After over 4 years hiatus from international travel concentrating on personal stuff including supporting ill family and buying my own flat by the end of 2014 it was time to think about a new adventure. I kind of had the feeling that climbing Kilimanjaro was just a bit much and something other people did so initially dismissed it as an option. But if you think like that then youre right so decided to prove myself wrong.
Throughout 2015 I had plenty of warmups with a few munros including a very bad weather jaunt up snowy/icy Ben Nevis and also closer to home a regular burn of the 5 Tops of the Pentlands, Turnhouse Hill, Carnethy, Scald Law and the East and West Kips which gave me a good workout. By the time of the trip I had pretty strong legs and lungs and had got all the gear on the list.
The flight was KLM to Schipol from Edinburgh then onto Kilimanjaro international airport. For the first time in my life in view of the challenge at the other end I upgraded to Premium Economy for the legroom and it made for a much better flight and could enjoy
pretty stunning sights like hours of flying over the Sahara desert. Arrived late at night and it was like being back on one of my big trips again with a flurry of taxi drivers offering rides but got my pickup and was soon resting up at the Weru Weru lodge near Moshi. Had a nice day by the pool getting mildly annoyed Id forgotten both my camera and my phone charger (not like me at all!). Therefore all photos are curtesy of kind people on my group who took them and emailed on. Later on met the group for the big briefing, its amazing the basics that get forgotten including a raincoat!?! but luckily I passed kit inspection with flying colours.
The next day after a huge breakfast we were lorried up to start our assault on the big mountain, the first forested section was an ordeal as we were caught in a downpour. Luckily by the time we reached Big Tree Forest camp our tents were set up and got used to being in a tent which would be home for over a week. The first thing that struck me was the food, high in carbs, very tasty
and in huge quantities, and always encouraged to eat until you burst, helps with the energy and also good for tackling altitude.
Forged on to Shira One Camp a larger camp on an open plain where we were only mildly nervous at the mention that lions had been heard in the distance from here. It was here that I was mildy hit by the altitude for the first time but it did trigger a migraine, this was not nice but after a sleep and enforced eating it did clear. In the night I popped out to the toilet hut a little way out into the bush from the camp, suddenly looked up and looming in the dark for the first time I could see the profile of Kilimanjaro proper, some moment.
We forged on for another day and this time came to Shira Camp Two a much rougher rocky camp. There was time in the day to head a bit higher up for a crucial aclimatization walk, I got very queasy and had to take a long nap but again eating huge quantities of chips helped recovery. By now it was clear I was prone to a bit
of altitude sickness but by being strong mentally and doing the extra walks and forcing food and water down I might be okay. I was not on any drugs to counter it but was not convinved they acutally worked anyway.
Then for a tough day, the walk up Lava tower, it was hard, hard hard and I was getting very sick, again the wonderfull head guide had me forcing pasta down and it helped and recovered as we descended to Barranco camp, a huge migraine hit in and I was stumped when my water all froze so not great. Also by now our group had well bonded but one of our number in the night was carted down the mountain with fluid on his lungs. As this chap had summited ten years previous it bought it home to us that this was no walk in the park.
