Our African adventure was during the summer after Lily’s senior year. Melanie had just returned from the Orlando volleyball tournament 2 days before we were to leave. Matt, Lily and Melanie met James, Aaron, and Ari at MSP and flew 9hrs to Amsterdam where we met up with Moody and Jo from Chicago and Adam from LA. From there it was another 8hr flight to Kilimanjaro airport.
6/29/24 – City of Moshi
The day after we arrived was a rest day in the city of Moshi. We got a guided tour of the city by our Ultimate Kilimanjaro guide, August, where we saw many open air markets, the bus station, the train station and ate lunch.
After returning to the hotel, we had a debrief with August about the trip and what to expect the next day. During the debrief we got our first view of the mountain when the cloud surrounding the mountain gave way. After that it was a lot of packing before enjoying the hotel pool and then dinner at Indioitaliano restaurant, which was Jo’s favorite restaurant when she volunteered in Moshi after college. It was excellent food at very reasonable prices. We then needed to navigate the return to our hotel in the dark. Then it was off to bed for the start of our adventure.
6/30/24 – It begins
Sunday started with packing and breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we needed to weigh our packs, but the guide’s antiquated scale read 1kg heavier than Ari’s digital scale and the rental sleeping bag weighed about 1kg heavier than advertised. This caused people to reorganize and James and Matt to give Melanie 1 kg of weight each. After checking luggage, passports and cash, we then waited 1hr to get going for our 3hr van ride to the trail head. After arriving at the Londorossi Gate trailhead (Altitude 7,742ft) we ate box lunch and the guides checked us in which was about 1hr more waiting before we were off on a 3 mile hike through the rain forest.
We saw some beautiful birds, and a couple troops of Colobus monkeys. When we arrived at Mli Mkubwa camp (Altitude 9,500ft), the tents were set up and all we needed to do was set up sleeping mats and sleeping bags. We had popcorn and chips for a snack followed by dinner of cucumber soup, fish sticks, potato chips and veggies. Pretty delicious. The guides said the bathroom tent was where you go to “send a message”, so we ended up calling it the “WIFI tent” and had numerous joke related to that. Then came bed, where ear plugs were a necessity. Even with the ear plugs, one monkey was so loud at midnight that a guide yelled back “Fine, do what you want!” and then the monkey’s quieted down after that.
7/1/24 – Hike to Shira Valley
The next morning was like most, teardown and breakfast of porridge. Then we hiked 6miles into the clouds. Lunch was after we got to Shira 1 camp (Altitude 11,500ft).
The porters and guides sang us two songs to welcome us. The “Jamba Jamba Wana” song was pretty catchy and we ended up hearing that song numerous times during the trip. We met everyone that was going to help get us up the mountain, which were 4 guides, a cook, waiter, toilet attendant, and 24 porters, half of which were named Jon. We chilled at camp by chatting, playing nature flux and hearts before dinner of chicken curry. We were given Teddy Bear heating pads that were filled with hot water, which was a nice way to keep our toes warm. That night we also heard jackals howling at around 2:30am.
7/2 – Camp Moir
This day we hiked until 2pm and had lunch at Camp Moir (altitude 13,580ft). After dinner we did another hike to 14,100ft for some acclimation. It had beautiful views of Shira Valley, where we camped the night before. Dinner was spaghetti. Lily was feeling nauseous at dinner and did not eat much, we gave her some stomach medicine. I had terrible gas after dinner and was still feeling awful during the first half of the hike the next morning.
The night was rough for most of us, with it being the first time sleeping at such a high altitude, the air was extremely dry (destroying noses and throats alike), the wind was extremely strong causing quite a cacophony of sound and it was below freezing at night. The guide ask how you sleep every morning and said that sleeping like a hippo baby is bad, because they wake up every hour. Sleeping like a rock is good. Ari said that he slept like a baby being harassed by a hippo. I thought it was apt description of how I slept as well.
7/3/24 – Lava Tower
I was not able to shake off my poor night sleep and GI issues. Melanie slept great and Lily slept well enough to get rid of her nausea. Breakfast was standard porridge, eggs, with banana peanut butter toast sandwiches as the novel treat. At second break I ate some snacks, took more medicine and felt better by the time we got to Lava Tower (altitude 15,190ft). At Lava Tower, the dining tent was set up and we hung out there for about 2hrs acclimating and eating. It was a good lunch of tomato soup, chicken and fries.
Then we descended to Barranco Camp (Altitude 13,044ft). This portion of the hike was the most beautiful part by far. There was lush vegetation, a waterfall, cool trees and a long easy downhill that was nice after all the long uphill climbs of the days before.
Barranco Camp was described as the “Amsterdam” of camp sites by our guide Obama, because it was where all trails combine before ascending to the top. We were told that there were 170 clients, where peak can be 250 clients. Regardless, it felt like a packed camp. Dinner was good and the stars at night were amazingly bright. Moody was showing Melanie and me the Southern Cross and other constellations in the Southern hemisphere.
7/4/24 – The Wall
It seemed like everyone got a good night sleep. Which was good because we were going to climb “the Wall” today. The Wall is a cliff that the trail climbs up and there is one spot that is called the “kissing rock” because you need to go sideways and it seems like you are kissing the rock when you pass it. James was a bit apprehensive about doing the Wall, but he did well and even admitted that it was impressive. It was Melanie’s favorite part of the trip so far. After the Wall there was a lot of elevation increases with gradual declines, making it a tiring hike. Right before the next camp there was a huge ravine, so we needed to do a very steep decline followed by a very steep incline.
