Kilimanjaro, a Canadians tale

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Well this has certainly taken a great deal longer than I had anticipated. With the lack of internet and busy on the mine sites, this has been quite the endeavor. It is not completely finished but it will have to suffice as it is long winded enough as it is. This was written over a long span of time so please forgive any improper date references etc etc as I just want to post this.

Your best best is to look at my flickr page

Unfortunately my life has been too eventful over the past several months to find much time to update my blog, so thank you for your patience.

Here is a brief update about any new developments in my life:

1) I have accepted a job with Golder Associates as a Hydrogeologist and left Geoconsult. The experience there was good for field experience but rather hollow, empty experience after a while so I have moved onto greener pastures.

2) I have moved out of my van and into a house. The van is no longer with me either

3) I spent Christmas in Africa climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, going on safari in the Serengeti, and spending time in Zanzibar.

Africa: One week on Kilimanjaro, and what an amazing experience. A few days in Zanzibar on spice tours and scuba diving. A three day Safari through a volcanic crater where I saw the Big 5, then to the Serengeti where I saw the great migration. My Flickr page will also have most of my photos.

Dec 11^th

I started Christmas vacations with a bang by heading to the Golder Staff Christmas party the day before I left for Africa so as you can imagine I spent most of the flight to Africa sleeping.

Dec 12^th

Flights to Africa. Brisbaneà Dubai (18Hrs), 5 hour layover, Dubaià Nairobi (6Hrs), 3 hour layover, Nairobià Kilimanjaro Airport (1Hrs). I also saw the mountain on an extraordinarily clear day from the plane which, needless to say, over excited me a little bit especially in my sleepy delirium from the long trip.

Dec 13^th

I explored the town of Moshi, engaged in a bit of shopping, ate some local cuisine, tried to get back into the swing of bartering/dealing with relentless shopkeepers. I spent most of the day with a group of students who had been in Africa doing volunteer work for a month and who had just climbed Kili so I was able to get some ideas from them what I needed and what to expect. Wet wipes were widely recommended and one of the better buys for this trip.

I had my pre-departure meeting this evening and learned that I had six days rather than seven for my climb which initially scared and upset me at first. My travel agent had booked for 7 but I guess the 7^th night was a night in the hotel… So I only had 6 days but it turned out to work for the best anyways. I just kept laying on the silver lining and got excited when I realized that I would accomplish my dream of making it to the top one day earlier.

I met a few other climbers on my route as well who made the trip much better than climbing on my own. Two British men both named Tony and one Danish girl named Ane.

Dec 14^th

We drove almost 3 hours to the gates of the Rongai Route, which is on the Kenyan side of the mountain and the only trail on the North side of the mountain.

Traditionally it gets less wet weather than the south side and it held true to this fact as we did not have any wet weather during the day whereas the south side of the mountain had rain every day and several people had to stop their trip due to hypothermia from getting wet in the day and sleeping cold/wet at night.

We got to see a fair bit of the countryside on our drive to the gate entrance, past old brick buildings, African markets, hundreds of people on the road side trying to commute between small towns. The roads were quite interesting; speed bumps were every 50-100m in some sections especially in town/closer spaced, switchbacks that busses should not be able to traverse, huge potholes/sections of the road that simply had disappeared.

Kilimanjaro, for the giant of a mountain it is, is extraordinarily well hid by a veil of impenetrable clouds which only seems to abate in the mornings and on the rarest of days such as the day I flew into Tanzania. The mystery of the mountain was growing and I was just getting more excited to crack its secrets! There seems to be quite the reverence among those who climb its ridgeline, whether they make it or not, and a deep seeded love by those who live at its base.

I was disappointed to learn that Africans simply see it as a mountain. There is no folk lore, or tribal history. It is simply just there. Many, but not all Africans stay away from it because they don’t like the cold or the headaches from low oxygen environments. They’d prefer to stay down on the grasslands where it is warm and pleasant.

