Kilimanjaro – Day 1

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

Whilst on the mountain, I kept a journal of our daily progress and the things we saw and did on the trip. I’ve transcribed the journal onto this blog and added some pictures to help illustrate our journey. I apologise in advance for any errors it may contain, especially about summit night, as the cold and exhaustion may have affected my memory of events.

I have also included a verse from Longfellow’s poem, “The Ladder of St. Augustine” at the start of each day. I had a copy of this poem at the front of my journal and I read it each evening. It helped me along the way. Some of its verses are more appropriate than others, so my apologies if I’ve had to “shoehorn” some of them in.

We arrived yesterday and after a long drive from the airport to our safari lodge in Arusha we spent the rest of the evening getting to know our fellow travellers. They seem like a nice crowd, from all over the UK, well the 10 men are, the two women in our group (Jennifer & Arwen) are from Sweden and the Netherlands respectively.

The lodge looks beautiful, and it is, especially for Tanzania, but there are one or two teething troubles with it. The showers in our cottages don’t work, or rather, they do but very poorly, and the frame holding up the mosquito net on our bed collapses when I try to pull the net down over me that first night. And the TV in the snack bar on which we watch Liverpool beating Man United again, is a tiny portable, and the waitress is nowhere to be seen, so the beer is flowing… slowly. Ah well, we can’t have everything.

We had our briefing from Paulo (the exodus rep) and Jennifer & I were given our sleeping bags we had hired for the trip! They are huge! They are going to take up half our pack! Straight back to the rooms to spend the rest of the night re-packing my pack to try to fit it in. It’s a struggle but after a few hours and a good few curses I managed to close the bag, but not sure how I managed it, nor how I will manage it out in the field, its making me feel stressed already – I’ve had to leave behind some of the kit I’d specifically bought for the trip but they are too bulky now the sleeping bag is in.

Jennifer fits her bag in no problem, and she’s got even more clothes than I have.

This morning after breakfast, I finally catch up with Paulo, who is more difficult to get hold of than a difficult to get hold of thing. I told him my concerns about the sleeping bag situation and he just told me to leave the bag on the outside of the pack and the porters will put them in their bags – wish he’d told me this last night, but he’s not the best communicator in the world, except yesterday when he told us all to tip the driver $2 each for the trip from the airport, so $24 for a trip we’d already paid for….seemed high, especially at the end of the trip when we were tipping the porters less than that for 8 days work – maybe the driver is Paulo’s cousin?

Jennifer decides to leave her walking poles, but then changes her mind at the last minute when she sees everybody else has them, she’s just got enough time to get them out of her case before we get onto the 4×4’s.

As we step out into the forecourt we see before us a wonderfully shiny new 4×4 that looks like its just come out of the showroom, it’s a huge extended safari vehicle and we feel spoilt already… until we find out that our vehicle is the battered old landrover hidden behind it…Ah well, we’re only in it for an hour or two.

Me and Jennifer and Carl & Simon pile into the landrover, the others are split between the other two cars.

It starts raining as we set off, and even in the rain, it’s the colourful dress and cheery nature of the locals that really grabs your attention. A group of schoolkids wave to us and chorus “HELLOOOO” with big smiley faces from the cover of a local shop veranda. About half of the buildings seem to be made of wood and mud.

Driving through Arusha and then Moshi there is so much to see at the roadside. From the banana or maize plantations lining the main road, to the people in their wonderfully bright clothing, to the goats and cattle being herded along the verges between the road and the plantations.

At Moshi Joseph our driver pulls over at a local supermarket and asks if anyone wants the loo, Jennifer does so she rushes in. The rain has stopped for the moment so we stretch our legs as Joseph tries to convince us to buy water or chocolate from the supermarket. Its obvious that he has a deal with them to bring his charges here, but we don’t mind, he’s a lovely bloke.

One of the other two 4×4’s pulls in and the lads jog to the loo, where Jennifer meets them as they are standing at the urinals as she’s had to use the men’s toilet as the women’s was broken. She comes out laughing, at the situation rather than what she saw… probably.

The are a lot of steel and wooden carts with bicycle wheels being pushed along the side of the road, it seems the cheapest way of transporting goods to and from market, and there are a lot of bicycles, overladen with goods, or even friends, also sharing the road with the cars, carts and pedestrians.

Midway through Moshi we turn left off the main road and start heading towards Londorossi gate over on the west side of Kilimanjaro. We leave behind the shops and hurley-burley of the main road and almost immediately it becomes a quieter place, but still with schoolkids and cattle lining the road.

The road starts to rise and soon the tarmac runs out and the road gets bumpy, but not too bad, which is why we are surprised to see one of the 4×4’s pulled over with a puncture. It gives us another change to stretch out legs and to test our cameras as they work together to try to change the tyre.

We’re off again and as we continue to rise the rains come back, the landrovers old tiny windscreen wipers are working overtime…. until one falls off and Joseph has to stop and recover it. He’ll fix it later.

Almost by the gate we come across a group of baboons, some big ones in a field and some smaller ones at the road side. They pretend to be oblivious to us, but you can tell they are watching us.

Finally about two hours after leaving the lodge we arrive at Londorossi gate at 2,250m. It’s in the middle of nowhere, a small ranger station at the edge of the national park, nothing like the other gates I’d heard about full of people selling their wares, you can’t even buy a coca cola here. Other than ourselves and the rangers, the only other people here are a few other climbers and a host of porters, all waiting to head out with to the start point.

We signed in at the gate, and as we are there we check out some of the other names in the book. We saw the details of the recent Abramovich party and we also saw the Comic Relief team page from earlier in the year.

Then we were off on our big adventure… and cheating massively by using the 4×4 to take us up to our start point. This road was part of the evacuation route for the Shira plateau… well I say road, it was more of a rutted mud track especially in this rain and poor Simon who had already been pinging his head against the roof of the 4×4 sitting in the back was having to hold on to stop a Simon-shaped dome appearing in the landrover roof.

