We're Alive!!!!

Today is day 2 of our recovery. We are still incredibly fatigued (we should be sleeping right now!), and doing the duck walk cause our calf muscles are so tight and we have blisters are all over our feet. Apart from that.. climbing Kilimanjaro was an amazing experience (I can say this now that my body feels half-way back to normal) and one we'll never forget.

We conquered Gillman's Point- 5685 metres, on December 22 at approximately 6:30 am. Everyone in our group of 12 made it. Only 5 of 12 made it to Uhuru Peak (5896 metres) for various reasons- total exhaustion, altitude sickness. Uhuru Peak is on the opposite side of the crater rim, and although only ~200 metres higher in altitude, takes about 2 hours to get to. Sham and I realized that once we hit Gillman's, we were completely exhausted and didn't have enough energy/ food/ water (our camel backs froze half-way up) to continue another 2 hours to Uhuru (plus 2 hours back to Gillman's, plus 2 hours down to base camp, plus 3 hours to our next camp). So unfortunately we didn't make it to Uhuru. Maybe in a few years we'll try it again! (hahaha Sham is giving me a dirty look now)

I wanted to keep a log of what was going on day-to-day, but at the end of every day when we got to our new camp, I was too exhausted to pick up a pen, let alone put down some meaningful thoughts. So here goes, Sham's and my recollection of our 6-day trek up Kilimanjaro.

Day T-1.

Met the rest of our group of 12 that we'd spend the next 6 days eating, sleeping, walking (crawling), snoring, coughing, drinking swamp water, going to bathroom at all kinds of inopportune moments, and bonding with. Brett and Sharon (a.k.a. the Brits/ Army guy), Leslie, Merna, Tom, Dan, and Marc (a.k.a. the American Airforce), and Patrick and Hassup (a.k.a the Fins).

Transferred from Moivaro Lodge to Kibo Hotel where we'd spend our last night in a warm bed. Weighed our bags to make sure they were less than 15 kgs. They weren't. Sacrificed some hot packs, hot water bottles, some medicine... and were good to go (after breaking the scale.. oopsies).

Day 1.

Early morning buffet breakfast. Last bottle of o-so-good spring water, last taste of non-sandy food, and last flushable, sittable, CLEAN toilet.

Transferred to Rongai gate, approximately 3-4 hours by a rocky dirt road. Ate our boxed lunch (somewhat edible), and met our guides, Fraterin, G, Robson, and Charles. Put on our backpacks and adjusted our walking poles, and off we went.

Trekked 3-4 hours through farm land, and forest. Saw some black and white monkeys. When we got to the campsite, all the tents were already setup, and popcorn and tea/ milo/ hot chocolate was served in the mess tent. mmmm popcorn...

This was our first night out under the stars..and as romantic as that sounds..it gets old really really fast when the cold starts to freeze your :) First off we were on some pills called Diamox that help you deal with Altitude Sickness, but are also a Diaheuretic. Secondly we had been drinking roughly 3 litres of Water each to maintain hydration. The combo made us have to go to the bathroom at least 5 times the first night..and getting out of a tent into very chilly air to walk over 100 feet to the Hole in the ground (and making sure not to step on the swarm of biting ants) is a bit unnerving..the good news is that this was the warmest night we would see for the next 6 days!!!

Overall effort: leisurely stroll
Elevation gained: 750 metres (1950 to 2700m above sea level)

Day 2.

Waking up in the cold is difficult..but the guides usually wake us up to check that we're all ok and then bring hot tea to our tents allowing us 30mins to wake up. Then they bring the warm water to wash and give us 30mins to pack everything. After that we have breakfast where the ritual of getting our Platypus bags and water bottles filled with boiled stream water (swamp water as we all lovingly called it). By this time the porters had put down all the tents and were packing our Big Bags for the climb.

Travel Fact :
On this trip we had 3 porters per person. Basically to carry our 15kg bag, tents and food. That's a big team! And these guys are incredible.. they always start the climb later than us, and beat us by a mile to the campsite. Usually everything is setup by the time we get to the campsite.

Breakfast consisted of porridge, swamp tea, swamp Milo or hot chocolate, fruit, eggs bacon, and toast with margarine/ jam/ peanut butter. Once breakfast was complete we started our 7 hour hike. This time the walk was much more difficult and involved a very steep incline. We walked 4 hours at a very very slow pace, the local term for Slowly Slowly is Pole Pole (Pole-eh, pole-eh)..we hated this term by the end of the trip..it's like a mantra out here!

After 4 hours in the cooling weather we hit our lunch spot. Hot lunch was varied every day and was surprisingly good considering we were hiking a mountain! :). Another 3 hours of tough hiking and we got to our second camp spot called Kikewellwa. This was a cold night..freezing..and the Diamox water combo was still going. OK for those of you squeemish ones you may want to skip the next bit.

OK so one of the things that really was difficult was doing the good old Number 2 (Long Haul as it is known here) in the stinky Kaibo..I had held out a whole day but wasn't able to this day...well let's say this was the thing that caused many of us a lot of stress...and became common camp conversation...anyway, we're all experts now.. be it at the Kaibo, behind a rock, at 3am in the bloody morning (when it's freezing freezing cold and you have 4 layers of clothing on top and bottom and a hot pack stuffed down your shirt!), or on the final ascent path up to the top.. :)

Overall effort: Intense Long Inclined Hike
Elevation gained: 900 metres (2700 to 3500m above sea level)

Day 3.

