Oeans & Oceans Of Clouds...

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The Kilimanjaro attempt was upon us. We were driven too Merangu Gate where the guide, Emanual, took care of the admin process, a last chance for some luxuries and off we went…
DAY 1 - Merangu Gat to Madara Huts

The first day was about 2-3 hours walking upto Madara (I think) Huts, Altitide 2700m and then abit further up to help us acclimatise. We ate and it was an early night for a 6.30 start the follwong day.

All in all this was a relatively short days climbing. We were still in a tropical rainforest environment and while it was cold, it wasn’t freezing.


DAY 2 - Madara Huts to Horombo Huts

This was a medium legnth day. We set off at 8.30 am and ascended through clouds, we climbed out of the tropical rainforest and upto mooreland. The weather was warm and spirits high. We steadily made our way up across valleys in the mountian side. At this stage I was not really concearned with any sight seeing.

The other thing I had noticed was that I didn’t really ache that much from the previous days’ excersions.

We arrived at the huts after about 7 hours walking, it was a gentle uphill walk overall but tiring none the less.

It was at this stage that my Saqib, my brother, started too feel the effects of altitude sickness and developed a pounding headache and a bit of nausea. So much so that his plan too walk up a bit further and then come back down were irradication by his need for sleep. Emanual started to get concearned about our ability to carry on, but as the next day was an acclimitisation day no descision to turn back was made.

Saqib didn’t knw it at the time but Emaual was deeply concearned over his healtha s altitude sickness can kill if not dealt with promptly, and he was ill enough too pass up food that evening.


DAY 3 - Fog

The next day was a relatively late start but with the dissapearance of the sun came a fall in our spirits as well as some bloody boring scenery on the way up. We trudged our way upto 4200ish m. We were both miserable and snapping at each other over nothing.

We spent 3 hours walking up, 2 hours wlking down and went straight too bed afterwards.

It was now my turn too feel ill, and as a result I didn’t sleep properly all night, and didn’t eat well in the evening.



DAY 4 - Horombo Huts to Kibo Huts

The sun came back out and now it really was an early start at 6am as we also had too wake at 11pm that day to attempt the summit, the nest day.

The idea was too try to get to Kibo at 4700m as quickly as is reasonably possible to get in as much sleep as we could too be nice and fresh at midnight!

The scenery was spectacular as we passed the last water point and vegitation in to an alpine desert landscape on the saddle of Kilimanjaro. I would say they were breath taking, but I think that was down to the air being so thin.

The walk up was relatively easy, and for the most part I enjoyed it, however there were problems…

Firstly I had some how managed to get some dirt trapped under my contact lense which resulted in me taking them out at about the three-quarter mark, I then started to fall ill again and litterealy had to guided to the bed and put too sleep for a couple of hours.

When I awoke my eye had reacted badly. Not only did it hurt like crazy, but my vision was blurry. Not what I needed 8 hours before attempting the summit!

We decided that we needed to climb up abit further to help us acclimitise and to get a decent period of sleep so we walked up for about half and hour, about another 100 or so meters.

We made our way back to the huts and after a quick bit too eat tried to get some sleep. It was at this moment that my upper back decided to start playing up. Basically It made breathing very pain full. This coupled with the thin air meant that what little sleep I did get was of no quality what so ever…


DAY 5 - Summit Day & The Hardest Walk In The World…

We got out of bed at 11 am on day 4, packed, and mentally prepared for the task ahead over coffee and biscuits. We were eager to get going because on the way up we had seen the path upto the crater rim. It was about 45-60 degrees and was surfaced with scree, which I had been reliably informed is one of the hardest and the most demoralising surface to walk up. Also the weather would be upto 20 degrees below zero, so we had dressed warmly.

The standard phrase that all the guides use is polay-polay (slowly-slowly). It really was slowly slowly. The air was so thin, and I started to feel the onset of nausea again. Also my feet were cold and no matter what I did they just kept colder and colder.

The hope was too reach Gilmans Point, on the crater rim at about 4.30 am and then walk to the summit for 6 am and sunrise.

