so we went on without her.
In the freezing cold dark we climbed and climbed using our headlamps to find the way. Our lead guide was awesome and sang through what has to be a challenging physical experience for anyone. I just followed behind Tina. She climbed and climbed. I puked. Then she climbed and climbed some more. I puked again. What a tough guy eh? The altitude really played with my stomach and head on this final climb. The walk was steep but the illness would simply come out of nowhere. We continued up at a steady clip.
After 5 hours of climbing we reached the craters edge. Tina jumped for joy. I puked. As we continued along the edge high above the clouds, the sun rose over Africa. It was a stunning. We reached the highest point in Africa just before 7 am. It was a massive moment.
We had to descend all the way down to 3800m right away. I was feeling ill and the drop in altitude was helping. As a side note the Spanish guy climbed later that day when his wife was resting and climbed in near record time. Loco.
After a day of recovery in Moshi we boarded a 16 hour bus for Kampala. At least that was the plan. After some breakdowns, pot holes, dirt roads, no lights, bus changes, etc the journey took an epic 35 hours by bus. We have both been on long, dirty buses in various parts of the world but this was at the bottom. The fun was just beginning. We had entered the "pearl of Africa" - Uganda.
We will post those stories and pictures in a few days.
Hope you are enjoying the summer where you are.
