Friday, July 28, 2017 Day 1: 28th Jul 2017:
Arrive at Kilimanjaro airport at… pickup and transfer to Springlands hotel for overnight bed &breakfast. Tanzania note to Almitra / family Dearest Mum Sitting at the Kilimanjaro Airport, waiting to fly back to the US. So decided to write a travelogue to you before I forgot everything and work swamped me. We left Fremont to fly out to Kilimanjaro on Wed night. Lost a full day in transit and so reached on Friday noon. There were 12 of us who were going to try to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro - Sim-So, Lalitha-Raghu, Amod-Raji, Raj-Neelu, Dilip, Renu, Mayuresh, Rakesh. All either Fremont-based folks who climb Mission Peak regularly and are part of our "2HeelDrive" hiking group, or a few - like Amod-Raji and Dilip - who live in SFO or Belmont but join us every now and then for hikes and who had done Mt. Whitney with us last year... So we all arrived at Springlands Hotel, the Zara Adventures hotel that was the base for our hike, in Moshi. For Kilimanjaro, you have to book the trek through one of the tour companies - you cannot hike up alone (even if you want to, which we certainly didn't - we had a luxury trek, of walking just with our day packs and everything else taken care of by the guides and porters.) That counts as Day 1.
Saturday, July 29, 2017 Day 2: Machame Gate (1,490 m/4,890 ft) to Machame camp (2,980 m/9,780 ft), through rain forest. Hiking time: 7 hours; Distance: About 11 km's
On Day 2, we set off at ~8:30 am (which became 9:30 am for our group - something that the guides slowly got used to, and they started telling us half an hour earlier than our actual departure on the following days). We had each packed our stuff for the 7-day trek into duffel bags that we rented from Zarahuge big duffel bags. They had a limit of 15 kg per person, and then the porter would carry 5 kg of their own stuff, (although it probably was more). Happy to say that Sol and I packed pretty light! Then we set off to the starting point, Machame Gate, where there was a big pileup of trekkers and porters and a big bustle as they got everything ready for all the different groups. We had approx. 44 porters supporting us 12 hikers and 6 guides!!! There are 6 different routes up the mountain, of 5-day to 8-day duration; we picked the Machame Route which is scenic and did the 7-day hike to gain acclimatization time and increase our chances of summiting. We set off at 11:55 am - in true mad dogs and Englishmen style. However, it was already cool and we were already happy to have on our long-sleeved shirts. We started out at ~5,000 feet altitude (1,600 meters). The first day, we hiked through dripping wet forest, with tall trees and Spanish moss. We had to hike 11 km the first day. It was uphill but not too steep, and beautiful. We had lunch boxes that they had given us, and we stopped half-way through and had our lunch, and kept walking. Reached at ~6pm and arrived at Machame Camp, where they had already set up our tents - 2 per person tents for 5 two-somes and 2 tents that were single for 2 of our group. When we arrived each evening, they would give us basins of hot water at our tent flaps, and we could rinse our faces and feet and freshen up before heading to the mess tent - a big tent with 2 long tables and 6 chairs on each side - where we got a snack of salted popcorn and hot tea. Then, in an hour or so, we got dinner - soup every day, rice, meat stew or veg stew, and fresh fruit - pineapple one day, mango the next, watermelon the following. As you can tell – this was a very luxurious trek, with us just needing to walk with day packs, and having the tents and food all taken care of! And then we all crawled into our tents and went to sleep, by 9pm
Sunday, July 30, 2017 Day 3: Machame camp (2,980 m/9,780 ft) to Shira camp (3,840 m/12,600 ft). Hiking time: 6 hours; Distance: About 9 km's Day 3.
Morning we woke up at ~6:30 am, got bowls of hot water for morning ablutions, and then into the breakfast tent - our common gathering point - at ~7:15 am. Breakfast was usually toast (we would see the porters walking past us with loaves of bread tied outside their packs,, otherwise it would get crushed). Omelette, butter and jam, peanut butter, fried pakodas, and a millet porridge (light brown, exactly like ragi flour color, a thin liquid porridge that was mildly sweet - that is what I ate every day, I liked the warmth and the taste, as did Raji). That day, we hiked to Shira Camp - 9 km.
Monday, July 31, 2017 Day 4: Shira camp (3,840 m/12,600 ft)) to Lava Tower (4,630 m/15,190 ft) to Barranco Camp (3,950 m/12,960 ft) 15 km, 7 hours.