We ended up waiting almost an hour and a half for our park passes, drove an hour and had a box lunch in the VIP section of a shop. This was essentially a backroom away from the front section next to the bar. We were hounded by children for our chocolate cookies, they all tried to be silly and out do the others to get a cookie and would run off away from the other children as soon as they received their prize so they wouldn’t have to share or have it stolen.

It was at least another hour of driving before we reached the gate (elevation 1800m absl) and climbed until we reached 2750m absl that day where we made our first camp. We climbed through what reminded me of a pine forest at first where we spied some Columbus monkeys, they look like hairy skunk monkeys. The trees began getting shorter, more open and temperate as we made it to camp. I chatted with the other hikers in my group who were doing 7 days rather than 6 and would be with me for at least a few days so I decided I had better enjoy their company while I still could.

The main downside to doing the six day while everyone else was on seven was that they got to eat in a meal tent and share their tents, while I ate in my tent and tented alone. They also had a friendlier, more personable guide but mine wasn’t so bad and turned out not to be so bad after-all; though he could’ve been much better.

Dinners weren’t too bad on the trip. I had cucumber soup followed by potatoes with beef and vegetable sauce (the vegetables became tiresome as they always consisted of cucumbers, red peppers, onions and carrots).

The nights at this altitude was not too bad. The sleeping bag I pulled from my van mixed with a silk liner and some thermals worked just fine these nights and I wasn’t too cold through the night. I slept with my camera batteries every night to conserve their charge as well as my trusty travel friend Brick.

Dec 15^th

We left camp at around 8:30am and made it to our next camp in almost 4 hours at 3500m. The stars last night were so beautiful. It was such a clear night and the snow capped mountain looked phenomenal in the moonlight, eerily standing out against the stars. I tried to take some photos but couldn’t get the shutter speed right… until I realized I’d forgotten to take my lens cap off in my excitement. The mountain remained visible for 3 hours or so before the clouds came in to obscure our vision. A brief view to invigorate the climb and the endpoint of the journey in the sunlight before the obscuring veil of clouds settled back down over the peak. It was the first time that I had seen the mountain since the plane and my resolve to conquer the mountain became stronger in those six days.

Breakfast was a porridge that reminded me of baby food, a variety of fruits and bleach white bread. Lunch consisted of sweet potato soup with vegetable toasted sandwiches (yes the same veggies as before) and fruit. We had a mid-day nap and then went for a brief acclimatization trek. My knee had begun to bother me a bit by this point, but as soon as I broke out the walking sticks, the annoying feeling in my knee disappeared. We climbed until ~4000m and strolled back down to enjoy our dinner. I finally cracked my guide a bit and had some good friendly chats on the way back down.

Dinner consisted of carrot soup and a heaping plate of macaroni with beef cubes and vegetable sauce. I had an upset stomach this night, I believe in part due to my ‘boiled’ mountain water, so I began purifying my water which seemed to fix most of the problems. At least being segregated for dinner meant I ate differently than the others. They had deep fried fishy something’s and pancakes for dinner. I think I win this one. Silver lining +1.

I took a few nice fading light photos of Kilimanjaro again as it decided to clear up and show me its face before bed. This evening marked a ritualistic evening rain that started sometime after dinner and before bed. It usually lasted only an hour but began to cool things off a fair bit for the night. The bed roll I had bought in Australia turned out to be a god send because whenever I awoke in the night and a limb wasn’t in my sleeping bag and on the ground, it was frozen solid. I summit in two days. AHHH!

I had a bit more of a restless sleep due to illness and the cold. This at least allowed me to have several midnight camera opportunities which yielded some pretty decent photos. I did remember to take my lens cap off as well.

Dec 16^th

Another early start (~7:30am), and began to head off after the breakfast of baby food, crepes and fruit. The weather behaved in a similar way to the last few days, very clear and sunny in the morning, with the clouds creeping in several hours later and the looming promise of the nightly rain. The vegetation kept getting smaller and smaller, and the landscape more dominated by rocks. The whole way up was predominantly all igneous rocks (I did bring some back) and was fascinating to look at to take my mind off the climb.

