From the itinerary:

Day 5:  KARANGA CAMP to BARAFU CAMP
15,300’ ~ 4663m ? 2.2 mi~3.5 km ? 4-5 hrs
Today we take a slow pace to Barafu Camp from Barafu you will have excellent views of Kibo and Mawenzi peaks. Barufu Camp is situated on an exposed ridge, so it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the terrain before dark. We continue to acclimatize, rest, relax and make necessary preparation for the summit day ahead.

Tofday is the day before we summit! Which means when we go to bed tonight, we’ll getting up just a few hours later so we can make the ascent in time for sunrise at the top. So today is a relatively easy day, really.

It’s also a really rocky day.  Going through my photos, there are tons of photos just of rocks.  And more rocks.  And then the sky and clouds and stuff, but then also of rocks.  That’s accurate though- I definitely remember the rocks.  Seems like valley after valley we walked through, each one…  rocky.  I’ve got nothing to say.

Handmade checkerboard.

Eventually we get to Barafu camp, where we sign in.  We elect to go stay at a camp another hour up the mountain in order to make the next day as easy as possible.  Because it’s not going to be easy.  At all.  But today is.  Even with the extra hike to the further camp, we get in in time for lunch.   So we eat it.  Then we lounge around- it’s a warm day, thankfully- and get psyched for that night.

Eventually night comes and with it dinner.  The original plan was for us to be woken up around midnight or 1 to start our night time hike.  Unfortunately, our guide decided that that wasn’t a great idea.  Basically, over the previous days we had proven to be a really fantastic, fun, affable, charming, attractive, patriotic, magnanimous, elegant, beatific, and regal group.  BUT we had not proven to be a fast group.  Nor a quick group.  Nor a speedy group.  In fact, along with all the great things that our group *was*, we were also a SLOOOOOOOOOW group.  That’s fine- pole pole after all- but apparently we took it a little too seriously.

The point is that our guide thought that even if we left at midnight, and even with the hour we saved by hiking to the Barafu high camp rather than staying low, we still didn’t have much of a chance of making it to the summit for sunrise.  As a result, he thought it would be best for us to leave around 4 (still plenty early), but that way we’d get extra sleep and would spend less time walking in the cold cold, dark dark.

It was a little disappointing, frankly, but the guide was surely right, and it would have been pretty annoying to wake up that early and hike that coldly and darkly and then have sunrise happen when we were in the worst part of the slog to the summit.   So, you know, no big deal.  We go to bed around 9 or so and dream, briefly.  Tomorrow we’ll be on the roof of Africa, and that will be amazing, regardless of the relative position of the sun.

From the itinerary:

Day 4:  BARRANCO to KARANGA CAMP
13100’ ~ 3992m ? 2.2 mi~3.2 km ? 4-5 hrs
Today the group conquers the great Barranco Valley and up the Barranco wall, and adventuourse [sick!!!] stretch that ushers us into the arctic zone of Kili.  We continue the trek on the South Circuit path through the Karanga Valley. We camp tonight at Karanga Camp.

You guys, I cannot get over how much I love having coffee delivered to me when I wake up.  It’s so great.

Like the description says, today we conquer Barranco wall.  Which is, you know, really pretty much just a wall.  This was the most fun hiking of the trip, I thought.  Lot’s of climbing, carefully picking out handholds, etc.  Okay that makes it sound like it was some technical thing, but it wasn’t just walking.  Really fun.  Kinda slow going, and seems like everyone hiking that day left at the same time, so it was a bit trafficky, but it was really pretty fun.  As you’re going up, you keep thinking you’ve reached teh top, only to get there and see it goes up.  Then that feeling repeats, maybe four times.  But fun fun fun.

Oh, i forgot. Before we get to the wall, we have to go through a little valley and cross a little river. Which, for the sake of the title of this post, we’ll call the Barranco river, though really it was barely a creek.

After we climbed the wall, we walked down, down, down.  I think this was one of those days where we went up like 2,000 feet in the morning and then spent the rest of the day going down.  Went through long, rocky valley one after another it seemed.   At this point, there’s really little vegetation- little shrubby things but kinda dispersed, and nothing you couldn’t see over.  Feels like Iceland, actually.