Habitat: SemiDesert Day 4. That was the day that it started raining - drizzling, fortunately, rather than rain, but still, wet, wet, wet - and stayed wet for the remainder of the hike!! We hiked up with just our rain jackets, didn't bother putting on our rain pants, since it was a light drizzle. That was a big mistake - the light rain stayed the whole day, and by the time we walked into the camp in the evening, our pants were totally soaked and we were cold and wet. The vegetation was definitely getting sparser - just low bushes of juniper and some other stuff - and starting to get rocky. That was a long day - 15 km hike. We stopped at "Lava Tower", a stubby pinnacle of lava rock about 100 m high - where they set up our mess tent (and also our 2 toilet tents) and gave us hot lunch of something that was exactly like kathi-rolls (chapati-like base with chicken in the middle, for the nonveggies). Then we kept walking, and reached camp probably around 5:30 pm. Evening was the same - hot water to rinse, then a hearty dinner in our mess tent where we spent about an hour eating, chatting, etc because it was warm with all the body heat in there, and then off to our tents and to sleep. Everyone in our group except 2 of us, Rakesh and I, had started taking diamox (for altitude ) from Day 1. I was in two minds about it - I didn't have altitude sickness on Mt. Whitney, 14,500 feet high, but had a dull headache for the top half of the hike. But this mountain was 19,500 feet high, and on the last day we had to climb 4,500 feet in a single day. I already felt a very mild headache on the first day, so I decided to be cautious and take diamox. (I had already tried it out a week earlier at home for a day just to ensure I had no side effects). I'm very happy I took it (125 mg morning, 125 mg evening). I had absolutely no headache on the entire trek, and even the peeing (it's supposed to make you pee more often) was not really noticeable. So that was 11 of us that ended up taking diamox, and only Rakesh didn't (he had done Island Peak in the Himalayas 5 years ago, 18,000 feet, with no diamox, and was ok).
Tuesday, August 1, 2017 Day 5: Barranco Camp (3,950 m/12,960 ft) to Karanga Valley Camp (4200m) 4hours. Habitat: Semi-Desert Day 5. Barranco Camp to Katanga Camp, 6 km
This hike was supposed to be a tough one because in the morning we straight-away started up the Barranco Wall, a steep hike up a rocky steep part of the mountain for 1.5 hours. They made us put away our hiking poles so we had both hands free to scramble. It wasn't as bad as they had made it out to be - just some rocky walking with occasional parts where you had to use your hands to clamber over rocks. The thick fog helped some who didn't want to see the steep drops off the cliff face. The rain again was a very light drizzle - by now we had become smart and every day we wore thermal leggings, pants, and on top of that our waterproof rain pants, because it was cold at that altitude and also wet with no chance of drying once wet. I think I enjoyed that hiking day the most - we all were singing Beatles songs, as well as other songs in English and Hindi - some in our group were pretty good singers - and we kept up the singing even though we were going uphill and would have to occasionally take a break to huff and puff. It was a short day - hike up and sleep low again - as part of our acclimatization longer 7-day hike. We ended up at Karanga Camp where we spent the night. The scenery was now pretty much all rocks, with occasional plants at the lower altitudes or valleys - will send pics of some of the strange plants.
Wednesday, August 2, 2017 Day 6: Karanga Valley Camp (4200m) to Barafu Camp (4,550 m/14,930 ft) Habitat: Semi-Desert Day 6, Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp
We started off on Day 6, again in drizzly cold weather, up a steep rocky path. By now, there was not much vegetation - mainly shattered rock on the volcanic slope. Will have to look at the pics - all the days are running together in my mind already! After walking for about 4-5 hours, we reached Barafu Camp. This was on a steep hill slope and I was wondering how all the various tents would fit in, because several routes converged on Barafu Camp which was the final point from which we made our ascent up the mountain. They gave us lunch, and then we all turned in to our tents - happily so, because it was too cold and drizzly to be outside. In our tents, we all prepared for the final day's ascent - pulled out all our layers, flashlights, gloves, warm thermals, chemical heating pads, etc. And then tucked into our sleeping bags for a couple of hours nap before they woke us up for dinner at 5pm, and then back again into our sleeping bags for another couple of hours nap before they woke us up at 10pm for the final ascent.