Finally we arrived at the start of our walk, the Shira Plateau. Its organised chaos with porters all standing around waiting to be told what to do. There are two parties here, our own and a smaller group of (we think) four.

The rain is still coming down and our Exodus packs are sitting in the open getting wet and I’m so glad we put our gear inside drybags inside the packs. We have something to eat and we tip Joseph $10 for getting us up there safely, although this time we really feel this driver has earned it!

There is a small lull in the rain and I run out to get some shots of the porters, but I soon realise that we are at around 3,350m when I feel all light headed from moving too quickly. Pole Pole!

We finally get the signal that we are moving out, and as we put our raingear on, the first porters start to move off. The terrain appears easy as this part of the plateau is relatively flat, however the track is submerged in rainwater and we are trying to find a drier (less wet) path on either side of the main track. We also have to keep stopping to let more porters through.

Although we are going slowly and the going is relatively flat, I am finding it really hard going, especially when we cross the rivers that have cut channels about 3 to 5 meters deep into the plain. Getting up out of those little gullies is easy but it takes my breathe away and I have to stop just to get it back. No body else seems to be suffering and I feel embarrassed.

We have to cross about three or four of these river beds and I dread each one as I feel self-concious at having to stop to catch my breath when others appear to be finding it so easy. Its just a short easy climb out of the gullies but it feels like I am climbing up the steep paths to the Arch Allagen plantation on my mountain bike.

There is one more gully to cross and then we are at our camp, Shira 1 (3,550m). It hasn’t been a long walk but it taken us two hours to get there and I’m pleased we are finally stopping for the day.

Our tents are set up and we are allocated tent 36, which will be our tent for the trip. We put our gear inside and climb in out of the rain. Its surprising warm inside the tent, especially when the double doors are zipped up. There is a little porch area in the front and back of the tent, which we use to hang up our wet gear, hopefully it will dry before we need it next.

Went into the mess tent and had a good laugh with the team, the food and company was excellent even if the weather wasn’t.

It gets dark at 6.30pm, so after dinner we just headed straight to bed, tried not to talk too loud as we can hear everyone else talking! Its still raining and its rattling off the tent all night.

Kilimanjaro – Day 2

We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

A wonderfully sunny start to the day, in complete contrast with last night, lets hope it lasts. Jennifer and I give ourselves a wet wipe bath and its lovely, we feel really clean despite not using the morning “washy washy” water our porters bring us. We do use this water, but only for rubbing over our face and hair to wake us up properly and to brush our teeth.

The other morning ritual is “bed tea”, which is the morning cuppa. This is the first wake up call of the day but we are usually washing ourselves at this point so we ask them to leave it in the porch area.

We had breakfast with the sun breaking over Kili, it was lovely, lots of cloud up on the summit though, hopefully it wont be there when we summit.

We started off across the Shira Plateau again this morning at around 8.30am, again I found the going difficult so I’d dropped behind by the time it started raining at 10.00am. This time it was a combination of rain and low cloud, so just as wet, but not heavy rain.

I’m finding it really hard to breath at this altitude. Luckily the plateau starts to climb towards its south eastern edge and this slowed the pace down a bit and by keeping a steady pace I was able to catch them up by about 11.00am.

By the time we got up to the Shira Cathedral, a large promontory, I was starting to feel really good, we dropped our packs at the bottom of the cathedral and, after a short rest, we climbed up to the top (3,800m) by around 12 noon. I felt really strong for once and was bouncing back along the rocks, but maybe I was being too cocky!

We had another short rest next to where we left our packs and then headed north towards our next camp, Shira Hut (3,840m). It was only about 2 hours at a slow pace, but towards the end I was struggling again. There was a steepish rise leading to the camp which I found hard going and I kept stopping to rest. Matthew, our head guide asked if he could take my pack, but I wanted to do this one my own without too much help, I didn’t want to be carried (ok, I was ignoring the fact that we had 47 porters, guides and a cook helping us, but that wasn’t my point).

The rain was getting heavier and as I finally made it up the hill to our camp, about 15 minutes after everyone else, I found my beloved Jennifer waiting for me in the rain.

The camp site was on a flood plain and it was really rocky and the tents weren’t best pitched, but I threw my pack in and we went to join the others for lunch.

We have been walking in the rain for four and a half hours and everything is wet, we hope the weather will be better by tomorrow as we need to get our clothes dry. Hopefully we can get above the clouds tomorrow.

Our tent is starting to look like a Chinese laundry. We have clothes hanging up in each porch and in the inner tent, just trying to get it dry. If we don’t get a couple of rain free days then we’ll be trying to summit in wet clothes and they will freeze on us. We are keeping a set of clothes unused and dry for summit night, just in case it doesn’t stop raining, but our outerwear is just wetted out, as are our gloves.

The porters sound in much better mood tonight, they are laughing and joking really loudly, we’ll have to use ear plugs tonight. They are coping with the same weather we are but their waterproof clothing is a bit makeshift, some of them use plastic bin-liners, whilst others just get wet, but they seem very happy despite the weather.

The loo is a bucket under a wooden seat in a separate tent, and it really stinks. Everyone is trying to hold out as long as they can before visiting it, or just going behind the rocks or bushes. Getting up to go the toilet in the night is turning into a major exercise, not only do you have to get dressed, with both wet and warm clothing, you also have to steel yourself against what you will find there…

Decided to take a diamox to help with my acclimatisation as I seem to be the only one struggling. I’ve also got a constant cough, but I can hear others coughing at night in their tents, so maybe its just a reaction to the cold and rain, rather than the altitude.

Jennifer is also suffering with a cough, but she seems to be coping really well with cold and the rain and has shown little or no sign of altitude sickness yet. In the mess tent tonight, virtually everyone has complained of bad headaches, except me and Jennifer, so maybe we’re all just feeling the altitude in different ways.