After we got to the Karanga camp (altitude 13,106ft) we had lunch and then time to relax. Dinner was a local stew of bananas and beef, which was quite delicious. There were amazing views of Kilimanjaro and the stars were amazingly bright at night.
7/5 – The final count down
It was another day of waking up by 6:30am and getting a move on early. The hike was uneventful and not much vegetation was at this elevation. We arrived at Barafu camp (altitude 15,331ft) also known as space camp. We ate lunch at 1:30pm, took a nap and then had an early dinner at 5pm. Then we went to bed early because we needed to get up at 10:45pm so we could start climbing by 11:30pm for the final ascent.
7/6 – The Climb
Off we went at 11:30pm in the dark on 7/5. Even at this hour, the trail was already heavily traveled with other hikers. There were headlamps as far as you could see ahead and behind. It was a strenuous 4,000ft altitude gain to Uhuru Peak at 19,341ft, but only 3 miles in length. However, it ended up taking 8.5hrs to ascend. Everyone was bundled up in winter clothes since there is a glacier at the top, but the first hour of hiking was warm and people were shedding layers at the “lower” elevation and with heat of the day still wearing off. Then it started to get cold and all the layers came back on.
At around 17,000ft Lily started feeling nauseous and she took some anti-nausea medicine which she threw up. She was a trooper but by 17,500ft she was puking again, with a head ache and dizziness, the three major symptoms of altitude sickness. The guides came over and one guide, Obama, stayed with Lily to let her rest and take her back down the mountain if her situation did not improve. The whole group was very sad for Lily because we thought that her adventure was coming to an end. However, the rest of the group knew that we must continue.
The slog continued and at one point Melanie and I independently thought we saw Lily leave a rest area as we stopped to take a break. Knowing that could not be, we continued upwards into the night. Finally, maybe 1.5hrs later we caught up to and reconnecting up with Lily. Everyone was amazed that she was ahead of us and still climbing, She hadn’t given up and actually passed the group when we had taken a break. Her grit was impressive based on the condition that she was in.
What seemed like endless switchbacks, we finally made it to Stella Pass at 18,885ft, which was just about 500ft from the summit. After resting we continued into the truly artic zone, hiking over ice, snow and glaciers. At this time, 8hrs into the hike and feeling the effects of the low oxygen environment, lack of sleep and lack of food, the entire group made it to the top!!! I broke down in tears of joy and pride of what my teenage daughters were able to accomplish. Lily with her tenacity to never give up (even with such difficult affects of altitude sickness) and Melanie with her ability to power though the challenge with her steadfast determination and fortitude. The entire group made it!!!! There was so much jubilation and happiness about all of us accomplishing the task together. Even Uncle Adam was crying tears of happiness on what we were able to achieve as a team. As the chant our guides had us say up the mountain (which we regularly messed up) “One Team, One Dream. To the top and then back down safely”.
Heading back down the mountain was also hard work. Getting back to base camp took 4 additional hours. Along the way we witnessed a terrible accident when a ~2′ diameter boulder struck a hiker in the hip and Adam, James and Ari ended up on the ground after diving out of the rocks path. The female hiker that was hit ended up being carried to base camp by Sherpas (including many from our group). Unfortunately it was cloudy at camp and she was still waiting at the helicopter pad hours later when we descended from base camp.
Once we got to base camp, we had 1hr to rest and then packed up before a quick lunch and then continuing our descent. Half the descent was on nice trails and the other half of the hike was on a concrete path that had random stones protruding in every direction, which was brutal on knees and feet. However, after the 4hr hike we made it to our final camping location at Camp Mweka (Altitude 10,065ft) in the rain forest. After dinner everyone went to bed exhausted after 16hrs of hiking that day and the culmination of 7days of effort and acclimation.
7/7 – Back to the hotel
The final morning was mostly like all the rest, wake up at 6:30am, tear down and breakfast. After breakfast, the guides and Sherpas did a goodbye speech and songs.
The hike out was another 4hrs, but was a muddy slog through a beautiful rain forest, where we saw a couple troops of monkeys.
After checkout, we drove to a lunch place and gift shop. Joanna bought some beautiful tanzanite earrings. Lunch was more of the same: chicken, French fries, fruit and salad. After making it back to the hotel, we checked in, got the tip ready and had our final goodbyes with the guides. We got to go to our rooms for showers, but there was no hot water and at times no water all together, likely because other campers were getting back and doing the same thing, but we were on the top floor so we lost out…
We met up with Emily that night for dinner, who was joining on the Safari.
Final thoughts about the hike:
The Sherpas were amazing. They would wait until we left camp, break it down, hike past us and set it up before we arrive. Then brush the dust off of us after we arrive. Just impressive how they are acclimatized to the altitude and cold and could carry such heavy loads while doing double time up and down the mountain.
Hospitality was outstanding. Most everyone was friendly and truly wanted us to succeed.
The food was extremely good given we were on the side of a mountain for 8 days. However, the spice palette repetition did get old after a while.
It was so much fun doing it with friends and family. So many good conversations on hikes and playing games during the nights.
We lucked out on weather – only saw couple sprinkles on the final day hike though the rain forest.
Essentials:
- Ear plugs
- Sleep pad
- Wide brimmed hat
- Poles (or at least one for the down slope)
- A good medical bag with stomach medicine (nausea, diarrhea, gas)
- Warm clothes (snow gear was a good idea)
- Snacks