Thursday, August 3, 2017 Day 7: Summit Day! Barafu Camp (4,550 m/14,930 ft) to Uhuru Peak (5,895 m/19,340 ft) to Mweka (3,100 m/10,170 ft). Hiking time; 8 hours to reach Uhuru Peak, 7/8 hours to descend to Mweka. Distance: About 7 km's ascent, 23 km's descent.
Habitat: Stone scree and ice-capped summit. The guides woke us up at 10pm, and we had tea, popcorn and biscuits. Then, at 11:45 pm, we set off. All of us were bundled up like snowmen - I had on 2 pairs of thermal tights (which I was glad of, I was debating between 1 and 2 pairs and decided on 2, because everyone we had spoken to had said it was freezing cold). So back to my layering: at the bottom, I had 2 thermals, then ski pants, then waterproof rain pants. 2 pairs of wool socks. On top, I had a thermal long-sleeve shirt, 2 down jackets (these are thin down jackets, so needed 2), and then my rain jacket. A balaclava and a scarf. Everyone had hand and foot warmers that Sohrab had got in bulk and distributed - these little thermal pouches, kind-of like a bigger version of the pouches you get in food packets to keep stuff dehydrated. You tear open the foil packaging, and once exposed to air, the chemical reaction in the tissue-fabric pouch generates a steady warmth that lasts for upto 16 hours. So people put these into their gloves (to keep hands warm) and into shoes (you stick then on top of your sock, inside your shoe) to keep feet warm. I didn't think I'd use them but ended up being really happy about both, because my feet were freezing without them and I stopped part-way up to take off my shoes and put in the warm pouches.
So we started off, in a snake of hikers, 12 of us and 6 guides, all with flashlights, and about 200+ other hikers and their accompanying guides all starting somewhere between 11pm and 2 am, snaking up the mountain in a sporadic chain of lights. We were VERY fortunate - after 3 days of drizzly weather during the day time, that night was brilliant clear, we could see all the stars (of which I could only recognize a few constellations, the usual problem when you see too many stars). The initial start was incredibly steep and rocky - I actually think that they took us off the regular path and took a shortcut up the mountain to avoid some of the lines, because we were scrambling in the dark over all kinds of rocks and mud that were slick and slippery with water from the earlier drizzle. After about half an hour of this scramble up rocks, we were on a more regular path that would switchback up, and up, and up. In fact, it was a little intimidating to look up, because all that you saw up the dark mountain was this chain of headlamp flashlights ascending up and infinitely up. So we just focused on the next few steps, and kept walking. It was cold - I was happy to have all my layers, and didn't feel cold on my body, although my feet were freezing (even with 2 pairs of wool socks) until I put in the foot warmers. We were walking slowly – “Pole Pole” is the motto of the hike, the guides say it to you all the time – “slowly slowly” in Swahili. They walk very slowly and steadily, and that does help, because if you walk fast, then in 2 minutes you are out of breath and have to stop to huff and puff. So I didn't feel overheated in all my layers, at the most, I would open a few zippers on the 2 down jackets and I'd be fine. There was some condensation when you breathed out, but in that dry air, not even much of that. We walked together - I was very happy about that, I must go back and write about the huge discussion we had a few days prior about breaking up into groups or not. But the guides were the ones calling the shots, and with some ahead and some behind, they were the sheepdogs keeping us together. After about 3 hours of walking, with a few standing breaks and a very few sitting breaks of just a few minutes (otherwise we'd get too cold), they gave us a slightly longer break, and pulled out thermos flasks with hot sweet black tea - a nice surprise for all of us. We had that, and then back to walking, through patches of snow, although the path was mostly clear of snow. Our camelback drinking pouches, which have a tube that you suck water out of, had frozen about an hour into the hike, and we had to rely on the regular water bottles (that didn't have the narrow pipes outside that could freeze). In that extreme cold, I didn't feel like drinking at all, so just had a few sips, which was good, because then I didn't have to worry about peeling off multiple layers to go! At about 5am, after 5 and 1/4 hours of walking, we saw the sky in the east turn very slightly less dark, and then, slowly, dawn broke as we walked - a beautiful bright horizontal orange line above a bank of thick clouds. It got brighter, and very slightly warmer, and so we started stopping to click photos - earlier that night it was too cold to take off your two layers of gloves to get your phone out to take a picture, and if we did, all that we would get was pinpricks of light walking up a black slope. But now we could see the expanse of the volcano, sloping off steeply in all directions, with just shattered rock as far as you could see, and patches of snow.
