Mt Kilimanjaro: Arrival Day

The day finally arrives and off to the airport we go!! Time to bid our loved ones farewell and board the plan.

The excitement was electric - go Team Zodwa!!

The Team for Kilimanjaro: Kim Williams, Khabonina Legote, Rachel Meth, Celeste Bartley, Roy Summerton, Clinton Mccabe , Sean, Greg Hill

Song's of Kilimanjaro

The name Mt Kilimanjaro itself musters up feelings of great mystery and promises an African adventure .........

and what an adventure it certainly turned out to be!!

 
 

I must tell you that I hate flying!!! I would rather be swimming with deadly sea snakes than be stuck in a plane for several hours thinking of how my family would remember me when I plunged to my death.!!  Every bump and every creak I hear sends me into a panic.  I am sure if I was actually the pilot it was be just fine.  Being the control freak that I am and  allowing someone else to decide my fate was not my idea of having a good time.  I usually tell the air hostess that I am a Paramedic and if they have an emergency to call me. That usually makes me feel a little more in control and lastly I convince myself that if the pilot dies or gets shot I will be able to land the plane, after all I make life and death decisions everyday why would flying a plane be anymore difficult!  Just before we boarded the plane the rest of the party had organized some Hagemaster. I can't drink, half a glass of wine and I am shattered. This seemed a pretty good idea and it was decided that to calm my nerves I would muster up the courage to down one of these drinks. The warm liquid I had just gulped down, heated up my entire body and I am sure I experienced a premenopausal hot flush.

 

We flew from South Africa through to Kenya then finally to Mt Kilimanjaro International airport in Tanzania. We arrived in Kenya at 05h45 and had to wait for about 2 hours in the Nairobi  (Jomo Kenyatta International airport) to catch our interlinking plane to Tanzania, Kilimanjaro.  Our flight was to leave at 07h50 and our arrival time in Kenya was at 08h50. This is surprisingly a busy airport and we were grateful when our boarding announcement bellowed out over the loudspeaker and we made a mad dash to our plane.  I was lucky enough to have a window seat and once I looked out the window did not feel as lucky when I viewed the propellers. Oh crap we were flying in an antique plane, it had propellers. Where was that Hagemaster now!!!  The flight was only about 45 minutes thankfully.

 

  I hate flying - ok so I said that already - was in a sweat, even after the reassuring "thumbs up" from Clinton and Khabo's huge smile (this was her first time out of SA and first time flying!!)

The magical first sighting of the Queen of Africa!!!!!!

 

I was busy eating my breakfast when I spotted a mountain. I quickly opened the camera and started recording.  This was one huge mountain, I was telling my camera. “ I have eaten my muesli and yogurt and we are still going around this mountain. I have now drunk my coffee and we are still going around this mountain.” I had lamely mentioned when I had first spotted this mountain, that it does not look anything like to postcards (bloody tourist!!) nor the thousands of pictures I had sourced over the past 5 years of planning this trip. “This must be Mount Kenya, a huge mountain non the less and we would make a plan to come back and climb this one.” I reported with authority into my camera.   I sat back and chuckled to my self thinking as I wondered when Mt Kilimanjaro would come into view. I looked across the plane feeling that i was an expert on Kilimanjaro, I had studied the bloody mountain for the past 5 years I know what it looks like.  As a looked across the aisle and out the opposite window another mountain came into my view. It was then together with the pilot's conformation that I realized the mountain that I had said did not look like the postcards, and that I a cheekily mistakenly called Mt Kenya was indeed she!  The majestic Mt Kilimanjaro.  Global warming was indeed evident even this high up in the sky! Damn.  You need to understand that we were flying at about 500 km an hour in our propeller driven piece of metal and it took us almost 10 minutes to fly past this giant.  

 

We landed at Mt Kilimanjaro International airport and a slight drizzle and mist welcomed us. Looking at the vegetation at the airport one would be forgiven for thinking you where on the Natal South Coast. Many familiar plants I remember thriving in both my grandmother's and mother's gardens where thriving equally well in front of me.  Once inside the airport we were reminded that we were truly up in Africa.  Gone was glamour of OR Tambo and bustle of Nairobi airport.  On the other side of customs and security was our very friendly driver, who now whisked us up and out of the airport into his awaiting small bus.

During our preparation for "Kili" we were meet with very mixed reactions.  Some individuals went on to tell us that this is the easiest of all the mountains to climb, that physically handicapped, the elderly and even people in wheelchairs had summited. That it was basically a walk in the park.  Of course many of these people offering this professional advice had not actually climbed Kilimanjaro themselves!!!.  Speaking to a few of my buddies that had in fact climbed Kilimanjaro, they passionately reported back that this mountain is sadly and dangerously underestimated and best we be well prepared for battle against her and the elements.

 

What I was not prepared for was how aired and sparse the vegetation was. From all the pictures I was expecting more of a jungle not an almost desert like topography.  We seemed to drive quiet a distance along a very dusty road to our hotel.  We all snapped away with our cameras like real tourists. And in real tourist style we oohed and ah'd over the very sights and sounds we encounter in our daily lives back home, but somehow in another country they seemed just that more awesome. Tourists.

 

 

 

 

What is not always mentioned is that there is in fact several different routes to climb and summit Kilimanjaro, all with different gradings and difficulties. I have listed the 5 most popular one.

