2006 February: 6-day trip
Kilimanjaro via Rongai Route
Tanzania
Organiser
The trip was organised by World Expedition.
They arranged a bus transfer
from Nairobi in Kenya,
to a hotel in Marangu in Tanzania,
at the foothill of Kilimanjaro.
So my first stop in Africa was Nairobi in Kenya..
Health checkup by a young doctor
Prior to the trip,
World Expedition wanted to know
whether I was healthy wealthy and wise.
The wealthy part was easy ...
I just had to pay up fully for the trip.
The healthy and wise bits
needed a doctor's signature.
So off I went to see my local doctor
who happened to be a young chap.
When told he needed to certify that
I was of sound mind and sound health,
he sent me packing to consult a specialist,
at the same time muttering that an old man
like me who wanted to climb Kilimanjaro
should have his head examined.
Geez, just because I am older than him,
doesn't mean he can call me old ...
I hate young doctors !!!
By a female doctor
Anyway, I panicked.
A specialist might find some skeletons
in the closet ...
like iron deficiency or some technicalities
that would ground me from climbing
high mountains.
And besides, it would take ages
to book a specialist.
Our Aussie health system was a bit of a mess.
So I went to see a female doctor
in the next suburb instead.
And also took along my
Kinabalu climbing certificate.
The Kinabalu certificate did wonders.
It was a beautifully printed piece of paper,
full of Sabah's colourful fauna and flora.
The doctor saw it and she loved it.
And I helped along by exaggerating
that Kinabalu was high.
"Very Very High", I emphasized,
even though it is a mere mole hill
compared to Kilimanjaro.
Without asking too many questions,
she signed that I was of sound mind
and sound health.
Phew !!!
I loved female doctors !!!
Nairobi
Back to Nairobi ...
It was a depressing place.
Groups of seemingly unemployed men,
standing around streets doing nothing.
I dared not step outside the hotel.
Isn't Nairobi's nickname Nai-Robbery
or Night Robbers or something similar !?!.
Glad I was out of the place and on a shuttle bus
to Marangu the next day.
Decide on a route to climb Kilimanjaro
Usually I don't sleep well out of
my own bed at home.
So I chose the shortest possible route
for this climb,
to get it done as quickly as possible,
knowing that I may manage only
2 or 3 hours of sleep per night.
Well,
the shortest route was Marangu Route - 5 days.
I gave this the flick because I was warned
it was a horror track, too dusty.
Rongai Route
The next shortest route was the Rongai Route,
6 days.
It tackled Kilimanjaro from the North side.
So I picked this one.
But if I were to do Kilimanjaro again,
I would choose one the routes which approaches
the mountain from the western side ...
because you would get a marvellous view
of the large white ice field on the western flank.
Whereas the other sides are quite
barren and brown.
It is a pity.
Photographs of Kilimanjaro from 30 years ago
showed a beautiful white ice cap
around the entire mountain top.
Global warming has since melted away
much of the ice.
Our group
At the hotel in Marangu,
I met the other 10 climbers in our group.
They were a friendly bunch of people.
And throughout the climb
we encouraged and supported each other,
which helped to explain why
all 11 of us made it to the summit.
Although one young female of our group,
Pippa, attributed her success to Milo ...
because she always scooped in
10 spoonfuls of that stuff into her cup
whenever she had a drink.
Sort of like Popeye gulping down
Spinach to get his strength ... haha !!!
The trip
As for me, it was a piece of cake ...
very easy to hike to the top.
From various blogs on the internet,
it sounds as if one needs to be a
super-fit human being.
Could it be because all the authors
liked to jazz up the difficulties
to make their stories interesting ?
One reason why I find the climb easy was
because the guides walked very slowly.
So slow that if it was any slower,
we would be walking backwards.
This slow walk was called "po-le po-le" in Swahili.
And throughout the climb,
the guides kept reminding us to "po-le po-le".
Actually, because of the low oxygen level,
it was quite impossible to walk fast
without getting into heavy panting.
On the way down, I saw a group of
one-legged amputees on crutches on their way up.
The guides said this was quite common.
They also said they had taken
groups of blind men to the top.
So I think any reasonably fit person
should be able to climb Kilimajaro.
Some photos
1) Photo taken at Namanga, a town right on
the border between Kenya and Tanzania.
- After the immigration check on our luggage,
the bags were loaded back on the bus.
- Note that all baggages were put
on top of the bus.
- The red bag in this photo is mine.
2) Our mass tent
where we had our dinner and breakfast.
- Note the Milo can on the middle of the table
which Pippa liked so much.
3) Me ... on the Rongai Route.
- Kilimanjaro, the volcano, is in the background.
- Its top is a crater created by a volcanic explosion
eons ago.
- Hence the summit is not a cone shape.
It is simply the highest point on the crater rim.
(On the left side of this photo)
4) The porters ... they were amazing ...
flimsily dressed and not afraid of the cold.
- In the morning after we started our hike,
they packed up our tents,
carried all our stuff on their head,
and overtook us.
- By the time we reached the next camp site,
they already had the tents properly set up.
For the record:
There were 31 porters + 4 guides + 1 cook
+ 11 of us climbers.
5, 6) The camp site on day 3 at Mawenzi Tarn.
- The white stuff was snow from
previous day's storm.
7) Our group at the saddle point
between Mawenzi Peak and Kilimanjaro.
- Leading guy was the chief guide.
- Scenery was desert-like
because we were at 4500 meters.
At this altitude, nothing grows ... too cold.
The 5th day was the summit day.
On that day, we waked up at midnight,
had a small meal,
then started the climb at 12:30am.
We were in luck, clear sky, hardly any wind,
no wind-chill factor to worry about.
When we reached the top at 5895 meters,
the temperature was a mild -5C at 9:30am.
8, 9) Ice fields seen from the summit.
10) Kibo Crater.
- Name given to the crater at top of Kilimanjaro.
- In the photo, you can see
a part of the crater rim and the crater floor.
- This crater is huge.
I suspect to circumnavigate it on the crater rim
will take about 12 hours.
11) We were walking on the crater rim
and we were almost there.
- The knob in the distance is
the highest point of Kilimanjaro,
called Uhuru Peak.
12) Me ... at Uhuru Peak.
- Highest point of Kilimajaro, 5895 meters.
13) Giant Senecios.
- We are going down the mountain
on the Marangu Route.
(We went up the Rongai Route,
but we went down on the Marangu Route
on the South side of the mountain.)
14) A view of Kilimanjaro from Horombo Huts.
Farewell by the porters & guides
on morning of the final day
15) Porters and guides, singing and chanting
to farewell us.
- The word "Kilimanjaro" kept coming out of
their mouths.
- But all I could hear was Aconcagua, Aconcagua
as my mind drifts to my next big climb.
Comment
For someone like me who was new to mountains,
the scenery on the Rongai Route was fantastic ...
both on the trail and on the summit.
Every one should make a pilgrim to this mountain
once in his/her life time !!!
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