Killing the Kili

It has been almost two months since we began our epic journey to the Kibo, the King of Kilimanjaro, and a life event that must be blogged about!

Summit Selfie

We landed in Kilimanjaro Airport where it was pouring out rain. The peak couldn't be seen from the plane because of all the clouds and it was so dreary and wet. Our driver from Popote was waiting for us at the airport and dropped us at our hotel where we organized all of our clothing and gear. The guides were going to meet us that evening to check our gear and then see if we needed anything else. We were given the super green light that we had everything very well prepared. We weren't sure about our sleeping bags as the recommended temp was lower than what we had, but our guide told us we could just rent the fleece liners and we would be fine. Everything else we had prepared well and were ready to go. We ate a super yummy dinner in the hotel because we didn't want to venture out in the rain.

All of our clothing gear for the trip!

They picked us up in the morning after a delicious hotel buffet breakfast and we were off to begin our journey. We had a three hour drive ahead of us, and trying to prepare for the altitude I was drinking tons of water like my dad always taught us when we would go skiing when we were kids! I knew we were stopping for the crew to have one big meal before we went.. but I was literally dying because I had to pee so bad. Joel and I also decided to take diamox during our climb. Diamox is a medication for glaucoma and a blood thinner, therefore allowing more oxgyen to circulate to the brain, or something like that. One side effect of the diamox is frequent urination... Bad combination trying to drink tons of water and the diamox, but this was a small annoyance that lasted the full trip. I have a really small bladder already, but this meant every single night of our trip I had to get out of the warm cozy sleeping bag to pee, and stop a million times on the trail to pee too!

The crew and us!

Anyways, the crews meal we were off. We stopped at some sort of National Park office where the crew had to have all of their items weighed and ensure that no one was carrying over 20 kgs (42 ish lbs) and other paperwork stuff.. We weren't really sure what was happening because we had our boxed lunch and a covered picnic table to relax at. They did ask us to carry some juice and bread for the day because they didn't have any weight left for them! The boxed lunch was had tons of food, a huge chicken leg, boiled eggs, butter sandwiches with the crust removed, some cakes, candies, juice box, and fruit. They were huge. It seemed like we were waiting there forever, probably because of all the excitement! After the other groups left, (there were maybe 4 other groups of people starting the same day as us on our particular route, Lemosho) it was finally time to head back into the mini bus to the trails starting point. Our crew mounted up all of their gear, Joel and I had our daypacks and off we went.

We got to know the meaning of Pole-Pole very quickly. That means slowly slowly and it is essential on Kilimanjaro, if you don't obey you will have a funny surprise of being unable to breathe easily! I was dying at first, the footsteps were literally smaller than the size of my tiny feet!! After this, all I could think about was how could we possibly reach the top in 7 days if we go this slow.. Though after a few mins Madrujga our guide started going a little quicker on the flat parts and only pole-pole on the uphills. It was a constant downpour. We were not using our walking sticks. I made the mistake of letting my hair get completely wet, not to mention, clothes, "waterproof" jackets, and cheap trash bag ponchos, and all the gear that felt like it did nothing to protect us in the rain... we were the ones kicking ourselves when we laughed at Madruga for bringing an umbrella... clearly we had it wrong! Each and every day Joel and I spoke about how thankful we were for our amazing solomon goretex hiking boots. They NEVER let in any water! Walking hours in the rain, through puddles, etc not a drop! They were incredible.

Made it to our first camp!

The first day was only about 3 hours hiking but we didn't start until around 1pm. We arrived at our first camp, signed in the log book and our tent was already set up and ready for us. The porters would always set off after us, but still arrive way before us! Joel and I tried to figure out a way to dry out the stuff without getting the tent wet, but it just seemed hopeless! Inside the tent we also had some water, our sleeping pads were wet too! The guides told us the weather was forecasted to be similar for the rest of the week. I was ready to quit and just go back down! haha just joking, but the thought def crossed my mind.

Snacks in our meal tent, popcorn and biscuits

We had a food tent just for us to eat.. Again, everything in the food tent, the chairs and inside of the tent dripping with water. At first we were trying to use a few napkins to dry the camping chairs... that was going no where as you can imagine... Once we sat down, I guess we dried them with our body heat? hahah who knows. Meals in our tent always had hot tea, ketchup, and hot sauce on the table milo, jam, and coffee available. Dinner always started with a soup. There were soo many different kinds, I was really impressed! Main course night 1 was fried fish. I enjoyed it but I am not a huge fish person so gave mine to Joel. There was also rice and veggies I believe. Despite my wet hair I was able to sleep comfortably. Joel wasn't able to sleep at first, and was constantly have a weird feeling in his stomach after dinner. A few hours after we went to sleep he threw up. Worried the guides would tell him he couldn't continue, he mopped the ground/dirt of the camp site so the guides wouldn't see it! hahah Joel also spotted two monkeys at the campsite in the morning, this was our only spotted wildlife for a few days! 