Kilimanjaro – Day 3

The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

Another beautiful start to the day with the sun streaming through the entrance to our tent and giving us wonderful views of the summit. Its still wrapped in cloud though, maybe it will be clearer on the summit itself.

The heat from the early morning sun was causing last nights rain to evaporate from the surrounding rocks, it looked like the clouds were forming before our eyes!

Which wasn’t so far off as by 8am, the clouds had rolled in again the the camp deteriorated once again to a drizzly mist.

The camp followers at this camp were a plague of striped grass mice, little balls of fluff who seemed unafraid of us, or anything else come to that, who came out in force for the scraps to be had around camp.

I’m still finding it hard to breath, getting in and out of the tent is exhausting and we’ve got a steep climb ahead of us, so I’m getting a bit stressed. Why is no-one else having problems with the thin air, is it just me?

I don’t want to fall behind again, if I can’t keep up at this altitude then what will I be like on the summit? I feel very frustrated and angry with myself. I take another diamox to help me to the next camp.

After another big breakfast we started off uphill for Moir Hut (4,200m). We have only gone about 10 yards when we decided to put our rain gear on and Arwen shows off her lastest creation, a rain skirt! The pace is pole pole so I’m finding it easy going at the moment. After about an hour on this trail, we bear left and continue to climb towards a wide ridge.

The path goes around the ridge and then drops down the side of it and we find ourselves heading down the side of a valley, we can see Moir Hut camp at head of the valley, snuggled in at the base of the cliffs.

In total the walk is only two hours, and we have a few hours to kill before lunch so Jennifer & I take a walk outside the campsite and explore the local area.

Moir Hut itself is right at the base of the cliffs and is an old rangers station. It is literally falling to pieces but that doesn’t stop Jennifer from running inside it and climbing about in there.

On the way back we saw some water voles (or at least that’s what I think they are) in little burrows alongside the stream.

After lunch the sun came out and everyone ran out to put their kit out to dry. It didn’t last too long, the clouds came back intermittently, so we kept having sun and then cloud. It’s a good team though and everyone is lifting each others spirits by joking and having a laugh at the weather… and each other!

We’ve got a couple of hours before our acclimatisation walk up to the Lent Hills, which look impossibly high and un-climbable, even the ridge they sit on looks impossible to climb.

Pete decided to head off for a walk on his own for an hour. He usually goes for a 10 mile run every day, so I think the slow pace and sitting around camp is making him a bit stir crazy, so he just wants to get some exercise in.

We spoke to David for a while who told us about his lad who has cerebral palsy, and David, Darren & Jeremy are doing this walk to raise money for his therapy group, which is entirely self funded. They have raised over £10,000 so far which is fantastic. Listening to the courage of his lad climbing the stairs makes me embarrassed for worrying about my health on this trip.

I remember how difficult it was for me (due to my asthma) to climb the stairs when I was younger and it would sometimes take me an hour to just to climb up those 13 steps each night. This mountain is just another set of stairs and it might take me a bit longer than the others but I’ll climb them.

Simon was bored, so as his tent has a river flowing through it last night, he’s decided to build a rain ditch around his tent just in case it rains hard again tonight. We all follow his lead, although his ditch looks like a permanent feature when compared to ours.

There were some large animal bones around the camp site, the guides reckon they are mainly zebra and eland, but what worries me is how they got there!

Around 3pm we headed off to the Lent Hills (4,700m) which overlook our camp from the nearby ridge. It was hard walking for everyone up the ridge, a long slow slog for about 45 minutes. I found it really hard but others appeared to be struggling too, so maybe we are all struggling with the thin air?

Once atop the ridge we had a short break to catch our breathe, and then heading up the face of the lent hills. Whilst these looked formidable from camp, up close there were plenty of hand and foot holds to allow us to scramble up them and we all made it up safely.

The views from the top were immense; our camp looked tiny and in the plateau below seems to stretch away into the distance, and at our backs Kibo peak rose majestically to the skies… well it would have if it wasn’t for the clouds…

We left the Lent Hills and made our way back to camp. I noticed Graeme had a very strong and efficient poling method. He looked really professional but he says he’s never used poles before, either way, it looks effective and I think I’ll try to copy his method as I need all the help I can get to climb this mountain.

By the time we got back to camp at 5.30pm the cloudy drizzle was back, but it didn’t affect our spirits, especially as Darren gave us an exhibition of banana golf.

It was another lovely dinner that night and we had a laugh with the guides who kept reminding us about the use of sunscreen, even though its cloudy, because we were so high the atmosphere isn’t cutting out much of the UV light. Jennifer & I are using P20 each morning, this lasts the whole day, rain or not, as it bonds to the skin and is even more effective that higher rated sunscreens as its permanently in place and will not rub off.

Another early night and everyone was in bed by 8pm. It was cold though and Jennifer was sporting the latest line in Ninja Pyjamas…

Kilimanjaro – Day 4

All common things, each day’s events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

Didn’t sleep well last night for the first night on the trip, maybe it’s the diamox. Another beautiful sunny morning, which is turning out to be a feature of this trip… usually followed by rain later in the morning!

Everyone is in high spirits this morning and for once we can see the clouds below us. I was feeling confident about the weather today so didn’t wear my raingear, just a windstopper. It turned cloudy as we set off but soon returned to sunshine again and I was glad I’d left the raingear off.

I’d decided to use my poles for the first time on the trip and copied the Graeme method of poling which I found really helped.

About halfway along the route we were passing through a small saddle and noticed a grave marker. The guides said it belonged to a climber who had suffered a pulmonary oedema higher up and they were rushing him down to the evacuation route on the Shira Plateau, but he didn’t make it and died at that spot. It really bought home the effects altitude can have on your body.

