Jambo!
Jambo bwana!
Habari gani? Mzuri sana!
Wageni, mwakaribishwa!
Kilimanjaro? Hakuna matata!
What do you write about a trip so different from any of our previous ones, such a culture adaption, such nice people and such (in our eyes) strange ways of climbing a mountain? Hmmm.... Well, the Internet being swarmed with day-to-day descriptions of the Machame Route on Kili, I guess that does not bring a lot of news. So therefore I decided to give a little insight into the things that really made a big impact on us and that we remember the most about our trek:
The amount of people
Here we mean both the amount of
tourists venturing up this mountain as well as the amount of people working for
you in your team.
Whereas we usually trek just by the
two of us with about 13-15kg in our backpacks (even did so the other weekend,
works just fine!) and being totally self supporting, here we really had to get
accustomed to the thought of having a crew of 9(!) with us up the mountain.
Apart from the mandatory guide and assistant-guide, our team comprised of a
cook, a waiter (who is also a porter) and 5 more porters. All with various
roles and responsibilities and hence their own spot in the pecking order.
The Rubbish
A place that’s crowded with people,
both Mzungu and guides & porters,
is bound to be prone to littering. Even though everyone has the obligation to also
take everything down to the gate with them, in practice this appears hard to
enforce. Most campsites are littered with plenty small items, like batteries,
bottle caps, chocolate wrappers, plastic bags etc. What is at least as
disturbing is actually the toilet paper alongside the route. Off course, few
people would ‘survive’ a day long of trekking without having to make a
‘pit-stop’. However, every time we would retreat behind a stone by the side of
the path you would find heaps and heaps of toilet paper all over the place. Now
I hear you thinking: “isn’t it rather difficult and/or awkward to take your
toilet paper with you after use?” Our firm answer to that is: No.
For example a very simple and
hassle-free method for us has been to pack one of these thin sanitary plastic
bags (the ones you would use to wrap and throw away ladies sanitary towels)
into your trouser pocket every morning. After every pit stop along the way, you
use as little paper as needed and put it straight into the bag. Tie a knot in
the bag at the end of the day and put it with your camp’s garbage (your
crewmembers will usually help).
Keep Kili clean!
The Food
Can you believe that on a mountain in Africa, every day when you arrive in camp there is tea waiting for you with popcorn and biscuits. After a little rest you then can enjoy your 3-course dinner. And of course, the next morning, the mountain version of a full English breakfast! (At least with porridge, sausage, egg and toast).
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We never quite figured out when that loss of appetite would or should have taken place as we kept on happily stuffing our faces with all the goodness served to us while day after day we were being told: “It will come, you will lose the appetite”. In the end, on the last day on our way down we decided that the stuffing could stop as we'd only have to walk down to the gate, which was nearly misinterpreted by our team as that we were either not feeling well or disliking the food! (whilst all we were concerned about was the possible extra kilo's we put on our waists...)
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| High-altitude dinner-for-2 |
The Altitude
It feels almost a tad bit arrogant
to say that the altitude hardly bothered us at all. Largely due to our whole
travel scheme being geared towards acclimatisation (having gone first on Safari
to Ngorongoro (rim alt 2600m) and Mt. Meru after that (4565m)). On Meru we
really felt the altitude going to the summit, but on Kili it was actually
merely the last hour of walking from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak that felt
heavy.
Walking at altitude is difficult to
describe. In a way you feel a bit like a zombie: your limbs feel really heavy
and sluggish making walking and keeping your balance quite a challenge. So you
really need your mind to want to continue and keep you going, step by step. In
a way it looks (and feels) as if you were to walk home after a very cosy night
at the pub with one too many beers...;-)
The People
Within just a few days, you already
really start to know the people in your team. And actually, honestly: it is the
PEOPLE that make all the difference in the world. It is the memory of playing
card games with them, joking around, talking and getting to know them in camp
and them trying to teach us some Swahili (mainly food related). Learning about
their ways of life, their families and why they climb this mountain. I will
remember singing songs together in the dark during our summit night and
swinging and dancing our way down to Stella Point again:
“poa
kichizi kama ndizi ndani ya friji!”
Cool crazy like a banana in the fridge
Off course, Kili is so much more
than that! The experience is really hard to describe. How magnificent the
sunrise and sunset is at around 4000m and higher, how incredibly close you feel
to a bright starry sky at night. The secret feeling of satisfaction when
leaving all the other headlamps behind you on the summit push; the utter
exhilaration when you finally see that bloody signpost “Uhuru Peak”, regardless
of how smooth and fast or hard and gruelling your ascent has been. Oh my, what
a mountain. I will dwell on this experience for some time to come and will
forever be grateful for having met such nice, energetic and warm people as
there.
Ahsante!
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