The next day was our longest day of actual walking I believe, and not feeling very well for breakfast time Joel just had a few bites of oatmeal and couldn't eat much else. The half of the climb was a bit of a challenge and the rest was quite easy. I am not sure why, but on this day the guide let me lead.. I guess my pace must have been okay or he would have taken over right? It was crazy to go from the rainforest to the next zone and see the transition of plants, etc. Just before we arrived at our Shira One camp for lunch time the rain stopped. We finally had some what of a view rather than what was directly in front of us. The sun shined through the clouds for a bit and Joel and I might have ever been happier in our entire lives! We were dancing our way to the camp, we had already spotted it and the sun felt amazing. The porters were getting tons of things out of their bags and our bags to dry them in the super intense sunshine. We also did the same, everything laid out with a rock to hold it down from the wind! Everything dried so quickly however, a big gust of wind came over, a dark cloud, and before you know it, it was raining hard. Because Joel wasn't feeling well I ran over to try to gather up our stuff as quickly as possible! Some of the porters helped me grab a few things and mostly they just had a few drops. Got lucky! We relaxed a bit longer before heading off for our destination of the day, Shira II camp. The rain had stopped again when we started walking but not long before it would strike us again. At Shira II we were treated with the most incredible sunset and our first clear viewing of the peak! Full 360 degree views of amazing beauty! 

Day 3 we hiked from Shira II, up an extra bit of altitude to train our bodies and visited the Lava Tower! It was a beautiful and incredible rock formation which seemed to be out of no where. This day really felt like we were walking so slow and to get to the next plant would take so long! The weather was nice so we decided to have our lunch at Lava Tower. There were a few little chipmunks up there (4600M) to steal our lunch scraps. Some people camp at Lava Tower. We continued on our way for the afternoon and sure enough our friend, the rain returned! We arrived at Barranco camp. We were wet, but able to warm up once we arrived at camp. Joel passed out with his tea in his hands! We another awesome sunset and clouds below. The dinner this night was my favorite! It was some sort of curry tasting thing, with a bunch of veggies, chick peas, naan bread, and every dinner had a soup. This night was pumpkin, and those who know me know that I LOVE anything pumpkin. I was so full. The guides were super happy that we hadn't lost our appetite and we had our first oxygen content reading. At first I got something like 20% and the normal range was supposed to be between 60-90... umm uh oh! Then the guides told me it was probably because my fingers were too cold! Warmed them up and I think I got like 85% and Joel was similar. We also had a briefing each night about what the next day would be like and what we should wear. I think they always exaggerated a bit on what to wear. It is chilly when you are just sitting and not doing anything, but once we started walking I would immediately burst out into sweat. Then you don't want to sweat too much because you will have cold sweats when stopping! Oh the drama! haha Joel was smart and didn't quite follow their guidelines but had extra clothes in his daypack if required. 

Just surviving

Lava Tower

Best Breakfast Ever!

 Anyways, apparently it was my turn for the night of tummy problems, because I suddenly woke up and didn't even have time to leave the tent to throw up. Luckily I read to bring lots of veggie bags to use as trash bags, so quickly grabbed one of those.Luckily it didn't have a hole in it :P.  After I threw up I felt okay again and fell back to sleep. The morning came and our breakfast was not a very pleasant one for the day after vomiting. I tried to eat as much millet porridge as possible, and a few bites of the crepes and donuts, but it wasn't cutting it. Our first part of the climb was the most technical of the entire journey and called the breakfast wall. That breakfast wall ain't easy without breakfast!! Joel was having the best time and I was just trying to put one foot forward to keep going without much energy to push me forward. I am sure I would have also loved it with a fuller belly! Anyways after we finally finished the breakfast wall I felt like I could stomach a granola bar. I laid out, arms and legs spread on the rocks, lots of passerby's checking that I was okay. After I had my little break we continued onward! 

Base Camp!