The final haul up the steeper switchbacks to "Stella Point", on the top of the crater, was probably the hardest part of the day of me, because the path got steeper, and it seemed never-ending. But finally, at around 8am, we reached Stella Point, and could see over to the crater - a vast depression, we couldn't see the full circular depression but saw just parts of it. After a moment's rest, we continued on - the guides didn't want us staying too long at any place otherwise we'd get too cold. So we continued the walk, less steep now since we were along the crater's rim, but still up and down and going on and on and on. Even though it was bright daylight now, our water bottle pipes were still frozen solid – that’s why they had told us to pack the normal waterbottles also, not only camelbacks. Finally, after an hour of walking, we reached the peak - Uhuru Peak, with the signboard that you're on the highest point in Africa. The best part was that we all reached the top - all 12 of us (and 6 guides, who helped greatly, carrying the day packs for several of our group members, and even holding hands or offering a shoulder to lean on). We reached within 20 minutes of each other, and then we celebrated on top, with multiple group pictures, single pictures in front of the amazing glaciers on top (still there, although fast receding), the crater (we could see into the bare soil/snow/rock covered depression, but couldn't see the part where the soil was warm from fumaroles still coming out.) After about 45 minutes on top, we started down. They took us down a steeper path for the descent, which was basically like skiing down on scree and shale-like rock, very steep. At this point Sohrab's knees gave up, and he was making his way down but in considerable pain, and at one point the guide took his day pack and offered his shoulder, although soon we got to the scree-skiing again and the guide left him to slide down on his own. Most of the group was really exhausted by this time, and the guides really helped - carrying Day packs, offering shoulders to folks to walk down, and with one lady, they actually picked her up and carried her down the last 10 minutes(!!!). We finally reached back to Barafu Camp at 2 pm - 4 hours longer than the hike would normally take others!! But we all made it up, and down, and that was really important to us. Getting back to Barafu was not the end of that day. We were supposed to stop for lunch that the cook/porter crew had cooked at the camp, and then continue on for another 4 hours to the Mweka Camp. But given that we were so very late, and so exhausted, we had a debate with the chief guide over lunch and accepted his suggestion of walking to an intermediate camp, a 2 hour walk to High Camp. So after lunch at 2:30 pm and packing up our stuff from the tents, we again set off at 3:45 pm to walk 2 hours to camp. Having warm food in us helped perk us up considerably, but some did have trouble, especially one guy whose toes had gotten completely smashed in his boots with 2 pairs of thick socks - he had to hold onto the shoulders of two guides and hobble down the 2 hours to camp. And finally, at about 6:30 pm, we reached camp, in a drizzle, and crawled into our tents. I was not hungry so just curled up in my sleeping bag and went to sleep, catching up on sleep for the night that we had walked all night. The others went for dinner and then went to the tents to sleep, at last.
Friday, August 4, 2017 Day 8: 4th Aug 2017: Final descent, Mweka camp (3,100 m/10,170 ft):- Mweka Gate (1,980 m/6,500 ft). Hiking/Descend time: 3hours. Distance: About 15 km's.
We woke up at 6am, and set off by 7am down the hill for the last 5 hours to Mweka Gate, the end-point of our trek. After a solid nights' sleep, everyone felt better and the walk was beautiful, through thick underbrush that turned at lower altitude into thick forest with buttress-rooted trees dripping with Spanish Moss, huge tree ferns - some were almost 25 feet tall, and other vegetation and occasional streams. We reached Mweka gate, and then finally, back in 'civilization', had celebratory beers and soft drinks while the guides finished the paperwork. And got into 2 vans that took us the 1 hour back to our Springlands Hotel. At the hotel, finally had a hot shower (after 7 days of no shower), got into fresh clothes, had a late lunch,, and then settle accounts with the guides. There are standard tipping guidelines, and we tipped them generously, because without the 6 guides and 40+ porters, we would never have been able to make it. We had a fun send-off by our crew of 35+ porters on the last day. They sang, danced, clapped, and wished us farewell. Although the guides would come to the hotel to give us our Kilimanjaro certificates (yes, the National Park gives certificates!), we wouldn’t see the porters again. We did the accounts at the hotel and tipped all very generously (tipping is mandated, and we did that and more).
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