One of my porters was cold that day and I saw him put on a #11 Mark Messier Jersey. That brought a big smile to my face.

We climbed to our camp at 4000m and after a nap walked up only until about 4200m. Rock ledges started to stand out on the landscape, windblown structures appearing in the sand and alluvial rock deposits from melting snow, wet weather and gravity driven downwards movement became apparent.

Lunch before our midday was quite reasonable again. Drumstick chicken with fresh fruit, cooked cabbage and shaved carrots/red peppers.

Fun factoids from the day from the Lion King. According to my guide (and he very well may have made some of these up to appease me but I don't care), in Swahili the following words/ names mean:

Rafiki (the baboon) means ‘Friend’

Simba (the lion) means ‘Lion’

Pumba (the warthog)means ‘Shit’

Moufassa (Simba’s father) means ‘Respected Elder’

Shenzi (One of the hyena) means ‘Stupid’

Zazo (the horn billed advisor) means ‘Drunk

I began to become very amazed with how flat the climb was. There was very little relief until the last day. It was a steady uphill climb though nothing that I would consider difficult or very mountainous until the final day. See the pictures for yourself. Kilimanjaro was shrouded by clouds again and kept teasing me by appearing briefly as a towering monster then hiding again as quickly as it appeared.

Dinner was a heap of rice with peas, and more vegetable sauce… After dinner I learned that the others wanted to summit the same day as me and take more time with the descent. I was stoked because I then got to summit with the others! Yahoo!

The night was a very , very cold one. Temperatures got to below zero and I realized that my sleeping bag, even with the liner and wearing everything that I owned would not keep me too warm over the night. It was a sleepless night filled with more rain and midnight photographs.

Dec 17^th

We arrived at our next camp, base camp, after 4 hours of walking to an elevation of 4700m. Only 1185m to go! We spent the whole day here, no acclimatization hike or anything. Just saving our energy, eating and sleeping then we climb at midnight.

I found Buffalo crap all the way up at this camp! It is because during the dry season, buffalo retreat from lions and other predators up the mountain though sometimes the predators, mostly lions, can be found tracking the buffalo all the way up the side of the mountain. We saw some skulls of buffalo off the track on the way up. Lunch was 3 or 4 crepes that resembled burritos with shredded chicken, carrot and capsicum with some onion, again. I began wondering long ago the sanitary value of eating meat that has not been in a fridge for several days but I really wanted to keep up my strength and since it appeared well cooked, so be it. Dinner was a heaping plate of spaghetti with, you guessed it, vegetable sauce!

There was a thunder storm as I settled in for bed amid heavy rain. It meant the night was going to be quite cold… I didn’t sleep too well because of the early bed time and the cold again but tomorrow I summit!

Dec 18^th

The plan was to reach Gilman’s Point from base camp which would take 5-6 hours, and walk to the summit as the sun was rising which would take another 1-2hours. The hour before Gilman’s there is supposed to be a steep section with a massive elevation gain so we’d planned to take it slower there to ensure we didn’t get altitude sickness.

I’ll admit it now. The first part of my climb was very unpleasant. As breathing and heart rate slow over night, less oxygen gets around your body while you sleep. I had a bad head ache when I awoke so I drank lots of tea and water before the climb and tried to drink plenty while climbing before my water froze at the top. I had issue equalizing my body, in part due to my sickness from the second day and from the climb itself. My stomach kept feeling full of air and at times it felt like my diaphragm was bending up on the outside of my stomach and claws tried to grab my lungs and pull them into my stomach so I could throw them up. I found my relief in flatulence, as apparently many others did as well, to relieve the pressure. That or burping.

