Kilimanjaro
You will find more pictures here:
http://cern.ch/johan.karlsson/images/2003/2003_09_18_Tanzania/
Saturday 27/9-03
”Kili Time”
Woke up at 7 o’clock, had breakfast at 7.30. Everything was now packed and ready! Managed after a hard night (power cut’s and 8 batteries to charge with only one outlet) to charge all the necessary batteries for cameras and phones.
Oliver (our guide) wrote down a list of things that people in the group were missing e.g. poles, hats, various clothes, after that he went to the main gate in order to rent the missing things and to pay entry fee.
We have now been waiting for one hour and a half from the time he said that he would be back, great! Everything is backed and ready long time ago and every one is eager to get going. Got the “Kilimanjaro song” by one of our guides.
In total we have 18 people to carry our gear and of them 4 are guides. It is a lot of luggage that has to be transported for our expedition.
Thomas shoes have a big hole in the side. He used scotch in order to mend it, hope it will last. He also forgot his fleece jacket at home. Instead he now has to rent a”gnu-shirt” but maybe he will do with his extra sweaters that he brought. Olivier found a fleece jacket made of the Swedish brand Haglofs, great! Probably a Swede must have forgotten it on the mountain.
During the long and very bumpy road to the foothills of Kilimanjaro I managed to bit off a piece of my front tooth, thanks to an African bonbon. Not the best start of the expediton! I now have a knife sharp front tooth which is hurting my tongue. Guess it will be better in the next couple of days.
Thomas managed to fix his shoe during the way there. We passed and stopped a small village and there they fixed it for about 50 centimes which included the tip.
The bus ride took about 3 hours and then we were 2 hours late. There is no mobile phone reception what-so-ever on the North side of the mountain.
We took the Nalemuru route up.
The hike started after we ate lunch and we had a calm pace. The carriers (all 18) went before us with big plastic sacks on their heads. The bags contained not only our gear but tents, cooking material etc. etc. The hike went through small villages in a dessert kind of landscape which then changed into jungle. In the jungle we experienced monkeys in the trees. After that we passed through a more bush like landscape.
Is now on 2800 m. Got barked at by a guide / carrier because we washed ourselves in water. Apparently we should have used a basin in order to wash ourselves but somehow that information never got to us. We got threaten to go down again but it got solved in the end. Good dinner, a lot of food!
Briefing of tomorrow. Good night! 21:00...
Sunday 28/9-03
Breakfast at 7.30 after packing all the things. This was the best breakfast so far with porridge (if you like it), tea, coffee, chocolate, sandwiches, egg and bacon with cucumber and tomatoes.
Easy hike in a slow pace, not to difficult terrain but we will be walking in 7 hours up to ~3900m. It was a cold night with around +5 degrees Celsius but with the warm sleeping bag it was ok, even though there was cold for the feet. I will use socks this night.
+5 at 3900m. Long easy “pole-pole”-hike, got there at 15:00.
It took us about 5h to walk. Acclimatization hike 200 m up and then down again, not really what I call acclimatization but still... ”Pole-pole” = slow.
Still absence of the network for our mobile phones. We have to cross a small hill first in order to get a signal.
Tomorrow we will reach Kibo hut.
Popcorn and tea after the walk, good! Felt the 1100 altitude meters a bit. Drank 1.5 l extra water to get rid of a slight headache. The hike itself might be the cause of the headache. It is pretty cold here specially after been drinking my cold water, <brrr>.
I’m now fully dressed in the tent where it is warmer.
The dinner was ok, bedtime at 20.15. At 00:00 I had to go out to pee, starting to feel like I needed to go to the “toilet” but chose to wait until the sun came up. It was a tough night with little sleep. The “toilet” visit I made at 6.30. The ”toilet” is a hole in the floor of a small wooden shelter, not nice at all!
Monday 29/3-03
Pole-pole amazingly slow!!! Olivier seems to have misunderstood the concept that it is better to stay on a certain altitude longer then just slowly ascend to a certain altitude, never mind that now. I assume we were waiting for the carriers.
Lunch at Kibo hut 4750 m, cold! When thinking about it, it’s
like having lunch almost at the top of
Skipped the tea and went instead for the dinner at 17. After that it is re-packing and rest until 23. The ascent to the top will start at midnight.