My lack of sleep over the previous 2 nights meant that I walking slower than normal. At times I was falling asleep standing up and had too be grabbed from behind as I kelled over the wrong way. I also had to stop numkerous times to trow up. On top if this I could no longer stomach any water.

The night was unreal. At times it was one step forward and slide 2 meters back on my hands and knees. At one point I tried adjust my walking pole and out of a fit of frustration I threw it away. Emanual had to grab my hand at points and litterally dragged me up the mountian at times.

Up and up we climbed through the night with no end in sight. Litterally either half asleep or falling asleep. My brother became frustrated with my pace and decided that he should push ahead at his pace, if he were to have any chance of making the summit and off he went with the assistant guide.

And still all I could do was carry on. Up and up, forcing one foot infront of the other time and time again.

The sun came up and sent a spectacular rainbow across the sky, between the clouds. I knew at this point that I was way behind schedual and that the chances of making the summit were, at best, slim. I looked up and saw how high the crater rim was and lost hart. My guide made me carry on. It was painful. All I really wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep for a couple of hours…

The scree turned into large boulders and I had to start scrambling over rocks.

Then after 7 hours of the hardest walking in my life I joined my brother at Gilmans point. He had already been there for an hour.

I sat down, fell over felt Saqib do the same on top of me and went to sleep.

I don’t know how ong I was asleep for, but Emanual shook me awake took my camera out of my bag and started taking the standard photos that every one normally has taken of them.

We talked about carrying on to the summit. This was descision point.

Was I going to carry on to the highest point in Africa? To actually reach the place that I had chosen to come to this continent? A dream that is so old I don’t remember when I forst thought I want to do that.

We talked about it. The standard time to Uhuru Peak is 90 minutes. In my state I was looking at 120-150 minutes. Then and hour back, then 3-4 hours back to the hut a total of around 7 to 8 hours. Or 3-4 hours back to the nearest bed.

At a height of over 5600 meters I took a descision that saw this dream remain a dream.

The walk back to Kibo Hut was a quite depressing affair, that almost didn’t seem to end.

Eventually we reached there and then, finally, it was time for sleep, but only for a couple of hours…

We walked down to Horombo Huts starting early in the afternoon, On the way up I decided that on the way down was the point at which to take photographs. I tried but gave up as sleep returned to my eyes and decided that I sould just get to a lower altitude as quickly as possible.

After anout 4 hours we had arrived at our place of sleep for the night, and the point at which we could reflect on what we had and hadn’t done, but not before more sleep and dinner…

After dinner Saqib, Emanual and I discussed the days’ events and what we had and had not achieved. Both Saqib and I where dissapointed that neither of us summitted but on reflection we really did not have much option but too turn back. We know that the mountian will be there and we know that there is another route that we can take that doesn’t involve 7 hours walking up scree.

Emanual congratulated us. He did not think that we would make it much further than Kibo. He also said that other guides had told him that we wouldn’t make it up to Kibo in the first place!

That night we went to bed looking forward to a change of clothes and a hot shower the next day, as we would walk all the way back down to the gate and the hotel.


DAY 6 - Hot Shower Day

We awoke, packed and had breakfast and then set off for the lunch at the next hut down. This is when I decided ti whip out the camera and go snap happy nuts. I hadn’t taken 10 over he previous 5 dasys. On the way down I took over a hundred. My brother got bored and carried on while I tried to get the macro function to work.

We arrived about 5 hours later and after a few forced mouth fulls of food we decided to press on as quickly as possible and, while our guide wasn’t looking ran some of the way down.

The gate was a welcome sight and after receiving our certificates we were driven back to the hotel in Moshi, via a cash machine so that we could tip the guides and porters.

The hotel and its luxuries were a welcome sight. The stairs up to the first floor were not. We lugged our belongings up there and after a meal and a shower had only one thought on our minds. Sleep.


Ode To Sleep

All I ask for
Soft pillows
A warm duvet
And from now until forever
To slumber
Sweet, sweet slumber…

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Photos

The Island In The Clouds
Mwenze Peak From Gilmans' Point

Madara Hut
Well the dining room at least

Another Day 2 Classic
A very knackered me on the last day

Long & Winding Road
7 hours walking up scree

Cream Crackered
A very knackered me on the last day