I think the altitude affected me a bit, and with my already active imagination the things that kept me going through this trip were very random thoughts. I mainly thought of how I would describe my current experience and how I felt to others at that moment which slowly turned itself into a motivational speech to my middle school full of fart jokes. I also pulled inspiration from a friend of mine, John Dockman, who has run across Canada around the time he graduated high school. If this man could run across the country, there was no way I would let 1100m get the better of me. My mission was not even the smallest fraction of that monumental undertaking by John, so I used his determination as my own to get through some of the rougher sections. Of course I thought of many other friends and family, mostly how I would rub this adventure in or use it to inspire others for adventures of their own.

This night was supposed to be a perfect night, just like all of the others! It had started raining at bedtime, just like the other nights. The weather was fine when I had gotten up in the morning albeit colder, just like the other nights. The moon was out shining bright and the stars were watching us, just like the other night. It was interesting to see the big and little dippers, as well as the Southern Cross and Orion’s belt all in the same night sky.

The first bit of the climb was in a nice cool breeze, likely at worst -5C. It was rocky but slowly turned into snow and the climb was a back and forth of switchback after switchback. Many rest and water stops were taken and I slowly watched the clouds on the other peaks slowly building up and taking the anvil shape many of us fear; unlike the other nights.

I had growing fears that the weather would not be picture perfect or the ending I imagined but I pushed on determined nonetheless to complete my dream of summiting. As we reached the steep section made of volcanic boulders, the weather began to turn sour. The clouds rolled in and began obscuring vision and the wind picked up, forcing the cold to attack us more feverently and bringing the temperature down to -15C. This is about when my water began to ice up and turn to slush, making rehydration a very intense episode. Yet on we climbed. Thank god for buying Gortex and mountain climbing pants. I do not think I could’ve made it otherwise as the conditions just got worse and worse.

We reached Gillman’s point (5681m), 1.5-2 hours ahead of schedule. This is the start of the ridgeline to the summit. Since we had arrived so early, it meant we had to walk slowly to get to the summit. If we stopped, and we barely stopped at all even for water, the cold sank in rapidly. To make matters worse, a blizzard raged in full force the second we reach the ridgeline. It seemed like the mountain was testing me, or at least trying test me and fend me off from my prize. It probably dropped another 10C to -20 or -25C.

This was the slowest I had ever walked in my life, but I was quite thankful to waste time so the sun could rise. The ridgeline usually takes less than an hour if you are in good shape, but we made it take almost two. It was like a scene out of the mountaineering movies; imagine the movies where they are in their parkas and tied together by a rope walking on the windswept slopes getting blasted by snow and ice crystals. It was exactly like that minus the ropes tying you together. Snow was building up on our backpacks on the windward side of us, snow starting to pile up on either side of our path, ice crystals and cliff faces appearing out of nowhere. I wish I had taken some photos of how dreadful the weather was so that I could share my pain but the image is emblazoned in my memory. I remember feeling that this is the exact image they show in the movies and try to describe in books, but they can never explain properly how much the cold bites into your flesh like a thousand hungry wolves and the dull feeling of the cold sinking deep into you, seeping out all of your strength with the aid of the altitude. This is when I knew it was too late to turn around. That the mountain was throwing everything it had against me, and that I was near.

I had been at the head of the pack from my base camp, determined to be the first to the summit that day. It was on the ridgeline I realized I was going to be the first from my camp, but not the first of the day. There were other routes I had forgotten about that came up closer to the summit on the ridgeline than where I was, but I didn’t care at that point. I was merely consumed with resolve to make it.

We made it about half an hour to twenty minutes before the sunrise which was a painful wait. I think I froze solid in the time I was posing for photos and waiting for the sun. It all happened so quickly and I really appreciate the saying, the darkest hour is just before dawn. As soon as the sun came up above the sea of clouds, the storm abated and burned off this was a magical site as the landscape revealed itself. I remember during the climb on the ridgeline, seeing a brief break illuminating the landscape, teasing me before being blown out again in the storm. The MASSIVE crater at the top and the glaciers appeared only for a second until they showed themselves in all of their glory in the sun.