So far (14:00) so good, don’t feel the altitude at all. After the dinner I went to bed but had to get up at 21 to pee. Drank tea at 23 and I fixed warm water for the ascent. I’m still ok but have a slight feeling of being hungry and feel like I want to puke at the same time, weird! Thomas was ok during dinner but with a slight headache. At 23 he has a major headache but he decided to continue the ascent.
Tuesday 30/3-03
It’s Kili time – Time to kill
The hike started just after 00:00. All ok but feel tired.
Everyone is walking in a slow pace. The word “zigzag” got a whole new meaning.
-5 degrees and is all too warmly dressed. Took of the windstopper.
In the meantime I’m in the first group (we were 12 in the
beginning and then later on just 8). We are walking very slowly and the
altitude makes it hard. I almost fall asleep but after been drinking and eating
some chocolate I felt better. Christian throws up and Gwenael
doesn’t really know where he is, scary! They were taking care of one of our
guides. Afterwards I learnt that they made it up to Gilman’s point. ~5600 m.
The main group came to Giliman’s point at 6.45 where we were stunned by a
beautiful sunrise. After Giliman’s point we (the remaining 8) decided to
continue up to Huru peak 5895m,
There was a glacier just next to the path and then we saw the big crater. It is hard to explain how it looked like. After taking photographs, and some celebrating whiskey (which I brought with me for everyone) it was time for the descent. It turned out that I was the only one that was feeling more or less ok and what for me before took 7h up took 45 min down. It was loose stones (similar to sand) which made it possible to go down really quick. It was like skiing. For the others it took about 2.45h to get down to Kibo hut. They had the altitude sickness, not fun! In Kibo hut I met Thomas who was swollen and had a headache. Apparently he was lead down by one of the guides and he woke up with fully dressed inside the tent but with the feet outside, scary as everything was a bit in a blur.
After everyone arrived and rested it was time for the descent to a lower camp which took 3h to reach the altitude of 3700m. Last night in a tent! I’m now longing now for a shower a bed and my girlfriend. Waiting for dinner and after that we will go to bed early (as usual). Feel stiff in the shoulders, not so tired in my legs but I have some blizzards under the feet which I have fixed with scotch. It was the descent from the summit (the slalom tour) which created the blizzards.
We are living in the clouds, very moistly. My bag has not arrived yet, hmm hope it has not disappeared. Maybe it is in one of the tents, got to ask Abraham our main guide about it. Abraham is the main responsible for the other guides and the porters. He is nice and he sings a lot. He is not very old and very interested in our technical gear. The bag was in a different tent.
I’ve been reading while Thomas has been snoring next to me. We are now sending SMS messages to everyone but my battery is almost finished. Tomorrow I’ll be able to recharge it!
PS. Lariam pill today...
Wednesday 1/10-03
Today we will hike down from 3720m to the Main gate. Went through a dessert landscape where we met a lot of people which were about to start their climb. They saw were we had been and they asked us a lot of questions. After about 3h we arrived to the jungle. There we saw ”blue monkeys” and there we also had our lunch. This will be our last lunch on the mountain! After that we only had about 3h more walk to do before we reached the main entrance. The guides and the porters sang the ”Kilimanjaro-” and the ”Jambo”-songs for us, Thomas was filming.
Transport back to the ”Banana Jungle Lodge” for a shower and dinner. When we arrived to the lodge we got flowers from the personnel. The shower was one of the nicest showers I’ve ever taken in my life! Finally clean! Before the dinner we had a diploma cermoney. All the guides were on place and we all felt pity that Thomas never got a diploma. It was a nice dinner, BBQ, buffet everything was really good!
I’ve got some stomach problems now but not because of the dinner. It started already two days ago up on the mountain. It is common that on high altitudes the stomach goes ”funny”. Thomas is the same so I’m not alone.
Bedtime ”late” today at 21.30 (after I’ve called my girlfriend).
Thursday 2/10-03
Up long before the clock. It was pretty cold in the room. I guess
we are still quite high up so that is why it was cold. A cold shower was the
only thing that the hotel had to offer, brrr. Breakfast and packing and then
transport to Moshi, a town close by. After that lunch and further
transportation to the airport. We will land in
Friday 3/10-03
Everything went fine and Thomas drove all the way (we were
supposed to change but I was sleeping and he didn’t want to wake me up). On the
way back we bought
So far no malaria…
|
|
Last updated:
10/03-2006