Kilimanjaro Climb Every Mountain

Here I am, back in the UK after what can only be described as an amazing 10 days!
I guess you want the full rundown on climbing Kilimanjaro? Well either way you are going to get it if you keep on reading.


23rd June jump in car, around 2 pm, to head off for Heathrow to meet up with the UK contingent of the trip. I should add at this point that I completely misunderstood the requirements for anti-malaria tablets. But the great team at our local doctors and chemist bailed me out, literally at the last moment. Gave them huge thanks and a box of chocolates, I think that was the clincher, or maybe the fact I wore the charity tee shirt may have helped. Uneventful flight, made even more uneventful by the fact very few of the video screens worked. Arrived in Nairobi early hours of Wednesday.



24th June relatively quick, HA!HA!, paperwork from customs, why are you here? Where are you going? Where are you stopping? etc We were only going to be in the country for 6 hours then transfer to coach with all major gear being strapped to roof, camera gear held firmly in grip as I was jumped aboard. We all looked so fresh faced and ready for the mountain.

Unfortunately we had an 11 hour coach journey mainly on unmade roads through Kenya. A request came of "could we have some music on, please" the first song was..........you guessed it "we’re on the road to nowhere" by Talking heads, how appropriate!

When we got to the border with Tanzania, well form after form appeared. They don't appear to have many trees here so the paper must have been brought in from further afield. Finally arrived at the hotel, very civilised.
Just time to freshen up and a briefing from hell about how best to die from AMS (advanced mountain sickness) with the ultimate tip "the best we can do is spot the problems and get you down, damn quick" On average 2 or more people die on Kili a year! Keith frantically going through notes from UK looking for the "get me off the mountain free card".
No alcohol and a relatively early night for us all. I’d met Steve, my Kili buddy, at the training weekend in the Brecon Beacons earlier in the year. Meeting up again was great with this adventure becoming evermore pressing, well it had actually already started, but I tend to be late for everything, so mine hadn't kicked in just yet.

25th June just a short 3 hour journey, that was how it was put to us, on roads that made yesterdays look like a motorway! Stopping off in one village where an African lady was scrabbling around in the dirt of the road picking up gravel that had dropped from a passing truck. Everything, but everything, has a value in these terribly poor regions.

All arrived safe and sound at Naromoru Park Gate and the very start of the Nalemuru route. Quick lunch and we are finally off trekking in Africa. WOW! Suddenly realise all my efforts for training were not in the best of directions, gulp. Namely hard stints of mountain biking around the south downs, working out using the ships gym when at sea for a couple of hours a day. All without my rucksack, idiot! My knees ached, then my hips ached and then my back ached, not a lot but enough to make me aware of them and this was just the beginning.
After about an hour we came across some Colobus monkeys, all my pain disappeared as I enjoyed the spectacle of them feasting on maize cobs. Then we had a group of Yellow Backed Baboons right there in our path, everyone by now had got the measure of Keith and I was eagerly pushed to the front to capture them forever in digital media. I must admit, FILM did sound so much better.
Around 5 pm we arrive at Simba camp, didn't see any Disney lions so a little disappointed, but it did mean I could sleep without worry.
Our porters and guides gave us a welcome song and dance, apparently this is quite rare, they must have known we were going to be no trouble. Dinner was amazing, as was all the food and drink on this trip. Then the treat of an African sunset and my first night under canvas. Ahhh I hadn't actually mentioned it to anyone else either, well why spoil the surprise? Well yes the first time I had slept in a sleeping bag was in the Brecon Beacons, as I mentioned earlier, but this was my first time under canvas and the first long trek I have ever attempted, GULP! Apparently, so I recently found out, most people climb things like Ben Nevis, Snowdon, then onto the Great Wall of China , then Machu Picchu then and only then KILIMANJARO. Well I'm obviously not everyone, am I?

26th June had a pretty goodnight’s sleep but woke early, as when I'm apart from Mary I never get a brilliant night of rest. Benefit of this, I get to capture the African sunrise. Breathtaking, to see our challenge slowly being illuminated by the rising sun.
Cooked breakfast and a cup of tea, I could get used to this camping after all. Then off for an 8 hour trek, can't believe I'm calling 8 hours a trek! Through some amazing scenery of moorland, scattered with boulders and coming across lava caves. We don't get many of those on the South Downs!!
Now hear this! One of the young ladies on our trip had a birthday, today. We all signed a card to her which was of a sailing yacht! Then the truly amazing thing......the cooks and porters came in with a birthday day with icing and 5 candles. Don't even ask where it all came from although I do know the cake was produced by steaming over an incredibly low flame for over 2 hours. What a way to spend your 50th birthday?
It gets dark around 7:30pm and then the temperature really starts to drop. But the stars looked so gorgeous I just had to stay out and capture our illuminated tents with the best star background ever. Then around 9.30pm our mountain became a silhouette with the moon for lighting, awesome.