About 40 minutes from camp, the cloudy drizzle came in again, so I put my raingear on, just in time for then the hail started. About 3 hours after leaving Moir Hut, I arrived at a very wet and cloudy Lava Tower camp (4,550m). It was a big disappointment for me, as I’d seen loads of pictures of this tower, and even though we were camped at its base we couldn’t see the tower through the mist.

I was last in again, and while its not a race, I was still disappointed to be lagging behind everyone, especially as this climb had taken so much out of me. I felt exhausted, despite using the poles.

Our tents were pitched down the slope and Simon & Carl were at the bottom, so Simon decided to build another rain ditch to avoid having his tent flood. Pretty soon we were all building them. Simon’s looked like a fort, with an inner and outer wall – I suspect his forces background was turning his rain ditch into a redoubt!

He still had loads of energy so he helped me with my ditch. It was good having Simon on the trip, not only was he a good laugh, but he also bought home that we are camping, and its not five star luxury so if we wanted to avoid problems later in the night then we should rely on ourselves, there would be no room service to sort it for us.

Building ditches helped us keep warm in the cloudy mist, but everyone turned up at camp either cold, breathless or tired, or all three, except Jennifer who still seemed full of beans! The food was excellent as usual, as was the company so we were all cheered by the end of lunch.

The acclimatisation walk to Arrow Glacier camp (4,900m) is planned for 3pm, but no-one seems to be looking forward to it. The weather is still closed in and cold and everything we do at this altitude seems to tire us out, even getting in and out of the tents – in many ways the walking seems easier, at least we can keep warm and it’s a steady pace.

It took us longer to get ready than we thought it would so everyone was waiting to go by the time we arrived. Probably because they’d gotten cold from waiting for us, the initial pace was quite fast, and I found myself falling behind almost immediately, and I soon lost sight of the others in the mist.

Jennifer, my love, decided to stay back with me and help me through this walk, as did one of our assistant guides, Godfrey. It was cold that evening, with the ambient temperature around zero degrees C, but the extra layers we had put on seemed to be working, perhaps we could wear this for summit night?

Soon we entered the snowline and the going got more difficult. I was already having to stop after few steps but with the snow on the steep slopes, I kept slipping on the snow and mud which took a surprising amount of energy to recover from, so I was stopping all the more. We also had to cross four streams along the way, which due to the meltwater from higher up the mountain had become raging torrents full of reddy brown silt. Crossing them wasn’t so bad, but climbing up again out of the gullies was really taking its toll.

Godfrey could see I was struggling and he suggested a couple of times that maybe we should turn around and head back as it wasn’t going to get any easier. I had to keep going though, as in my mind I was trying to see every difficulty as another step towards my acclimatisation, and anyway if I turned back now, then perhaps I would be inclined to do the same on summit night, and I didn’t even want to entertain the thought of that.

So we kept going, slowly through the snow and the mist until finally we caught up with the others… who were on their way down. I joked with them and took a picture of Graeme, but my heart was sinking. They had already made it to the Arrow Glacier and were heading down and I hadn’t even made it there yet.

They did say it was just up ahead so I tried to keep my spirits up and sure enough we were soon there and it was such a relief, although now we had the job of walking downhill through the slush of snow and mud, which wasn’t an appealing prospect.

It was at the old Arrow Glacier camp that I realised that I hadn’t been drinking enough on the way up. I had a pee which was bright yellow against the snow (sorry if you’re squeamish!), and it should be almost colourless if you are drinking enough. I realised that because I was labouring for each breath then I was avoiding drinking as I had to stop breathing for a second to take a sip.

The way down was just as hard as the way up, with both of us sliding in the muddy slush of the path, so it took us as long to get back as it did coming up. As we got back to the camp I found I was really hot and had to take some layers off. At first I didn’t understand why this was as we were below the snowline now and walking down was a lot easier than walking up, so I shouldn’t be generating as much heat.

Then Jennifer noticed that we could make out the camp, the mist was lifting! At last we could make out the Lava Tower and although the sun was low in the sky, its heat was more than enough to start warming us up.

We got a big cheer as we entered the mess tent, but we were trying to drag them out to see the views, by this time the mist had cleared about us and whilst there was still some mist about, you could see the western breach right above us through the clouds.

The sun was setting and I ran about trying to take some pictures of the camp before the clouds rolled in again. I think I must gotten too excited because pretty soon I was out of breath and feeling extremely nauseous. I should have rested and drank more water while I had the chance.

We had an amazing sunset and while I enjoyed it, I was really struggling again. I could hardly eat at dinner, I felt sick and my head was banging and every movement was a chore. I found it really hard to concentrate and to listen to the banter going on around me, I just wanted to lay down and rest. This was probably my lowest point, and I really feared that I couldn’t go any further.

There was small American group camped next to us that night, who had also done today’s acclimatisation walk. We were told the next day that they had had enough and had decided to cancel their climb and the next morning they headed down the mountain. I didn’t blame them, I could really understand how they felt.

The skies were clear that night and the wet zips on out tents had frozen up by the time we finished our evening meal, so we had to bang on the tent to try to crack the ice and open the zips.

Kilimanjaro – Day 5

All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

We woke up to a freezing morning, all the more so for me as the zip had broken on my hired sleeping bag during the night. Everything was frosted over this morning, even the condensation inside the tent and we really appreciated our “bed tea” this morning as we drank it from inside our tent looking out at the frosty vista before us.

Here and there around camp there were strange ice crystals which appeared to have sprouted up overnight from just under the surface of the soil. They lifted up the surface layer of soil and then, as the morning warmed up they fell over. They looked very bizarre.

Breakfast again was good, but I still couldn’t eat much as I still felt sick deep down in my stomach, so just tried a bit of porridge, but that seemed to make me feel worse. Maybe my appetite will improve at our next camp which is at a lower altitude.

