Sunday, October 12, 2014 - Arusha to Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania - Day 18

We had a light breakfast at 6:30 am and then met our guide, Ian Minja, in the lobby for the day trip to Kilimanjaro.  It was a 2 hour drive from Arusha to Kilimanjaro.  Ian showed us a book that a client had made of her climb to the summit.  He was the Assistant Guide on the climb.  She had been there 7 years ago with her father and he died due to heart failure the day before they reached the summit.  So she put a beautiful book together of her climb with her brother to honor their father.  Ian has climbed to the summit 188 times and currently is a trek organizer and caterer.  Tim was intrigued with this.

So we drove through Moshe and Ian stopped to get box lunches for us since he forgot to pick those up at our hotel.  Whoops!

Ian told us that he grew up in the Wachagga Tribe which is the largest in Tanzania.  He didn’t get any education but went to live on a farm and the man there helped educate him.  He learned English on his own listening to climbers when he was a porter and assistant guide.

As we approached Mt. Kilimanjaro, the clouds parted and we could see the peak.  Absolutely stunning.  Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest peak in Africa and the largest free-standing mountain in the world.  It is 5,895 meters tall or 18,300 feet.  Tim is wanting to climb it to the top!

Mt Kilimanjaro - the highest peak in Africa

 

 

Tim with "Kili" in the distance showing through the clouds

 

Larry with "Kili" in the distance showing through the clouds

 

On the way, farmers were spreading this grain that they use to make beer on mats to dry in the sun

 

Beautiful views of Mr. Kilimanjaro - 2 of the 3 peaks - as we approached the park entry

 
As we started our climb up the foothills, Ian stopped to let a woman ride with us to the park.  It was his mother, Honoretta.  She spoke no English, only Swahili.  She had a huge smile and I had to take her picture.

Ian's mother - Honoretta - all dressed up for church

 
We got to the Marangu Gate and Ian checked us in.  The park fees alone were $140 for us which was included in the day tour fee.  I’m now starting to get the impression that we are going on a long hike!  Ian kept talking about getting back about 4!  Ugh – it’s only 9:30 am and we are going to be walking that long. 

The 2 tallest peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro - Kibo and Mawenzi

 

The visitor's entry to the National Park

 

Entry sign with "the rules"!

 

Entry sign to Kilimanjaro National Park with statistics - we are headed to Mandara Hut!

 Geeeezzzzz – ok, I can do this!  So we started climbing.  Ian explained that we climb “Pole – Pole” – or slowly, slowly – one pole at a time, one step at a time, but we don’t have walking poles!   The path was well maintained and clean winding its way through a rain forest.  There were birds and monkeys and we even saw a dik-dik or two.  The climb was a gradual one and relatively easy except where there were large boulders that we had to climb.  I did okay.

Getting ready to start the climb!

 

Ian, our guide, at the entry to the walking path

 

Tim and Ian on the early parts of the path up Mt. Kilimanjaro

 

Beautiful streams, waterfalls, and pools along the path - Ian used to swim here as a boy!

 

Walking across one of the early bridges on the path

 

Tim and Ian walking - I brought up the rear!

 

Rest break under the branches of a huge tree

 

An army of ants made a "super highway" with some ants forming a "cover" of the ants moving below

 

Nature call!

 

Beautiful pools and waterfalls

 
So 3 hours later we stopped for lunch at a place that had tables.  The porters for climbers were coming and going on the service road with huge, heavy packs on their heads.  Ian explained that there is now an Association that protects the workers with how much they are allowed to carry, working conditions and pay.  Those were some strong men and they are carrying most of this stuff up this mountain for 5-6 days – long trips each day!

The porters carrying packs up and down from the summit

 

After lunch we started the final push to Mandara Hut which is 9 km up.  This is the first camping site for the climbers going to the summit.  We climbed 2,595 feet in 6.5 hours – about 7 km and Ian called a stop.  My knees were killing me by then and Ian noticed that my breathing had changed due to the light air.  Hard to breathe as I get higher – similar to the Ngorongoro Crater!

During the entire climb and return we talked constantly with Ian.  Politics, relationships, sex (yes, he loved talking about "jiggy-jiggy"), circumcision, HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, travel, hiking, family, etc.  He was a lot of fun to interact with.

Mandara was 1 hour away, but Ian called time on us - time to go back down

 
The total distance to the summit from Marangu Gate is 69 km and we walked over 7 km – over 10% of the way to the top.  That was actually a great experience and I’m glad we did it.  It took us about 2 hours to get back down, only half the time that it took us to go up.

2 hours back to Marangu Gate and that's what it took us!  Better going down than up!

 

The walk down Mt. Kilimanjaro

 

Plaque honoring the first European to scale the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro

 

Congratulations to us - we did it!

 

 We checked out of the park and drove back to our Lake Duluti Serena Lodge. 

Beautiful views of the huge mountain as we drove down

 

Part of the summit appeared as the clouds parted briefly

We got back about 6:30 and went to the lounge for a last Kilimanjaro beer and to check email.  We went in to dinner about 8 and had a great dinner.  Both of us were ready for bed after dinner – that was a lot of exercise.  I sent Tony (Tim’s trainer) a note to let him know that Tim was working out!  We both slept very well that night!