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Sorry it has been a little while since I last wrote but it has certainly been an eventful few weeks. I have parted company with a fantastic trio of travelers that I had met along the way and (withvarious degrees) kept me out and gotten me into a lot of trouble along the way. Certainly, traveling is all about the experiences along the way but the company you have and find along the way can change the nature of the trip completely. I’ve been lucky enough to have metsome brilliant, witty and inspirational folks along the way and it wassad to say goodbye as we entered Tanzania after a whirlwind and unexpected trip around Southern Africa.
Though it was sad to leave my new amigos, it was great to meet up with two fantastic friends from back home and be able to reminisce about all things Canadian once again. Upon my arrival in Tanzania, I was able to hang out with my two Canadian hiking buddies and check out their summer project, teaching English in a town called Mbeya in S.Tanzania. I more or less tagged along as they taught their last day of school before our epic adventure to
Kilimanjaro.
Okay, so Kili…. I should preface this by saying that the memory of Kili might still be too fresh in my mind and my judgment may be a bit cloudy as a result. That said, what I will say about Kili is that it
was truly an amazing and priceless experience and truly a remarkable achievement by the three of us. I will never forget the trip and am supremely happy that I embarked on the adventure. That said, as of
right now you couldn’t pay me enough to try it again. In fact the name of it still makes my stomach turn and the though of climbing in high altitude kinda makes me nauseas and I left the bloody rock over 4
days ago.
I’ll try and give you the coles notes. Day one after a false start the day before we were finally on our way and ecstatic to start our trip that we’d all been waiting so long for. The hike starts at about 1700m (The top of the Grouse Grind is about 1000m) and winds through a brilliant dense rainforest, with trees full of blue monkeys and moss. It feels very much like
a BC hike. We all feel great but have to remind ourselves that we must hike at a rate about half of what we are used to. Oxygen will soon be a problem so a slow ascent should minimize altitude sickness. Our first day was a breeze. Each day except for the summit daz we began our hike at about 8am or so and would hike about 10km per day and one vertical km and arrive at around 1:30ish. We celebrated like idiots at the first hut thinking that we were going to kick the mountain’s ass. How naïve…
Day 2 was fantastic. We left Mandara Hut and only 20 minutes later we crossed from thick rainforest to a moorland characterized by low shrubs. The change was incredibly abrupt with virtually no transition
between ecozones. Odd. After hiking for 5 hour or so we reached the second hut and after an hour’s break we decided to go for an extra 2 hour hike up in order to help acclimatize ourselves to the thinning oxygen. Already people have been vomiting along the way and we have seen our first stretcher heading down. Not good. The hike to Zebra rock was
great but I was left with a headache that would dog me for the rest of the trip. Apparently, Ryan and oxygen should not part for long.
Day 3 we headed from Haramba Hut at 3700m to Kibo Hut at the base of the summit 1000 meteres higher. Just as quickly as the forest turned to shrubland, all vegetation disappeared over one small hill and we were left with a lunar landscape of boulders and cold icy wind. Pacing became more difficult for me but the headache was a good reminder to go slowly, slowly.
Day 3-day 4: Worst day, best day ever. After pulling in to Kibo at 1:30 we had just enough time for a short snack a quick pack of our bags for the next day and hopefully squeeze an hour of sleep in before
dinner. After dinner and final instructions we all desperately tried to sleep the rest of the daytime hours away but most of us were lucky to have 3 hours of sleep after 3 hard days of hiking, altitude headaches and minor aches and pains. For some sadistic reason, our summit day was to start at 11pm the night before after
a snack and final instructions.
Wearing virtually every shred of clothing I've packed and completely exhausted we started the hike in the bitter cold wind and up the steepest scree slope I'd ever seen. The final push to the summit took
us just over 1 km to the top of the crater’s rim and the highest point in Africa at 5895 meters high and also the top of the world’s highest free standing mountain. The push was agonizingly slow and with the added altitude difficulties, freezing cold weather and utter exhaustion, our bodies barely slogged up the slope. In the pitch black darkness we could thankfully only see a few meager feet ahead of us and our only guage towards our progress to the top was the bobbing of headlamps of those ahead of us. Had we been able to see the slope, I think many of us would have opted to turn back. It took us 5 hours to reach the crater’s rim and another agonizing 1.5 hours to Uhuru Peak. Moments before our arrival at the summit we were treated to a stunning sunrise and a 360 degree view of the crater. Mwenzi Peak was only emerging
from the clouds below and the glaciers which looked pathetic from below revealed themselves to be massive ice sheets over 30 feet high.
After a few jubilant moments at the top, and enthusiastic picture taking we had to head back down after only 15-20 minutes. It was such an amazing rush to finally get to the top but now we were faced with a
massive descent down the scree slope and to Kibo Hut where we were only afforded one hour of rest and a quick breakfast before having to hit the trails again to the 2nd hut 12 km away. Not much time for
celebration and both Brian and I would suffer from bad headaches and a bit of nausea before the day was through.
The last day was the final push back to the bottom. Funny, we were so eager and excited to start our trek only days earlier and now were completely fixated on getting off this damned rock. The graffiti on
the Horombo Hut said it best, “I nearly had a heart attack at Kibo Hut. Stuff this bloody mountain.” Indeed! Along the way we passed back from the ice cap of the summit,
back through the alpine desert,
the brushy moorland before finally finding ourselves back in the shady rainforest and never appreciating oxygen so much. What a great trek, but definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
Since Kili, we’ve moved over to the lush and tropical island of Zanzibar which has the most stunning beach I’ve ever been to. The water is a brilliant turquoise and is warm as bathwater. Tomorrow we
will go out on a kayak safari and I am sure there will be plenty of snorkeling to go around.
Ok, enough from me! Thanks for enduring my diatribes for another summer of fun! Now that Kili is done I’m ready to come home and miss my (other) friends and my family. Gotta get ready for my seafood buffet!
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