After breakfast we started off on the long walk down to Karanga Camp (4,000m). It was cold but sunny and for a while I was able to keep up with everyone, but I was still finding it very difficult. Then, about halfway down the Barranco Valley, the mist started to roll in and I started to fall behind everyone again. Jennifer stayed by my side and walked with me through the mist.

Barranco Valley is gorgeous by the way, full of life, especially when compared to other valleys at that altitude. We put on out waterproofs and wound our way down the valley with Francis as our guide.

All the way along the east side of the valley is the Barranco Wall. The cliffs looked imposing at this level, sheer and with large alluvial deltas fanning out from their base, but as the valley floor kept dropping we knew the cliffs would be even higher as we got further down the valley.

As we crossed the river and got to the climbing point we had a rest, which I really needed. I still felt ill and I was constantly out of breath. I kept telling myself that all the time I’m struggling at this level, just means my body is taking time to acclimatise and that by the time the summit comes I will feel more ready for it.

By the time we got to the base of the Barranco Wall we had the whole thing to ourselves, most of the porters and the rest of our team had headed up ages ago, and any other parties would have camped at the bottom of the wall and climbed up earlier that morning. There were a few straggling porters who went past us at the bottom and then Matthew the head guide came along and decided to stay with us.

I have to say the Barranco Wall is definitely one of the highlights of the trip. It takes about an hour to climb and its almost vertical, but there are literally thousands of handholds and ledges on the way up so it feels really easy to climb. If this wall was in the Lake District it would be buried under a mass of bodies climbing it every weekend.

Its easy climbing, more like an easy scramble and only one part (labelled the kissing rock), about halfway up where there is an overhanging rock where you have to step out over a void and use the handholds to keep you tight into the rockface (hence “kissing” the rock). The river below looks like a tiny trickle.

I just stepped across without using the handholds because the footholds were really pronounced, but Jennifer has a thing about heights (so why is she climbing a mountain!!!!) and she was shaking when she had crossed this bit.

We were making good progress but I still had to keep stopping for a breather. Matthew offered to take my pack, but I wanted to do this on my own, so I declined his offer. He smiled and said I was strong like the lion, but I was more weak like the kitten!

I was still feeling ill and about halfway up it was really getting on my nerves. This was a great climb and I wasn’t enjoying it as I should because I felt so ill, so I decided to try to get it over with and forced myself to be sick, hoping it would help. It did a bit, but I still have that sick feeling deep in my stomach.

It took us an hour to get up the wall and at the top we took a small break, during which time we were accompanied by an arctic chat, who seemed very interested in our biscuits.

Then we headed down the next valley which was more of a short dip, at the bottom of the valley we could see the rest of the team heading out of the valley on the opposite ridge, we called them but they couldn’t hear us, although we heard them shouting down to us. I reckon they were less than an hour ahead of us.

It was another beautiful valley, different from the Barranco Valley, with a lot of alluvial silt at the bottom of it, and much smaller. By the time we’d made it up over the top of the next ridge and into the Karanga Valley, the rains had started. We could just see the camp on the opposite ridge, but we had to climb down the cliff face on this side first and then up the other before we made it to camp.

The climb down started off ok, the rock formations were beautiful, almost like climbing down a rock garden, but as the rains got heavier it was like trying to climb down through a water feature, with every path becoming a torrent of water and mud, making it very slippery, but Jennifer & I were doing ok and we were joking with Francis about him choosing the hardest route!

We made it down without mishap and now had to climb up the steep face of the other side of the valley. There were two porters waiting for us and Francis asked one to take my pack, but I wanted to do this on my own, besides it would help with my acclimatisation and if I was going to hand my pack over at any time, it would be better on the summit attempt, I wouldn’t feel the benefit if I was climbing without my pack now.

As expected the climb was steep and the downpour didn’t help, but maybe because it was at a lower altitude or maybe because my body was acclimatising I found that I could keep going without too many breaks and far sooner than I expected we were walking into camp.

The walk had taken us about six hours, which was about half an hour to an hour longer than the others, but it had been a wonderful walk, despite the rain and the difficulty of it, it was the best so far on the trip and we loved it.

We found our tent in the pouring rain and dropped our packs off and went straight to lunch in the mess tent. We arrived to a huge cheer from the others, who must have been taking bets about whether I would make it that day, especially after how I was the previous day. I still couldn’t eat much so just had some soup and hot chocolate to try to keep my strength up, and after lunch Matthew fixed the zip on my sleeping bag which was a bonus, I really just need it to hold out until tomorrow night anyway, then we’ll be heading down again.

The rain started to ease off in the evening, but we really need some sun to dry out our gear before tomorrow night’s summit attempt. At the moment the only way to dry our kit is to wear it for as long as possible in the tent / mess tent and try to use our body heat to dry them out.

Despite the cold and the damp everyone seems happy and cheerful and we are really enjoying our adventure. The walks are amazing as are our fellow travellers, who all seem to have a great sense of humour and are great at keeping each others spirits up.

Even the porters and the guides seem happy and the occasional glimpses of Kibo summit are a bonus.

Jennifer is doing really well and is in her element. She’s had no sign of sickness yet, or even a headache, probably because she has been drinking so well, which has its downsides of frequent trips to the loo, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Most of us seem to have that dry Kili cough now and its more pronounced in the quite of the night when we are in out tents.

Kilimanjaro – Day 6

The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

We will start our summit attempt tonight, but first we need to get over to our base camp at Barafu. It was a cloudy but dry start to the morning with the occasional bursts of sunshine. Our camp followers this morning are the ever present stripy grass mice, but also the white necked ravens and a flock of turtle doves, which surprises me at this altitude, but they are a welcome addition as they are a symbol of devoted love.

After breakfast we start out heading up and across the ridge we have camped on. We stop rising and the path levels off for a bit so we take a break and take in the views of Kibo peak’s lower slopes. We then descend into the next valley and across the valley floor towards the South East ridge. The trail was made up of broken slate or shale which had been baked hard, possibly during the original volcanic eruption, so it tinkled like windchimes as we walked across the plain.