1.   The Marangu Route (Coca-cola route)  This is the most comfortable route of all, due to the fact that you will not have to camp in a tent at the end of each day. The distance covered on each day, except for the summit attempt, is shorter compared to the other routes. Three permanent hut installations accommodate hikers on this route.  The Marangu route can be done in a minimum of 5 days, however it is recommended that you used is as a 6 day route to allow more time to acclimatize. Due to the comfort up to the base camp at Kibo huts, this route (as already mentioned ) is also known as the Coca-cola route.

2.   Machame Route: this is the most scenic and interesting routes on the mountain.  On this route you will traverse up and down over river valleys on the southern slope. This increases the your body's ability to acclimatize more successfully. This route is normally recommended for people who will be experiencing high altitude for the first time. They recommend a minimum of 6 days, but if you want to increase your chances of success, then 7 days is prefered.  Accommodation on this route will be in tents.

3.   Lemosho Route:  This is a un spoilt, remote, beautiful route. It is not so frequently used way up to the Shira Plateau. This is one of the few routes where an armed ranger accompanies grous as the forest around the Lemosho Glades is rich in buffalo and other big game animals. Again accommodation is in tents and this route can be completed in 6 or more days.

4.   Rongai Route: this route begins on the northern side of Kilimanjaro, right on the Kenyan border. This is the least travelled route which may be due to the fact that it takes a long drive just to get to the starting point that is filled with fantastic views.  Once you have successfully summited you will descend via the Marangu route. This is completed usually in 6 or more days and again accommodation is in tents.

5.  Umbwe Route: this is known as the “steep way up” kilimanjaro.  This is because of the steep slopes that are climbed and hiked on the first couple of days.  The recommendation is that if you wish to be as crazy as us and want to punish your bodies, it is advisable to attempt this route once you have already been acclimatized due to the nature of the first couple of days of the route (something no-one told us beforehand – this we found out once we were already preparing for Mt Elbrus!!!). Some tours recommend hiking up Mount Meru, which is situated in the Arusha national Park prior to attempting the Umbwe route.  Like most of the other routes, accommodating is in tents.

 

Our driver informed us of all the sights and buildings giving us a glimpse of what life in Tanzania is like for the everyday folk.  The one thing that we never came across was a shack. All the homes are made of brick and mortar and all have the same style of architecture.  We soon left the outback and made our way into the 'city' center, a bustling hub of activity and vibrancy.  We even passed the Nelson Mandela Bank and we all wondered if our legendarily statesman knew about this.  All the taxis and min-buses all heavily decorated and adorned with personal touches of the drivers themselves.  The doors are left open to accommodate more passengers that seemed to stick to the taxi's exterior like geckos and the occupants don't look nearly as terrified as our taxi commuters back home.  

 

 

 

The driver asked why we had chosen to climb the Umbwe route, the most difficult with only a success rate of 65%. Well we had decided that we were firefighters and paramedics, we laugh in the face of danger, and push our bodies to the limit on a daily basis, what would make climbing Kilimanjaro any different. We fight the beast daily, sometimes we win and other times we loose, and the beast wins.  We wanted to rid our minds, our hearts and our souls of the souls we did not save, the times we could not make a difference, forget the faces of mothers when we told them their precious little ones where now in the arms of Jesus. This of course meant we chose the most difficult route the Umbwe route, we meaning I of course.  I have to confess on summit night this seemed a ridiculous decision and I could not for the life of me understand what on earth has possessed me to convince the team to summit via the Umbwe route, other than the beast himself!!  We decided that we had God and his mighty angels on our side, the beast could not touch us!

 

 

We made our way through two traffic circles one with a type of fountain, the other with a soldier ready to strike standing on a symbol “water for life”.  This we were told was the main street of Moshi.  We had passed several buildings. Schools, universities and the Kilimanjaro Christian hospital and very big and modern building with huge glass passages linking all the buildings together, this looked empty but we were told it was operational.  We passed several hotels and one, the Protea Hotel even had hot spas and massages. We continued and arrived at the Keys Hotel.  We were very warmly welcomed to the hotel and then once all our luggage had been brought to the reception desk did I realize that the 8 of us had indeed brought a large amount of luggage.  Booking in seemed simple enough, just a lot of writing. Once we had been given our keys it was off up an old wooden stair case, a long walk down the passage to our bedroom.  We were all a little weary and decided to shower before dinner and our briefing with our guides.

 

 

Fun and games as we await our fate!!!

after a delicious dinner and our briefing we made our way back upstairs and chaos then ensured!  

The team's first big hurdle was looking for a scale. We had been informed by our trusty tour operator that the maximum we could pack into our bags was 15 kg. We were now informed by the guides that we needed to have a max of 12 kg.  This was a disaster as our sleeping bags weighed in at a whopping 2,5 kg all by themselves. This of course meant that we needed to offload 7.5 kg of gear and clothing.  Most of the night was spent trying to pack and repack our bags and backpacks. This brought about its own hysteria not only amongst the four girls but the men as well.  Alas we could not be given the evil scale, as it was now nowhere to be found. We were very curtly informed by the head waiter at dinner why had we not followed up on the scale story. The office was now closed. We explained to him that we had asked for the evil scale when we checked in, twice during the afternoon, and during the briefing. Each time we were told  “ it is coming.”  We were all a little tied and stressed at this point and arguing with the aggressive head waiter was not an option so we just all stalked back into our rooms to repack once more.