Texting man, the moon, Venus.

Since the next couple days involve a lot of altitude, we get schooled on the portable hyperbaric chamber that they bring along.  It looks cool, but I reckon it would be pretty boring to actually have to use.  I wasn’t totally paying attention though, cause the meeting they called to discuss the chamber was right in the middle of a really gorgeous sunset, which I took about a thousand pictures of..  Thankfully, my lack of paid attention didn’t cause any problems- our guide continued his 10+year career without having a need for it.

Cool.

From the itinerary:

Day 3:  SHIRA CAMP to BARRANCO CAMP
13,000’ ~ 3962m ? 5.6 mi~10 km? 6-8 hrs
Today you depart Shira Camp in the morning taking the path which rises up gradually towards the Kibo peak, as we continue, our direction changes to the southeast towards the Lava Tower, also known as the “Shark’s Tooth.”  Shortly after the tower we continue down to the Barranco Camp at an altitude of 13,000ft~ 3962m.  Dinner and overnight stay at Barranco Camp.

Today we walked some more.  Kind of a long day, but great.  I don’t have any specific memories, really.  The lava tower (where we lunched) was great.  I spent some time climbing on it and took a toooon of photos of a little mouse/chipmunk looking thing that I found.  I only published one, because obviously, but it was pretty fun.  He was actually there with a buddy, but I was never able to get a photo of both of them together.

The Lava Tower itself was cool.  I mean, it was just as it sounds- a big tower of lava.  Would have been cool to have been there when it was formed.  But then I wouldn’t have internet access, I reckon.

Lava tower, dining tent.

At one point, I found a broken floor tile.  That was pretty cool.  And we walked by a face of the mountain- I think the Western face, or Western something, that you can also use for summiting, but it’s a technical climb that requires ropes and stuff.   But it’s fun fantasizing that maybe I could do it.  Anyhoo, here are some pictures.

From the tour itinerary:

Day 2: MACHAME CAMP to SHIRA CAMP
12500’ ~3810m ? 2.8 mi~5 km ? 4-6 hours
After breakfast, we leave the glades of the rain forest and continue on an ascending path, crossing the little valley walking along a steep rocky ridge, entering in the moorland zone covered with heather, until the ridge ends. The route now turns west onto a dry river gorge. We reach our camp in time for rest, dinner, and overnight at the Shira Camp.

?The best part of waking up?

Climbing Kilimanjaro with a team of porters and guides is pretty awesome. Having folks carry all your stuff is great. BUT the best part- the part I wouldn’t trade for any other part- is being woken up at 6am by one of the porters offering you coffee or tea. I would carry all my stuff myself, I would cook for myself, I’d even try to do the thing without a guide (not that they’d let me) if otherwise it meant I wouldn’t get the coffee. Because being woken up with a hot cup of coffee is awesome.

Um. So after that everything’s basically a blur. It’s our first trail breakfast, so that’s kind of exciting. I don’t know if all vegetarians feel this wway, but breakfast is usually the easiest meal to eat when travelling abroad. A lot of folks seems to agree that some variation of bread+egg+fruit is a good way to start the day. And the team cooking for us apparently agreed. We also would get porridge most mornings, which is great. Millet for breakfast? Yes please. Incidentally, we didn’t get millet until one of the last days, but now I know I love it.

After brekkie, we pack up our bags, which are carted off by the porters pretty soon after. Then we leave. Well, then we stand around taking pictures of the white-necked ravens that populate pretty much the entire mountain cause at this point they’re still extremely interesting. That fades, eventually. But I took a lot of bird photos that morning.

Nevermore.

So then we start walking. Up for awhile, and then kinda over a bit, then up, and then over. There wsa a little bit of down after that, followed by another bit of up. Alternatively, I don’t remember all the details, but that still sounds pretty accurate.