27th June up around 5:30 am again for another sunrise. Yes I know I have loads of them but I enjoy being behind the camera when Mother Nature puts on her displays. We are above cloud level now at around 3600m so the sunrise is somewhat different to those seen by me onboard ship. Fantastic to now see our mountain lit by the orange glow of the morning sun from exactly the same spot I caught it being illuminated by the moon last night. Short day of trekking today, oh get me 3 days in and 4 hours trekking is a short day. One place we actually had a scramble up some rocks, great fun.
My phone seems to be playing up but Gary, a really helpful guy, lent me his phone to speak to Mary. Oh so good to hear her voice and tell her all is calm.
Seems very weird to be heading away from Kili but we are off to Mawenzi Tarn to acclimatise for nearly 2 days.
Around 3 pm we are all rounded up to have a go at climbing scree. Seriously steep and very slippery, loose gravel for those of you, like me, unfamiliar with this term. Actually I had a go on some in Wales but thought it sounded more dramatic to plead ignorance. The other reason for the assent was to climb high and sleep low, apparently this helps acclimatisation, hey these guys know what they are doing.
Great dinner and you guessed it Keith out taking more night time scenes, well it would be rude not too.

28th June early rise again, yep sunrise was a callin' and what a beauty. Today we have a scramble up onto a ridge of high boulders setting off around 9am and back for lunch. Built a tarn for Mary, basically a pile of rocks forming a pyramid. Now normally I object to these as rock graffiti, but our one is very discrete and looks quite natural. Just a great place to come and spend time on my own thinking about the things you can only think about when you are at peace with the world around you. I found this little area of great help and even if I never go back I can still picture myself there.
Had another scary demo of what they will do to keep you alive at extreme altitude. Yep you read it right extreme altitude there is no higher description even if you summit Everest. Basically it was a PAC (portable altitude chamber) a large tube they place your limp body into and add oxygen pressure with a foot pump. This drops the altitude, using pressure so your body has time to get back to normal. They then remove you from the chamber and, rush you down the mountain, thus gaining valuable time. They used to actually put someone in it for the demo but an altimeter watch does the same thing, I did notice nobody actually jumped forward to have ago.
Went off for a little scramble with Steve to the lava caves above the camp before dinner and sunset.

29th June another beautiful dawn and leaving around 8 am to walk the saddle to Kibo. The scenery changes so quickly we are now walking in almost desert with the occasional boulder and low scrub plants. We come across a light aircraft plane crash from November of last year and are steered to avoid it. Rightly so, apparently it was an illegal pleasure flight from Kenya with a family including a young child and baby. Just shows you how vulnerable we all are, one second you are having the ride of your life with your family and then just another statistic the mountain has claimed.
Arriving at Kibo around 1 pm I'm out photographing the area and decide that a rock climb might be in order to get that panoramic record to show where we were. Apparently one of the Marie Curie reps came out of his tent saw me on the top of the rocks and turned the other way. I guess people under your charge can't fall unless you see them do it! Steve was going to join me but announced that he had broken no less than 30 bones in his body, now he tells me. But he was happy to guide me back down so I could get foot and hand holds, thank you Steve.

Sunset behind our mountain with spectacular rays of light to finish off another perfect day in Africa. well almost finish off that is. We had an early dinner and bed as we were getting up at 11pm to start climbing to the summit at midnight, you are kidding, right? NOPE.

30th June SUMMIT DAY. This is it, we are off in a tight group to ascend to the highest part on the African continent. To put this more into context, Kibo is already higher than the highest point in Europe and that include Mount Blanc. All wearing head torches and looking at the heels of the person in front. The assent was broken down into bite size chunks, namely 1 hour sections, supposed to be totalling 6. This was extremely steep on scree as we had practised; we traversed the mountain on well worn paths and within an hour were overtaken by a Korean party. This was not a race and Chris the overall leader gave the impression that we would be seeing them again in the not too distant future, how right he was.
Within another hour or so we had gone past the Koreans, our constant pace of "poli-poli", slowly- slowly in Swahili, had stood us in good stead. We summated early, just after 5 am to Gilmans point. Then after a short while we were asked if we wanted to go on to Uhuru point. Hell yes that's what I came for, wasn't it?