As I walked down, the sun began warming me rapidly causing me to remove layers. I was so happy and relieved and blessed I felt emotionally drained, overwhelmed, and couldn’t contain my excitement. I barely looked through my camera while I was up there just trying to take in the experience but I still managed to get some good pictures as you can see.

The rest is a bit of a blur. The walk down was rapid as my guide was pushing because he was tired and wanted to call his wife. I was drained from sheer will carrying me up the mountain. I still managed to take in the sites on the way down which were so overwhelming since I feel I missed most of it due to the night, the storm, and perpetually staring at my feet watching where I was going, distracted by my thoughts on the way up the mountain.

I got back to base camp, slept for an hour, packed up site and then walked over 10km to the next camp. This seemed like it took FOREVER! I was so sore, tired and felt I had no drive or determination left but I never gave up, never stopped, never complained. The sleep that evening, once I had finished writing in my journal, was very amazing.

Dec 19^th

It was a quick jaunt down to the gate and then back to the resort. I can honestly say it is the worst idea and the worst place to try to sell people who had just come off the mountain shitty bracelets when they have just descended the mountain. Do you really think people carry all their money up there and then want to barter once they are dead tired from the climb. Simply, No. I spent the day in the pool, sleeping, and then to take the two soccer balls I had brought and try to give them to someone in the community.

I ended up giving one to an orphanage, the kids had gone off on a field trip and were not around but I received a tour and met a few of the younger ones left behind.

My guide then took me to a local school which was obviously quite poor in comparison to the orphanage. My guide told me to kick the soccer ball with him and within 20 seconds about 30 kids were there to play. I did not bring my camera as I was unsure of where I was going and the safety of it but I do regret not bringing it. I played a bit of soccer and juggled the ball with the kids, they loved it! It filled my heart with even more pride and happiness and I can’t wait to go back and take something else for these kids. They couldn’t believe their luck because no one brought stuff to this school because it was so far away from everything else. We gave the ball to the village leader because the teacher was away at the time. It was amusing walking through the area because everyone kept calling me Obama and giving me a thumbs up. I guess they thought that I was American and I learned that everyone loves Obama there, he was on t-shirts, he was on flags, and everyone was very friendly towards Americans which surprised me a little bit but was also a relief.

I contented myself that evening with have a few drinks with the people in my resort and preparing myself for the trip over the next few days and drying out my clothing.

Dec 20^th - 21^st

Early morning start with a taxi ride to the airport and then a quick flight to Dar Es Salaam. The plane reached 19,000’, which was lower than the peak I had just climbed which made me feel quite good about myself. This is the part of my trip I wish I had planned out myself as there was a bunch of back tracking but with the amount of time I had, I only cared about booking the trip because my company took so long to approve my leave. I should’ve stayed in Moshi, the base of Kili, and done the safari here, THEN gone to the coast. Oh well. I met lots of nice people and saw much of the countryside.

I went to a beach resort called Kipepeo Beach (butteryfly beach), and was all in all a bit disappointed with the resort. The rooms were nice but not as nice as the last place I’d stayed. The beach was gross from all of the rain they were having and there was next to no one there. I found a Canadian girl who had been traveling alone and we spent the next two days hanging out. We joined some beach volleyball and drank the evening away. I met my group on the 21^st, ate dinner with them, basically a bunch of Australians and Kiwis, a British couple, a few Europeans and an American.

December 22^nd to December 31^st.

I went on a road trip with a group of international travels who had done a great deal of their own amazing travels around Africa and from various walks of life and of all ages. I could easily go on for just as long as I did for Kilimanjaro but I will let the pictures I took speak for themselves. I know it may not seem like it however I would say I spent less than a quarter of my time photographing the wild life and more just enjoying it. Such a fantastic experience!

I’ll talk your ear off more if you’d have it. Enjoy reading this massive tome!

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Photos

The stars shining over Kilimanjaro
It was hard to get the outhouses and tents out of this but it worked reasonably well!