A trip to Kilimanjaro

Oct 29th

A trip to Kilimanjaro

I just came back from 2.5 weeks in Tanzania, which included climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Which at 5895m is the highest peak in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world. We did an 8 day trek on the Shira route. Starting at 3000m above sea level we instantly felt the effects of altitude and the phrase of the week was 'pauly pauly' which means slowly slowly in Swahili. Any faster than a slow plod left us breathless and with a pounding headache! Lying in the tent the first night at -5C, feeling slightly sick and with a pounding head we realised this wasn't going to be a relaxing, restful holiday!!

There were 10 in our group and thankfully we all got on really well, and got very 'close' over the course of the trek. The rocks used to go for a wee behind got significantly smaller as each day passed! We had several acclimatisation walks and most of us had got more used to the effects of altitude by the time we reached base camp at 4600m. We were sent to bed at 6pm to have some sleep before we started the summit attempt. To say I got any sleep was an overstatement, the nerves and excitement about what was too come was far too much to let me sleep. However my friend managed to snore constantly from the moment she got in her sleeping bag until we were woken at 11pm to start the final assent!

We had some porridge and then at 00.15 we set off. Looking up the mountain it was impossible to see where the headlamps finished and the stars started. For 6hrs we plodded up 1300m of loose volcanic scree in the dark and at about -10C. We reached the crater rim about 6am in time to see the sun rise over the neighbouring peak of Kibo. A stunning view. The crater rim itself is beautiful and quite surreal. It then took about 45mins to reach the summit around the crater rim, which at just under 6000m was a real effort, but well worth it!

It was incredible how the gravity then managed to take over from altitude! All of a sudden we all had energy and could move faster than the slow plod we had done all the way up. It was even possible to scree run most of the way down, which was really fun. I donated my OS top to the porter who had kindly carried my kit bag all the way for me. So hopefully the OS top will be seen up the mountain for years to come!!