The hike to Barafu camp wasn't too long after the Breakfast wall, or I have no strong memories of it being slow. We arrived to Barafu and it started hailing! Barafu camp (Base Camp) is really interesting because you have so much going on. You have people coming down from their summit, others arriving, others doing random things! There were tons of people and tents coming and going. By the time we arrived, our hot lunch was ready! The cook made me a special ginger tea which they said would help resolve my tummy issues that were still nagging a bit. By ginger tea, I mean OMG was there 30 cm of sliced ginger in the teapot? Not sure but it was intense. But I added some sugar to try and help it go down, and drink as much as I could to try and heal myself for summit! After lunch, we were told to try to go back to sleep. Joel did so like a little baby! I read a book on my tablet for a bit and then eventually was able to fall asleep. I woke up at some point because the sun was shining down so intensively on our tent and decided to use the opportunity to take a baby wipes shower, full body! After not showering for so many days, I'm sure you can imagine how nice it must have felt... Oh and to be nude and super warm! I have no idea how Joel continued to sleep in his sleeping bag, I swear the temperature inside the tent must have jumped at least 20 degrees F/10C. And this came to a terrible end when I had to leave the fuzzy warm tent to go pee... damn you  hydration at elevation! 

We had an early dinner at Base camp so we could go back to sleep again. We had our briefing, we were to be up at 11, have a snack, and then hiking at 12.

Our tent at base camp.

So ready to kill the kili

I will leave the summit day and after summit day feelings here directly as I wrote them on my phone the next day!

Dickson helps me with all my layers. Water stop on our way up

[Wake up at 11pm for biscuits ( I should clarify, not American biscuits, like hard sugar cookies) and tea. Climb about 6 hours to reach the very top Uhuru peak just for the most perfect clear sunrise. Going up the hill, I felt mostly okay but had a few moments where I lacked motivation. My guide was very kind and because he wasn't carrying his pack he carried mine. This was fantastic and so helpful except that I didn't have easy access to my water. Breathing was so tough. When we first set off I was wearing mostly the same layers as I would to ski/snowboard but felt so hot and didn't want to sweat and have that turn cold later. I opened up all my jackets and took off my hat and continued. We saw lots of little lights which at the time look like ants crawling up the hill.. slowly but surely we passed up all of them but two guys. Not that going up Kili is a Race in any way but, it was kind of motivating. After about half way up I guess? My nose was constantly running and I had this huge dilemma.  Let my nose and snot freeze or cover up with the balaclava and feel like you can't breathe . In the very end I gave in to the balaclava.. I also had to use my very

Useful hot hands and hot feet, this helped tremendously however one was placed on the ball of my foot, so my freezing toes weren't getting much warmth. I tried as hard as I could to only look at the step in front of me and as we placed back and forth there was this massive 5200m Rock in the distance and the other side was Moshi town. The guides advised us that after the first steep hill the rest was gradual.. I dare to disagree, especially after seeing it in the day light. Sometimes I also counted to 100 many times and felt like every set always had some distraction where I lost exactly where I was. If it had been a while I also used those 100 steps to add some water stops. The guide was playing his 3 hour ish playlist that he had on for many days now of a mix of Tanzanian  music or reggae, with some random 90s love songs in between. The music was great despite already hearing it so many times, it helped distract me. But when Bob Marley came on, I so badly wanted to sing along but there is just no use losing oxygen to singing along. Same with talking, my mind was filled with questions I wanted to ask the guides but just never am able to expend my energy to use it on words.

Joel says he thinks he sees Stella point, and the guides confirm. I was so overwhelmed how had I walked 5.5 hours at a turtle crawl of a place and finally made it? It felt impossible but that was amazing news. We stopped only a few times for true one or two minute breaks because otherwise we would get too cold. We reach Stella point, drink water and continue on because it was still pitch dark and no use taking a picture when we would see it on the way back. From Stella point to Uhuru peak was mostly easy especially knowing we truly were almost there. A tiny sliver of orange lighted the sky above the clouds and the dark sky ( full of stars and half Moon) was disappearing. We reached Uhuru almost exactly at sunrise 610am ish and enjoyed the most spectacular and sights. The massive peaks around us, snow filled crater below us, huge glaciers what seems just meters away… Oh and again all above the clouds. Unfortunately our short time at the top I was also struggling with my nearly frozen toes and fingers and maybe the pictures don't show the truly amazing feeling of accomplishment and incredible beauty we just witnessed. After some photos, and a quick moment to soak it all in, it was time to go down on elevation. We were the only ones at the very top while we were there. As we left another crew was approaching.

WE DID IT!!!! /I am freezing!!

Best Sunrise of My Life.