Same deal for breakfast but a relatively short but intense hike. The air was noticeably harder to breath and some people started feeling the effects of the altitude. Which included intermitent tingling of the extremeties and pressure headaches. Mel and I thankfully were ok this day (for the most part anyways!). This was a beautiful hike but extremely difficult due to the body needing to get used to the lack of oxygen.

By 1pm we were at a place called Mawenzi which was a beautiful spot. After lunch we all hiked up ~100 meters for an hour to get acclimatized and then came back down to rest for dinner. The jackets and fleece were out for the day...the night was the coldest I have ever experienced outdoors. We both froze that night, the frost was all over the tent, water bottles froze, and on top of that, we ended up with a tent that couldn't fully zip up which just added to the problem.

We must mention here that this place had the outhouse with the best view. No door. Just you doing your thing while enjoying the view over the cliff.

Overall effort: Intense Inclined Hike
Elevation gained: 750 metres (3500m to 4330m above sea level)

Day 4.

We were incredibly tired and cold by this day. Sham's fingers and toes were intermitently tingling (feels like when your foot falls asleep and then finally you get some blood to it.. i.e. pins and needles). We were also losing our appetites and had to force ourselves to keep eating and drinking the disgusting iodine treated swamp water. Today's hike was supposed to be relativley simple and flat, with a gain of only 370 meters to the base camp at Kibo Hut. The hike took place across the Saddle of Kilimajaro which made us feel like we were walking on the Moon or Mars.. very surreal. Unfortunately we both found this long flat hike quite difficult. Mostly due to the lack of oxygen and higher degree of cold. Also, it was very windy across the saddle. The hike took 6 hours and by the end of it we were completley exhausted. We got in around 1:30pm, and started to mentally prepare for the final ascent that night, starting at midnight. Exhausted and cold we took a nap..only to be woken up for lunch which was not so impressive ...back to bed and woken up at 5pm for a briefing on the climb that night. Some more soup and some other stuff and back to bed!

Overall effort: Intense Long Hike
Elevation gained: 370 metres (4330 to 4700m above sea level)

Day 5
.. begins at midnight. We were woken up to prepare for the ascent... it was so cold (although warmer than Night 3).. but not cold enough to hide the smell of the bathrooms. There were many people here and not just our group as this is the convergence point for the Marangu and Rongai trails heading up for the final ascent.

Anyway, we get our boiled swamp water. This time we added Gatorade which masked the iodine taste and would lower the freezing point of the water. Everyone was trying to eat as much as possible.. this is incredibly difficult when you have no sense of hunger. Anyway, around 12:30 we were lined up and started our Pole Pole walk.

If anyone could have conveyed to us how hard this was, maybe we wouldn't have gone. We both felt this was the most difficult physical thing we had ever done. 6.5 hour hike, straight up with no oxygen in -5 (plus windchill weather). Many of us lost feeling in our toes and fingers, were always short of breath, would over heat, get too cold, thirsty, run out of energy, etc.. Somewhere mid way our primary source of water (Camel Backs) froze, Mel was smart and ate Power Gels at every break (which was every 10 steps), I couldn't stomach anything. We call what we did that night the Zombie Walk, and it was the only way you could make it up. Just keep your mind focussed, and walk...when you're not thinking about walking it goes faster. There were many points where I thought I would just turn around..but Mel had a determination and we just kept walking. My biggest mistake was asking how far to go when I was the most tired..the answer was a resounding at least 3.5 hours...a death sentence, when you are freezing, thirsty, way past the term known as fatigue... That may have been the hardest moment. Once up at Gillman's we both realized there was no way we could make Uhuru this time :(

Anyway, when you're at the top you are completely and utterly exhausted..and there is still another 2.5 hours down to Kibo, and then after that, a few hours to complete a 10k hike to the next camp site... It was almost impossible contemplating walking another 10km by the time we got back down to Kibo (around 9:30am). I was exhausted and passed out with a little bit of fever. Mel was still on her adreneline rush but came back to earth shortly after. Once everyone was back down we started off to Horombo Camp Site 10km away. In total, it ended up being 15 hours of walking and summiting...RE-DIC-U-LUS.

One big surprise: we found Coca Cola (and beer) at the camp site! The group bought a ton at a pricey rate..but hey..it was Coke and beer!

Overall effort: Almost impossible ascent and then long hike
Elevation gained: ~1000 metres (4700 to 5686m above sea level, and then back down to 3720m at Horombo)

Day 6
Basically usual routine, except much more tired.

6 hour lesiurely (but painful as the blisters piled up) hike down to the gate... and much celebration that night at Kibo with everyone.

This post hasn't fully done justice to the trip. There were many stories to tell.. we'll try to tell them all soon!

Picture Descriptions:
1. Our certificates
2. Pepe posing on Mawenzi with Kili's peak in the background
3. Sham and one of many outhouses
4. Night 2 campsite
5. Sham on the saddle with Kili's peak in the background(day 4)
6. View from Gillman's Point (on crater rim)
7. Sign at Gillman's Point
8. Mel with Fraterin (lead guide), and Robson (our wonderful guide who sang to us all the way up the mountain to keep us going, and carried our bags down the mountain!)
9. Us at Gillman's
10. Group photo at Kibo Hotel after final descent
11. Our friends (a.k.a American Airforce crew) at Ngordoto Mountain Lodge Hotel on Christmas Eve (good times!)
12. The Real Santa Claus at Ngordoto