Kilimanjaro, Lemosho route 20.-28.1.2014, Tanzania

Day 1

We started the trip morning at 9 with 4 hours drive. After 3 hours we stopped in Londrossi gate to sign in to Kili. We had a box lunch there and some free time to get to know others from our hiking group. The group has 11 people and many porters. Our guide is Richard.

Little more drive and we started our hike.

The first day felt quite hard, even though we only walked about 3 hours. I had a little head aiche for almost the whole way. The scenary was wonderful with beautiful trees. The forrest is like a magical farytail forrest!

We got to our 1st camp (little under 3000m high) around 5PM. After relaxing and washing our faces we got some hot tea and coffee, with popcorn and cookies.

For dinner we got first soup and then fish, potatos and vegetable stew.

After nice discussion and dinner, Richard came to inform us about the day two.

Sleeping in tent was thrilling and I slept quite well.

Day 2

We woke up little after 6 and started the day with packing our sleeping pags and other stuff. At 7.30 breakfast was served and before that some hot water was supplied for washing purposes.

The hike begun at 8 and we started with the nice forest for the first hour or two.

After that the scenery changed dramatically. The vegetation was much lower and the ground much drier. We climbed quite a lot higher and for one part there was a quite steep part with a lot of large rocks. After the steep part the rest of the way were quite flat. The highest altitude in day two was little over 3500m and we got little back down to our camp (in 3500m). The Shira I camp was the final of the day two.

We were in the camp quite early, around 2 PM (the hike took about 6 hours with some breaks). So after settling in our tents and getting a washing water, we were just enjoying tea, coffee and ofcourse popcorn. We spent the afternoon relaxing and discussing about various issues. Like yesterday, it started to rain (and got quite chilly) in the afternoon. It seems to be quite typical here.

The dinner was nice, again vegetable soup that actually warmed me up and rice with chicken. After dinner we were so tired and cold that we just curled in the sleeping bags and watched a movie from iPad. The night was colder than the first one, but I slept better.

Day 3

We left the camp after breakfast around 9. The first part of the day was quite flat and easy. We decided to climb up the Shira cathedral (nice peak of Shira mountains).

It was a little steep at the end and little more difficult to climb, but the view was great. After that we still had like 2 hours to hike to the camp (Shira 2). We didn’t have lunch on the way so we were quite hungry at 3 when we finally got to the camp. The last part of the day felt quite hard and we didn’t have many stops on the way. In the camp the lunch and warm washing water was waiting for us. It felt great to have fries and fried chicken. And of course coffee made my day. On top of that there is a civilized bathroom here, where you can sit on the toilet seat and your ass doesn’t freeze.

The afternoon went by with streching and relaxing. Tea time was at 16.30. The whole afternoon was sunny and we really enjoyed the heat and sun.

The dinner was the best we have had here, starting with carrot soup, followed by pasta and meet stew. After dinner we played pass the pig and enjoyed the company and dry weather.

Day 4

We slept until 6.30 and packed our gear. After breakfast it was time to start our acclimatization day. As our guide, Richard, says:”evere day is an easy day”. However, this was not!

We hiked up for 4 hours to Lava Tower (4700m). It was easy to walk, but a little hard as the air got thinner. We had our lunch up there and it was quite chilly and windy. Some people were feeling quite bad, but I was quite allright. The hike down to Barranco camp was hard though. There were a lot of big rocks and we were all beaten when we got to the camp after 7 h hiking day.

Altitude in the camp is only 100m higher than in Shira 2, but the long day made everybody feeling a little dizzy. This camp is also colder than Shira 2.

The hot coffee and tea, with relaxing and streching helped a lot.

Dinner was quite similar that other days. Maybe because of the long and hard day, the night felt very cold and everybody was very tired. After dinner we had our ”official” reading, when one team member reads the next day’s hiking information from a Kilimanjaro hiking book. Also our guide, Richard, told us about the next day. I slept very good the night after rolling my jacket around the bottom part of my sleeping bag. Even my feet were relatively warm.

Day 5

This day was easier than the last one. We started the day with very hot washing water and started the hike at 8.30 climbing up the Barranco wall. It was exciting and a lot of fun, almost rock climbing but not quite.

After the climbing part it was ups and downs to Karranga camp, which is only a little higher in elevation than Barranco. The day was only about 4,5 hours and we arrived to the camp around 1PM and had a lunch. This was my favourite day so far, because of the Barranco wall.

After lunch we had the afternoon for relaxing, so we did just that, with some streching of course.

Dinner and bed was the night’s activities 🙂

Day 6

A short hiking day to the base camp. We started at 8.30 and hiked only little over 2,5 hours to Barafu camp, or the base camp. This camp is at 4600m high and it didn’t feel too bad because of the aclimitation day a few days ago. I’m having a little headache, but not too bad. We have time to relax and even sleep if possible today.

We had early dinner and went to bed at 6 PM. I actually slept quite well and woke up at 11. We had tea and started our hiking to the Uhuru Peak at mid night.

Day 7-summit day

At first the temperature felt quite cold, but soon it was too hot to have the down jacket on. I then had 3 layers of shirts and the shell jacket. It was great to see all the head lights above and below our group. Also the lights of Moshi were impressive and the sky was full of stars.

We walked up for 6 hours to reach the Stella Point. I didn’t feel too bad and it helped that I had music in my head phones. The guides were also singing and helping us. From Stella Point there was almost 1 hour walk to Uhuru Peak (5895m), the highest place in Africa.

The sun raised at 6.30, which we could watch after Stella Point. The scenery was marvellous with the clouds below us, just like heaven!

The whole group made it to Uhuru Peak, even with one girl was throwing up and one guy fell down more than once. What a great achievement!

After pictures we started heading back down. Our guides told us to go fast, since it made us feel much better. So we ran/slided/walked/jumped down and it took 2 hours back to Barafu camp. This was maybe even harder than going up.

One hour of sleep, then lunch and another 4 hours hike to Maweka. This was very hard walk after the summit and it didn’t seem to end at all! My knees were very tired and hurting, but I made it to Maweka 🙂

Were arrived around 4PM and had some washing water and tea/coffee. Dinner was at 6.30 and we were all ready for bed after that. They said that in this camp there are problems of thiefs, who cut the tents open and steal the back bags. So we got good sleep without any extra activities.

Day 8

We left the Maweka camp at 7.30 after packing and breakfast. Before leaving, the staff gave us a show, they sang the Kilimanjaro song and danced.

The last day hike was about 3 hours and again we saw some monkeys. The bus drive back to the hotel took only 40 minutes.

We payed the tips as a group (300$/person) and got our certificates. The Kilimanjaro beer tasted quite good after 8 hiking days and shower was like heaven 🙂

The official tour was over, but we’ll do some group activities later today and tomorrow.