We stop sometime in the middle of the day to have lunch- the tent is all set up for us.  I always enjoyed eating in the tent, but I often wondered whether it wouldn’t be so much easier to just set down on a rock rather than have those dude have to set the whole thing up.  Oh: a fun thing I picked up from the Oklahomans: saying sit like set. Oh I just realized that sit/set are an accusative/unaccusative pair like fell/fall.  Cool!..  I mean, right?

After lunch, the trail got pretty fun- steep, but not super steep, and not just a slog kind of steep, but walking on rocks and a bit of scrambling.  And very pretty.  We pass by some caves- the Shira Caves.  Alas, that’s all I really remember.  Shira camp was cool.  I practiced drawing (see below).  I’m still terrible at it.

Loading the truck.

From the tour itinerary:

Day 1: MACHAME GATE to MACHAME CAMP
9,400’ ~2865m ? 6.8 mi ? 5-7 hrs
After a restful night and an enjoyable breakfast at the hotel, you will be met by your Climb Kili guide and other mountain crew where we will transfer you from the hotel to the Machame Gate. We now leave the park gate and walk through the rain forest on a winding trail up a ridge. Lower down, the trail can be muddy and slippery. Gaiters and trekking poles are a good idea here. At Machame Camp your tent will be set up and personal belongings will be ready for you as well as dinner.

So! It’s finally here. Wake up, breakfast, struggle and mostly fail to remember names from the night before. Then we pile into a big Landcruiser looking thing and head off. After a couple hours we’re there, at Machame gate, where the adventure begins. Well, where a lot of standing and waiting begins. And we all signed in at a little window, which was kinda fun, though required everyone to rummage around their packs to find their passport numbers, which are seemingly impossible to memorize. Then we eat a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Somehow, 17 grown men split a single jar of peanut butter. They weren’t large sandwiches.

No pushing.

After lunch, we meet all the other guides.And then we start to walk! At this point, we’re in a pretty jungly area. The trail is really wide, and everybody is pretty excited, but we’re going slow. The refrain we’re always told and tell each other is pole pole– “slow, slow.” We’re not to tire ourselves out. We go slowly. It’s for the best. I agree.

So we walk and walk and then we come to a clearing and we get our first glimpse of the mountain we’re supposedly climbing. It looks impossibly far away, and my budget camera can barely even register it, but it’s there. And we’re excited and we take a ton of pictures. A few minutes walking later we’re at our camp for the night, where we’re greeted by our porters. There’s approximately 3 porters/dude, but one dude in particular will always be carrying your stuff ahead of you every day.

First view of the mountain. You can just barely see it.

Mine’s name was Veus. He was great- not just cause he carried my stuff for me, which is obviously great, but he always found me when I showed up at the camp at the end of the day’s hike and enthusiastically showed me to the tent where he’d put my stuff. He was about 5’6″ and 120 pounds, maybe 20? And every day he would carry my stuff for me, leaving me with just a small backpack filled with water and rain gear.

We ate dinner in our mess tent, which is a big orange and white dome thing that you’ll see a lot of in these photos. Then we went to bed, where I discovered my sleeping bag wasn’t quite up to the task. Whoops.

OKAY!

So first thing we wake up and have another great breakfast. Cool. Then the first dude in our party is there! He apparently showed up the night before with his son! Alas, not with his son’s baggage, but you take what you can get. So: hooray! We aren’t alone anymore. Still no word on the rest of our group. Or maybe word, but still no sight of them.

Mechanics.

Today the plan is to go see the Meru village and some waterfall. As it turns out, we linger too long at the Meru village and we don’t get to see the waterfall, though we’re suspicious about whether the waterfall was really ever part of the plan. Kind of a bait-and-switch from the touring outfit we signed up with. Turns out the bait-and-switch is their signature move. BUT I’m not here to complain.

The Meru village didn’t seem like a village village, but it’s kind of hard to say what we were really seeing, other than a tourist attraction showcasing their lifestyle.  It’s kind of an odd experience, I think, but a pleasant one and one I’m glad to have had.  We sat down for some delish tea, then they took us on a tour of their biofuel plant. Which was two cows in a stall, eating banana tree bits (I think) and sweeping their by-product into a tank where the methane was siphoned off and sent directly into the kitchen. Way cheaper than piping natural gas everywhere way cooler than just buying a propane tank or whatever.  Plus cows are cute.