It’s a stiff climb up the South East ridge and we take a rest at the top, then we turn left and start heading up the ridge towards Barafu camp at 4,600m. We arrive to the usual greeting of cloud, but for the first time on this trip we can see several more parties camping out, apart from the occasional night with one other group, we’ve never been in a busy camp before. But even this isn’t busy, I’m guessing it’s a lot busier earlier in the season.

First we have to sign in, and we go straight into a ranger station and sit around the bunks waiting for the book to be passed around. Whilst we are there an enterprising guide offers us t-shirts, hats, snickers bars, cokes and even Kilimanjaro Beer! David gets the round in and the hut is silent as snickers bars and coca cola is consumed.

Arwen sitting between me & Jennifer gives us a present, a heart shaped stone she has picked up along the route, which she decided to give to us “young lovers”.

Arwen is lovely, she’s dutch but lives in the UK with Adam. Her parents gave her the beautiful name Arwen from the Lord of the Rings character… just as well they didn’t call her Frodo I guess. Everyone calls her Eve (because she lives with Adam), which causes some confusion for the guides!

After signing in we move down to our camp which is on the exposed ledge of a cliff, but its very cosy with a brand new long drop toilet for us… right on the edge of the cliff… a very long drop! As we move there we are circled overhead by a golden feathered eagle – it looks amazing and it feels like another good omen.

I’m still feeling ill, and hope it will go away soon, its really dragging me down. There is supposed to be an acclimatisation walk this afternoon, but my knees are still sore from yesterday’s six hour trek so I’m glad when we are told just to rest instead.

After lunch we just fall asleep in our tents, then suddenly its 5.30pm and we are being woken for an early dinner and briefing. Still couldn’t eat much at lunch so tried to force some lighter food down. I think everyone is nervous, but its only me and Dave who admit to it.

Carl’s preparation was severely dented when he was attacked by a wild animal. It was one of the stripy grass mice, it bit him on the hand whilst trying to steal his summit stash of chocolates! These mice were pretty ruthless and munched into a few people packs to steal some chocolate, one of them even bit through Jennifer’s camelbak after we got back from the summit just to get at her water!

After the briefing we head back to the tents and try to sleep. Not many of us manage it. I try every trick I know to get to sleep but by 10.45pm I’m still awake, too late to sleep now so may as well get up… and then I fell asleep! It was only 15 minutes, but its better than nothing! Jennifer managed to get a good few hours sleep.

I still feel ill, and also very tired, but we put on our summit gear. Jennifer had prepared hers weeks before and knew exactly what she was wearing. I’d had to leave loads of my gear behind in the lodge (because of the size of the sleeping bag) so I had been working out what to wear for the summit attempt all week.

In the end I went for the clothes I wore for the climb to Arrow Glacier camp. I knew that was ok for zero degrees, but at the last minute I decided to add a thin fleece to my layers and put my down jacket in my bag for when it got colder. So on top I was wearing a millet microfleece as a base layer, with a thin fleece over this and my paramo trail shirt (fleece side in) over this. I then had my Rab photon hoodie over this and my Berghaus rainjacket as a windbreak.

I had Patagonia thick super guide trousers with a HH baselayer underneath and bridgedale summit socks inside my thick soled Teva gore-tex boots. On my hands I had thick primaloft gloves on, with gore-tex over-mittens in my backpack in case the wind got up.

On my head I wore an extremities fleece lined mountain cap with a half face balaclava on the lower part of my face, with a light buff over this to keep it tight against my neck. All in all I was feeling pretty snug, but Jennifer looked far more snug as she had loads of layers on, I was surprised she could move! My only concern with Jennifer was weather she had enough backup if she got cold.

Kilimanjaro – Day 7 – the longest day

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

We started off just after midnight and I found myself up near the front by Matthew, the head guide. It was very cold and the trail appeared to be a mix of boulders and hardpack track (although it could have been frozen scree).

I was tired and still feeling ill so didn’t start off so well, in fact I stumbled and nearly fell as we were only about five minutes into the climb as I was climbing up a boulder. Matthew came back and said he would take my pack and he was starting to loosen my chest strap before I realised what he was doing.

I knocked his hand away and said no, probably louder than I meant too. I then felt really bad about knocking his hand away, so told him that I needed to do this myself. He just smiled and said, “Jay you are strong like a lion, you are the king of lions, you are Simba!”, which I knew was just said to make me feel better, but I appreciated it.

That incident really woke me up and I felt adrenaline coursing through me. I knew it wouldn’t last so I tried to get into a rhythm with my walking, especially when we were climbing up the boulders as I’d previously found this exhausting.

I don’t know if it was the pole pole pace, or that all the acclimatisation walks had finally paid off, but suddenly I felt ok. I was singing bits of songs in my head, over and over again, and “dancing” to them up the slope. I say dancing, but it was more of a slow shuffle, I’d step forward and tap my boot next to my standing foot before completing the step, doing the same as I bought my other foot forward, and swaying from side to side as I walked.

I found this rhythm really helped me focus on walking pole pole and keeping a steady speed. I even found that stepping up across boulders was easy using this rhythm, so I just kept singing inside my head. The song I was mostly singing was “you are my sunshine, my only sunshine”, probably because the lyrics are easy!

But it worked and pretty soon we were two hours in, at around 5,000m and stopping for our first break. We stopped in the lee of a huge house sized rock to keep out of the wind, everybody sat down, but I had to keep moving as I was getting cold and I didn’t want to lose this rhythm in my head. I still felt too ill to eat any of my snacks so I just walked around taking pictures of the group. I had to take my right glove off to get the camera out and to take the pictures but I didn’t mind. My hand was freezing but I knew it would warm up once we started moving again.