Unfortunately, unknown to us at this time, 3 members of our team were not going to make the summit. A real shame but Kili is not going anywhere so if they feel they must do it I'm sure she will welcome them back.
Now the worst list for an expedition leader, I have this on great authority, would be photographer, pain in the bum always last always wanting that one more shot p-l-e-a-s-e! Someone who has never camped before and last but by no means least someone who has never attempted a climb before. That all kind of points to..............me. Well with all this to play for and nothing to lose, I felt great, sort of on top of the world I guess? Well Africa anyway.
So we set off for the final challenge, well not quite we do have to get down as well, oh forgot about that bit. With the sun rising behind us, I managed to get a few shots of the fantastic scene, big surprise there then. The crater took on a very different feel as the day lightened the scene around us. Head torches give you a very different perspective as they only illuminate a short distance and obviously only where you are looking you get no feeing of the scale or vastness and reality of where you now tread.
We came across the massive glacier snowfield; unfortunately I have no scale of this amazing natural phenomenon left from the ice age. But this is nothing to its glory a few years ago; yes the glacier is shrinking at an astounding rate, due to you guessed it - Global Warming. Scientists now estimate that the glacier will be totally gone in around 20 years, a real shame, but I can’t see an end to the erosion.
Then I DID IT, well actually we did it, yes, Steve and I had a picture taken at the top of Africa. Now surely I would be allowed to cut some slack to take pictures of this magnificent scene? No time, we have to start the descent. The right thing to do I agree but it was sooooo very stunning up there.
One member of the team had gone rather gaga, well he was struggling with removing his lens cap, and started to become quite incoherent. You guessed it AMS. One of the guides got him under one arm and our tri-athlete participant representing Marie Curie grabbed his other arm and off he went at break neck speed down to Kibo. You will be very pleased to know he, as is the case with most AMS sufferers, was fine once they got him to a better level of oxygen and altitude.
Slowly coming back to Gilmans point and someone else fell victim, no not me, but our birthday girl. Completely exhausted and struggling with every slight incline. Mind you I was moving a lot slower and any incline really made you gasp for breath.
Back at Gilmans Moses, the main Guide leader, virtually picked her up and trundled her off at an amazing speed. That just left Chris and I to make the final descent, me dragging my heels still trying to capture these amazing scenes.
Finally back at my tent to pack, get some lunch, and be back on the trail by 1 pm, for another 4 hours of downhill trekking. That felt real good, downhill on a gentle slope, to Horombo camp. Steve and I crash out in our tent, by 5:30pm and missed dinner, slept right through until nearly 6am. Both feel totally refreshed and ready for the final day trekking back to our hotel.
One extra bit of info on the day, Mary had flowers delivered today with a note from me saying "Summit day and to summit all up I'm shouting my love for you from the top of Africa" Brownie point hero or what?

1st July we are again spoilt with a parting song from the guides and porters and we have raised over $1850 to say thank you to our most valuable commodity on this trip.
Setting off at 8:20am everyone can kick back a little and enjoy this final day through a vast changing scenery from scrubland/moorland through the rainforest. Then onto Marangu Park Gate to get on the coach for a 15 minute journey to the comfort of our hotel at around 4:30pm.
Kilimanjaro beer just tastes brilliant! That’s all I have to say on that subject and the more you drink the better it tastes too. Gala dinner with all the ladies making a real effort and most of the guys, well just being guys I guess. Oh come on we put on cleanish Tee shirts and trousers that hadn't been worn on the trip, what more could they ask for?

2nd July Leaving Africa for the flight home, not so fast. Yep another long long journey on unmade roads, more bureaucracy at the border and arrived at airport with 3 hours to kill. Great. Mind you the scenery again was amazing and when I did eventually pick up my car and was heading round the M25 I realised that less than 24 hours earlier I was on a dirt road being bounced about, covered in dust, Crazy.

The one main thing I have learnt from all this excitement and travelling in recent times is the fact that nothing, bar nothing, beats being with your soul mate, wherever that may be.

A brief video I will be uploading a bigger version on the website and have full res copies of the whole trip for sale.