When the flame is yellow, you need to clean the filter.

We also got to walk through a coffee plantation, but not a massive one like I imagined sprawling for miles and miles, but  like a little coffee grove, growing under banana trees- just one family’s plot. Apparently everyone’s got coffee plants they take care of and harvest and sell to a co-op. The men in the family are responsible for the coffee, the women for the bananas. Seems fine to me, as I love coffee and am ambivalent about bananas.

After walking around a bit and see other stuff they do at the village, like make furniture and dig for rocks mine minerals. (Dumb realization of the moment: mine and mineral are probably etymologically related.) Then we got to make coffee! We didn’t dry the berries, cause that takes time, but we husked them and sifted them and roasted them and ground them and (finally) drank them. Alas, it wasn’t good, but I suspect it’s cause they put a bunch of amateurs in charge of the roasting. The coffee I ultimately bought from them was pretty tasty when I made it at home.

Post Meru village, we drove to another market but decided to just take photos from the van, as saying “No thank you” over and over is tiring and makes you feel bad, I guess. So we went back to the hotel, where the rest of our posse had arrived. They basically had every flight issue you could have, and got rerouted through Nairobi, lost a ton of luggage, etc, but they were there and the luggage would get to teh hotel in time for our departure the next day. That night we had a planning meeting met our head guide (Raymond), ate a crazy overpriced dinner (even by American standards), and repacked our bags for the final time.

Arusha city.

First time waking up in Africa proved to be uneventful, just like we like it. Breakfast at the hotel was delicious. The staff said “You’re welcome” frequently- the way we might say “Bon Apetit” or “here you go” or whatever- not just as a response to “Thank You.” Which was honestly kinda jarring at first, cause it felt like they were always preempting our thanking them, or subtly reminding us that we should be thanking them or something. Eventually we figured out that it was just what they said, but even at the end of the trip, unexpected “you’re welcomes” still caught me off guard.

Yes, you come to the blog to hear what I think about you’re welcome.  Point is, breakfast was good.

We didn’t know how tired we’d be, so we wanted time to acclimate or something, but basically we didn’t have anything to do this day, but all the energy that comes with being in a new place for the first time.  Our contact in Tanzania offered to make arrangements for us to explore the city of Arusha and the cultural center/art museum/cash-extraction-center a little bit, which we did. We saw the market, ate at an American-friendly restaurant filled with wifi-addicted tourists, and spend a looooot of time t-shirt shopping. (I got one with the pretty handsome Tanzanian flag on it, because i like t-shirts that announce my vacations.)

Beans, yogurt. Even a Spanish omlet (not pictures.)

There was still no sign of anyone from our group. And no internet at the hotel, so we’re just kinda hanging out, wondering where everyone is. But there’s food at hot water, and that’s really all I ask. Ever.

You guys.  I’m in Africa.

Tanzania, in particular.  Which I always kinda wanted to rhyme with Tasmania, but it doesn’t.  Unless you are the Dutch pilot I had today, who pronounced it the typical way when he was speaking Dutch. But when he spoke English, it did rhyme with the land of canis-looking marsupial.  But what?  I’m in Africa.

Also in the southern hemisphere, but I’ve been here before, here understood broadly.

I had a pleasant flight to Amsterdam, where I met my dad and our (well, his, I suppose, but Tom’s cool, so our) Tom. We had coffee and, after 12 minutes (according to Tom) began talking about politics. The flight to Kilimanjaro airport was fine, border control was fine. The ride from the airport was super dark and a little frightening, thanks to Gideon the thrill seeking driver.  Food was delicious.  Hotel wasn’t what nor where we expected, and the hot water blasted out through a broken valve rather than the shower head, but it had beds, so it was wonderful.

We’re the first to arrive. Two other fellas were supposed to arrive with us, or near us, or something, but they didn’t show up. Rest of the group will show up tomorrow.