Jennifer looked tired but was doing well, in fact everyone seemed to be doing well at this stage, although some looked a little tired and cold, probably from the slow pace.

We set off again, still going pole pole, and I was straight back into my rhythm. I wasn’t sure if I could keep this up for the whole six hours to Stella Point, but I had to keep trying. To stop my camelbak from freezing up I had to blow back into the mouthpiece after taking a sip to let the water siphon back into my backpack and get some warmth from my body. It added another step to my drinking routine but it worked, and in our backpacks me and Jennifer had a litre bottle of hot water in an insulating sleeve as a backup.

The track still seemed to be boulders and hardpack track, no loose scree which we’d heard about, and my rhythm was still working well and pretty soon we were three and a half hours in and we were making our second break.

I took some more pictures, but was shocked by how tired the team seemed, especially Jennifer. I asked Matthew to take her pack and I took out my down jacket and made her put it on, I was really worried about her. She wouldn’t take my coat, despite the cold and I was getting exasperated by her. She said she didn’t want me to get cold, but I told her not to worry, we’d soon be at the summit and the morning sun would warm us. Pete was being a top man and he gave both me and Jennifer some chocolate as we were focusing on each other instead of drinking / eating.

The next few hours seemed to be a bit vague. The cold was getting worse and was sneaking in through my boots and gloves, and the tiredness was creeping into my bones, but I kept my rhythm going in my head and kept walking forward.

We had another break at around 4.30 – 5.00am, it was only a short break as there was no real shelter at that point. I remember Adam coming forward and asking if he could break away and speed up as the cold and the slow speed were making him fall asleep and if he kept going at this pace he wouldn’t make it. I saw him head off, I think with Pete and one other, but I can’t be sure in the dark.

We moved off again and within the hour it started to get light, but I was getting more and more tired with each step. Soon it was daylight and we were about 20 minutes from Stella Point, but all my energy seemed to have left me. I just had my head down and was focusing on one step after the other, the final rise to Stella Point seemed to be the longest 20 minutes of my life! My camelbak had also frozen up at some point in the last hour or so, I must have forgotten to blowback during the night.

We finally reached Stella Point at about 6.15am and I felt absolutely shot, and far from being bright and sunny we found that there was an icy blizzard on the rim. We sheltered behind a large rock and had some tea and Jennifer was hugging everyone and there were a few tears, and not just from Jennifer!

I was dead on my feet so just wanted to try to keep moving. If I’d’ve sat down at that point I think I would have fallen asleep. I tried taking a few photos but my hands felt like they were freezing off. I’d put my mittens on at somepoint during the night and they were effective when they were on, but it was bloody freezing now and soon I’d put my camera away.

After what seemed a short rest we headed off towards the summit. For some reason I thought this would be easy when compared with the steep climb to Stella Point, but in the cold biting wind it seemed even harder than the climb to the rim. Maybe the altitude was also affecting me but I could hardly walk.

I remember putting my head down and just following the tracks of those who had come up earlier, and I tried not to look up as each time we topped a rise, we saw there was another waiting for us up ahead. A couple of times I noticed I must have left the path as there were no footprints infront of me, so I had to backtrack, cursing myself for adding a few extra yards to my journey.

We were all strung out along the path, all trying to make our way forward through the ice. At one point I had stopped for a breather and for some reason I couldn’t move forward. I think maybe I was half asleep, or maybe it was just the cold, but I was looking at my legs and wondering why they wouldn’t move forward, then I heard Graeme’s dulcet tones as he came up from behind me, telling me to start walking again, and to follow him.

It woke me up and I started after him but I was struggling to keep even a slow pace and I soon dropped behind, then I saw Simon who had summited earlier, standing at my shoulder urging me forward, telling me its not far now.

Meanwhile Jennifer was getting closer to the Summit, and was also suffering. She fell down to her knees and then waited for me to help her up. When I didn’t, she realised something was wrong and she turned around and saw me far behind her, walking with Simon.

She immediately turned around and despite the guides telling her not to, she walked back towards me. She looked like an angel coming towards me on the path and when she took my arm I felt new energy surging through me and together we walked on and reached the Summit together, about an hour after leaving Stella Point.

Standing on what too long we bore
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern–unseen before–
A path to higher destinies.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

We both had icicles hanging down from our eye lashes and we were exhausted but we felt so happy, we’d made it, despite the conditions. Our skywatch anemometers were recording temperatures of between -35C to -64C (not sure about the accuracy of the -64C readings as the minimum operating temperature of these units is -30C so the further away from that the temperature is then the more uncertain the accuracy). After hugging each other and getting our photos taken we started following the guides and heading back down the mountain.

As we were walking back to Stella Point we finally noticed the glaciers. I’d missed them on the way up as I was walking with my head down, but now we could see them in all their glory and they looked amazing. Because of the weather there were huge pillars of ice hanging down from the tops of the glaciers, they looked like Grecian Columns on the Parthenon.

I thought of stopping to take a photograph, but I was just so cold and tired. If I’d’ve taken my hand out of its glove again I didn’t think I’d be able to get it back on again, and if I’d stopped then I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get going again, so we just left with out memories of an amazing sight.

It took us an hour to get back to Stella Point but once there we came down a completely different path to the ascent. It was an ash field covered in snow, the path was heavily churned up by the earlier descents but the guides wanted to really push us to get down quickly, trying to get us to run and jump at breakneck speed. I was absolutely shattered and in the end I just had to walk down. I even allowed Didas (one of the guides) to take my pack now I’d made it to the top.

It seemed to take us hours to get back to camp, in fact it took us two hours from Stella Point, but it was hard going all the way. We were exhausted and there was a wet drizzly rain all the way back to camp, the rain only stopped when we got back to camp, then we turned around and saw that the summit was clear now, with no clouds, just basking in the bright sunshine. We felt like the Mountain had played with us to show us its power.