Rebmen Glacier once covered the summit of Kili

Stella Point on the way back down (It was dark on the way up)

The challenging lava rock, sand, snow, ice descent

The rainy season started a bit early this year so we had a taste of it in so many ways. One of them is the descent is much harder because you have patches of ice, slush, boulders, volcanic rock, and a mix of those. During dry season we were told you could kind of slide down the volcanic rocks in two hours back to base camp. That wasn't going to work for us. We had many near falls and our guide actually took a huge belly slide fall behind us! After seeing the path in the daylight, whoa!!! I would have never expected that was what we had climbed in the night, it seemed easier in the dark. We arrived at base camp after a 3 hour down hill journey to be greeted by our 7 person crew singing some of their Kilimanjaro songs and cheering for us.  It was the next best thing since my family couldn't be there. We had a celebratory mango juice that tasted like absolute heaven. Joel and I were starving but told to take a one hour power nap and they would wake us up for lunch at 1030 before we would start our descent to mweka camp.

BEST Mango Juice in my life

Lunch was home made donuts, an omelet with some of last night's pasta, and corn soup. After that it was time to head to lower ground.

Just keep going down, thank god for those walking poles!

After already 3 hours of intense descent under our knees for the day, my knees were not very happy to continue for another 5. I was extremely grateful again for my guide taking my pack, and this had to be even tougher than the climb because we have already accomplished our goals. Now we are just trying to get down. It was raining on and off, I was hot and cold with the crazy Kili sun that shines on and off.. and then each big step down a big Boulder destroyed me.  

Dinner was lentils in some sort of red sauce/coconut milk with the biggest ball of rice you've ever seen. They fed us so much food, it's insane. ]

Last morning on Kili brushing my teeth in nature, Mweka Camp

Wow, even reading over it again brings back all sorts of mixed memories! The memories of being so far outside of your comfort zone you just want to call the helicopter to come and get you and give up, the feeling of accomplishment and wanting to cry tears of joy at the top but have no air to do so, and joy and happiness when we returned to base camp after our successful summit! It was like nothing else I have ever experienced before!

Our final morning, I tried to help my knees out as much as I could and taped them up with sports tape and also took some ibuprofen to try and fight the pain early on. After breakfast, they sang the Kilimanjaro song to us again. We would be singing this song the rest of our trip! It was always in our heads! The intense downhill from Mweka camp was again really tiring on the knees, I was so glad to have the walking poles but still was suffering. The last few kilometers were not as bad, and I loved walking through the rainforest again. We spotted some monkeys and a crazy looking yellow centipede!

Our last view of the Kili

If you don't have good insurance for the helicopter, you are going down in this thing!

YES! We did it :)

We signed out, got our climbing certificates, and were headed back to the Popote Africa Office. The atmosphere and attitudes of all of our crew was so jolly on the bus ride back home. We were picked up by the same bus, and the crew were all singing, dancing, drinking beer, it was so much fun!

As you can imagine, when we returned to the hotel, the shower was the most incredible shower of my life!! I didn't want to get out, but then remembered I was in Africa and there are often tankers filled with water to deliver water to people who don't have any! Anyways then it was off to explore Moshi town which was very cute. We found this random local place for lunch and had huge meals for 3 euros each! :O

Cost- We were super surprised looking online how much tour operators were charging for the climb but after the experience we understood the high cost a little better. The National Park fees alone are 86$/person. Then we had 11 staff for just the two of us! We did ask the operator to join with a group but we were going during low season and I guess no one else signed up to do it! Both airport transfers were included and all meals after we began the climb and nice accommodation before and after the climb included, with breakfast. Tipping was what threw off our calculations, we didn't know how many staff members there would be! So I  would definitely advise to try to find the closest estimate of the number of staff to you can know how much cash to bring! The ideal group size is 5, because there you can still have 2 guides, but any group smaller still needs 2 guides. I don't think changing the group size would change the number of porters after realizing they are carrying things like the tents for themselves, 2 tents for us, camping tables and chairs for us, a gas bottle, cooking supplies, food! 

Gear- We did buy a lot of our gear, because we figured we would need it again at some point. We rented gaters, which we found essential! With all of the rain, and dirt, and mud, it stopped any of that from entering the back of our boot as we trekked. They strap to the bottom of the boot and tighten just below the knee. We were also soooo soo in awe of our amazing boots. Despite all of the rain, neither of us had a single drop of water inside the boot! And at some point I stopped walking around the puddles because I realized the power of these boots! Thanks Solmon! We learned that our "rain gear" isn't quite 100% full on rain gear, and thermal gear is incredible! I have been wearing my thermal pants and shirt all the time since we returned! 

What a hike and absolutely worth every penny! :) 

Happy Trails and 2019 from Portugal! 

The highlight photo collection can be found here.