Meet our new friend - Kili
A view of the glaciers on top
our team
View from Barafu camp
Some of the bizarre vegetation
How the porters carry things
Mambo Kaka! (this isn't what you think you Russians & Italians)
We came, we climbed, we conquered Kilimanjaro!
Tanzania is certainly what you get when you expect raw Africa! Whilst it's very touristy for the safaris, trekking and Zanzibar, the cities are wild and chaotic.
I can tell you that our bus ride from Dar Es Salaam to Moshi was the scariest one of our entire trip!! If you can take your mind back to the 80's when Barbie first hit the shelves - do you remember the chaos of people trying to buy these; well imagine we are Ken and Barbie and its 9:30 at night in Tanzania. Thankfully we came away unscathed with only Marina's mirror stolen from her bag; pretty much all of our zippers open - bags that is.... It's certainly worse than any bus ride in Venezuela or Ecuador! Don't worry, its all pretty safe, just a bit of petty theft attempts before you start telling us to come home..
The story of this blog is about Kilimanjaro and our true conquests of Africa's tallest mountain!
Our path thus far: Dar Es Salaam > Moshi > Kilimanjaro National Park > Arusha
Tuesday - Wednesday: Preparations: The feat of traveling from Nungwi (northern Zanzibar) to Moshi in the same day (by only public transport) is truly monumental. We had to run onto the ferry to Dar and purchased the last two seats on the last bus at 1pm. Let me say, Marina also had to fight to get the tickets past numerous men with strong elbows - Russian women are indeed tough, as you will also read later. I can tell you after this bus ride and arrival in Moshi I was shocked we still had our belongings and the sanctity of the room was priceless. On Wednesday we started our hunt for a trip to the top of Kili. This was surprisingly easy. The price of this trek was double our cruise in the Galapagos, and this was a really good deal. The government in Tanzania has its hands out in every direction sucking in a good portion of the tourist dollars, and as you would guess, giving very little back to the local people who are lucky to earn a 100 or 200 dollars US per month. In as little as 2 hours we had arranged a 6 day trip via the scenic and reportedly more difficult Machame route. This was a private trek just for us and we personally had 8 Tanzanians to help as guides, cooks, and porters. This is one of the major advantages of booking locally. We think we are social people, but when climbing, get out of our way and we don't like a group slowing us down. Is that a bit rude? :D
Thursday - Monday: Kilimanjaro (5896 meters or 19,457 feet): Friends gave us great advice to help us pick this trek and it was certainly the right one! We were at the gates by 10am and the first ones to head off. The hike on Day 1 was very scenic going through varying landscapes from dense forest inhabited by monkeys to arid desert with cacti. We finished the day around 2pm and had a lot of time to relax. Thankfully for the first time on this trip we had porters to carry our things - so we snuck in a little Jonny Walker in the bags adding a little extra enjoyment to this afternoon. Being a little bit of diehard trekkers, we went for combining day 2 & 3 into a long day's hike. Our porters weren't too happy, but agreed. Now this gave us a challenge and we passed many groups of people on the way. I would say the amount of people climbing Kili on the Machame route is similar to our experience on the Inca trail. Although 99% of people go so slow its easy to just pass them. All of the camps were ideally located and we had great views of Kilimanjaro each day. On top of that, as we climbed in July providing clear skies with no rain during the trek. On Day 3 we hiked for about 5 hours making it to the Barafu camp where we would start our summit the next day. On day 4 we started with the sunrise around 0640 and started the tough hike to the top. This was a bit of punishment as I was calling the trail easy thus far. This day was truly challenging, not only due to the steep incline, but when your above 5,000 meters (16000 feet) every step is 2 or 3 times tougher. As we approached the summit the views were mind blowing, but the true visual pleasure was Kili's glaciers! Said to be receding and completely gone by 2020, these things were monsters and comparable to the Perito Moreno (glacier) in Argentina! Once near the summit Marina's altitude sickness was really kicking in and she almost had to be dragged for the last 50 meters. Major credit to her for hanging in there and accomplishing the task. Emanuel our guide said she was the first girl he has taken to complete the climb in 5 days! I can tell you reaching the top of Africa is pure bliss, mixed with a headache. I was ok until the top, but it wasn't too bad; the excitement was incredible. As we decided to start in the morning rather than at night for the sunrise, we had the entire summit to ourselves to enjoy. On day 5 we hiked the remainder of the way down and made it yesterday to civilization! Being stingy with our days, we picked up our bags and jumped in a bus for the city of Arusha, the best place to arrange safaris.
Next on the list - the Serengheti and Ngorongoro Crater! Bring on the Lions!
Quoharey!
Dan and Marina
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