We fell straight asleep in our tents and were woken up an hour later for something to eat and then we continue down the mountain, straight down the southern ridge for another three hours to Millennium Camp, where we signed in and sorted ourselves out.

We could have carried on down to Mweka Camp but it would have taken another two or three hours, and my knees couldn’t take anymore!

Kilimanjaro – Day 8

Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
To something nobler we attain.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow

Our final day and one where we tipped the porters and guides. Exodus provide a rough tipping indication of between $75 to $105 per person. Its not until you get out there, that the basis for this becomes clear. Exodus give you a tipping guide which sets out the rough limits for each type of guide or porter, if you multiply this up by the total number of each type of porter, guide, etc, then it comes out to between $75 to $105 per person (assuming a group of 12).

Simon took charge and sorted out who was going to do what, and how much we were going to pay each person and each person gave either a guide or a group of porters an amount and if it was for more than one person we stated how much each person must get.

We knew the porters and guides were going to sing a song for us, so I was charged with writing a song for us to sing to them.. so I chose “You are my sunshine” and changed the lyrics a bit to include Kilimanjaro!

The Porters and Guides looked a bit bemused by our rendition, but then they gave us their Kilimanjaro song. In addition to the general tips we all gave individual tips to those guides or porters who we thought had really helped us out during the trip.

After breakfast and the tipping ceremony, we broke camp and then sped down the mountain to the main gate to sign out and get our certificates.

It took us about 4 hours, others made the journey quicker, but Jennifer and I wanted to savour the rainforests on the way down, including the monkeys we met along the way.

Finally we made it down to the gate, and past young schoolkids asking for chocolate or spare bits of kit.

At the gate we were innudated with people trying to sell us anything from spears to elephants, but we were mostly too exhausted to be interested in their wares, and while they were persistent they were good natured and happy for a laugh. We gave some of the kids some money to give our boots a wash and we bought a necklaces and some bangles.

Pete flashed his cash to buy a giraffe (appropriately given his height!) and was immediately mobbed!

Some of the vendors try make you feel bad for not buying off them, they say things like “why aren’t you supporting local industry”, but they are probably not made locally, and even if they are, you are providing the porters, guides, drivers, hoteliers, etc. with work, pay and tips, so don’t feel guilty for not buying a cheap elephant.

Then we had a quick lunch and headed back to the Lodge clutching our certificates and the first thing we did was have a shower… then a beer (well I did, Jennifer had a diet coke!)

Our flights were the next evening and we spent the time relaxing, talking about the trip, catching up with the football scores, and basically doing “ordinary” things…. however, our memories of wonderful Tanzania and our achievments on this trip will never be ordinary.

People have asked me if this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve certainly heard others use those words to describe the climb, but for me, the climb was wonderful, I loved the scenery, the people we met, the things we acheived. It was hard, no doubt, especially the summit night, but for some people climbing the stairs can be even harder.

Kilimanjaro – or how I learned to stop worrying and love the mountain

And so it begins… in a few hours a taxi will take us to the airport and we will set off to Tanzania. As each day has drawn us nearer to Kilimanjaro, I’m finding the mountain filling my thoughts, no longer fearing it, as I did initially (especially after talking to Deano!), but really looking forward to it now.

At first I just wanted to conquer Kilimanjaro, to beat it, to win, but I slowly came to realise that the mountain doesn’t care if I make it to the top or not. It is not trying to beat me, it is not in competition with me, it doesn’t even know I’m there, its just a mountain and if I want to climb it then I need to find the strength, the endurance, and the belief from within. I feel much more relaxed about climbing it now.

I keep thinking of the immensity of it, and how far it reaches up into the sky. You can see why men once believed that Gods lived on mountain tops and this journey is starting to become as much of a spiritual one as it is physical.

My thoughts keep drifting to “The Ladder of St Augustine” by Longfellow. I think the poem is more about Longfellow’s own experiences in realising his ethical and artistic dreams rather than the steps proposed by St. Augustine, but it is still uplifting and very appropriate to our own journey.

Reading it again after many years it seems as if it were written for this climb. Maybe it’s a guide for Kilimanjaro as well as the soul. I’m going to take the poem up the mountain with me, so apologies in advance if bits of it find their way onto our blog on our return.

Anyway, our thanks to everyone who has helped us on this trip and who has supported our nominated charity, Alder Hey Hospital’s Imagine Appeal. If we can we will try to keep you posted about our progress on the climb and will definitely update you on our return.

Last walk up Snaefell before Kilimanjaro

It was our last walk up Snaefell before our attempt at Kilimanjaro. We started off as usual from Ham & Egg Terrace in Laxey in lovely warm sunshine and no wind.

Our route takes us up towards the Laxey Wheel.

We carry on up past the wheel and on towards Agneash village.

and its from this road that we get our first sight of the summit.

Once past the village we see the sheep have been moved down the valley from the higher slopes.

The valley leading up to Sneafell is beautiful, especially in its autumn colours.

And then I go and spoil all that natural beauty!

However I felt strong today, for the first time in ages, so I led Jennifer up the steeper gradients for a change!

At the top the views were amazing. You could see right along ths spine of the island, from North Barrule (and my shadow in the foreground)…

… right down to South Barrule at the other end of the Island.

Of course Jennifer found the reception almost as good as the view!

Thats Douglas Bay, our home, in front of her…

… and Ramsey, behind her.

We seemed to be ahead of our previous walks and even though it was getting dark, it was still lighter then usual as we get heading down. I took a series of picutres of Jennifer as she jumped a stream, apologies for the blurring and the sky whiting out, but as it was getting dark I had to use a wide aperture and slow speed to get a picture, anyway, this is Jennifer showing off –

We stilll finished in the dark, but it had only taken us just over four hours this time as we both felt quite strong. It was another beautiful walk and we are looking forward to our next one; Kilimanjaro!