sorry about the delay in writing this post!! has taken a while finding a computer where we can put up some photos and a spare minute to do something about it :)
the flight from Dar to Kili was pretty uneventful - just an hour late leaving and overcrowded. the drive from the airport to our hotel was also nondescript. we didn't actually end up getting our first glimpse of Kili until we got up there because it was dark when we got there and clouded over teh next day!
anyway, when we finally got going up the mountain it was awesome. the first day was spent slowly climbing through rain forest from the Machame gate at 2000m to Machame hut at about 3000m. it was here that we first glimpsed the summit, but we weren't sure if was it cos it didn't look that daunting!
i think sarah has already commented on the quality of the campsite (toilets) so i won't go into that except to say that the food was good and we stayed dry. day 2 began climbing straight away and we got a good view out towards Mt Meru. the rest of the day we climbed from the rainforest up through some rocky terrain to the second camp at Shira 2 at 3600m. here we saw some of the best scenery of the whole climb, with clouds coming up the valley towards us and a spectacular sunset behind Meru. the moon rising behind the clear summit just capped it off.
day three we climbed from Shira 2 up to a rock formation known as the lava tower at 4600m before dropping back down to camp at 3900m. i woke up this day not feeling all that great - resting pulse of about 120bpm, headache, dizzy, etc. and so found the day pretty tough. sarah took the trouble to laugh at me. we rested briefly at teh lava tower to acclimatise before dropping down to camp. i pretty much went straight to bed with a couple of asprin and a diamox. the view of the summit that night was again spectacular with a near full moon and perfectly clear night. each day the summit was clear early in the morning and then clouded over about 9am. depending on the alt we were walking through cloud most of teh day before the summit cleared again late afternoon for a speccy sunset and clear, cold night. on the whole we were very luck with the weather, as it had rained heavily the week before.
day four marked the beginning of our summit ascent, and what a beginning it was. we climbed up what looked to be a pretty vertical rock wall straight after breakfast to 4250m and then worked our way around the mountain to our lunch spot and eventually camp for that night at Barufu at 4600m. again i awoke not feeling too flash but after more diamox and asprin managed most of the walk ok. sarah began feeling a bit nauseous after lunch while we climbed to base camp (Barufu). the climb was very long and tough and we were both wrecked by the time we got there. we had an early dinner and awoke at 11pm to begin our summit ascent. sarah hadn't slept much because it was unbelievably windy and i had come down off my diamox high so it wasn't with the most optimistic view that we left camp. add to this the fact that it was about -20 degrees (disregarding windchill), the wind was gusting to over 80kmh and it was pitch dark.
well. the climb. all i can say is long, cold, windy, dark, windy, cold and long. and cold. we had about 6 layers of clothes on (which we had slept in) and it was still the coldest, most exhausting thing i have ever done. by far. we crested the crater rim at about 5740m at about 6am - just as the sun was rising over teh second peak. it was beautiful and amazing and spectacular and uterly exhauting but so worth it. i had had difficulty breathing up the last part of teh climb and had pretty much been working on adrenaline. sarah was exhausted as well because the climb really was very steep and slippery up a scree slope and it had been too cold and windy to stop often.
the point we had reached is known as Stella Point and is at the summit on the crater rim at about 5740. the summit proper, however is about another hours walk around the rim and is at 5895. we both set off, however i only made it about another 15min before deciding i couldn't keep up to the summit - we still had to make it back to Barafu and then further down to camp that night! sarah by this stage was also feeling the effects of the walk but managed to continue on to get a postcard photo at the summit. standing at the summit once the sun had risen we were confronted with the enormity of our climb that morning - no wonder it's attempted in darkness! i descended with our assistant guide and sarah followed with our guide once summiting. the descent back down the scree slope would have been fun if not for being so exhausted - we basically skied down.
after resting at Barufu we were woken for lunch and then another 3hrs of walking down to our camp that night at Mweka hut. by this stage i had begun feeling myself again - although tired! all in all, in about 30hrs we had climbed from 3900m to 5895m and then descended back to 3100m - a total of about 20hrs walking! the final day we had a shortish walk back to Mweka gate at 2000m, which we further shortened by running! on return to our hotel in Moshi we had several very well earned beers and spent the day by the pool.
many people started on our route at teh same time as us so there was plenty of people to meet and talk to as we walked. disconcertingly, we passed a significant percentage of them who failed to make the summit as we ascended. in all it was a fantastic climb and, subtracting health issues, was not a difficult climb until the summit ascent. highly recommended!!
