Day One:
We were picked up from our hotel by a van full of porters, cooks and guides and driven the three hours through questionable Tanzanian traffic from Arusha to our gate on the Marangu route. I was definitely nervous about the climb but felt better when we were all registered and started off on our walk. However, that feeling didn’t last long, as Marty was powering up the hills with me puffing behind him! The guides laughed and told Marty to slow down, and we gradually settled into a rhythm for our first 8kms. I was wrecked when we got to our first camp, and didn’t realise it at the time, but was probably suffering a little altitude sickness, with a headache and loss of appetite. We popped our first altitude pills and headed to bed early, like every night for the rest of the week! Sleeping took a bit of getting used to, with monkeys chirping and carrying on most of the night. A trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night showed a beautiful night sky :)
Day Two:
Things took a turn on day two, with the path being a lot harder! After a massive breakfast, like all the meals on Kili, we started walking uphill for most of our 12kms. The landscape changed from rainforest to desert, with the occasional random gum tree. After a well deserved lunch break, the last hour and a half of the walk was a lot easier, I think we both did our best walking after lunch! It was so hard getting up in the morning and forcing all this food down, particularly as a) you didn’t feel like eating due to the altitude and b) it probably wouldn’t be your first choice of breakfast. We quite often got a telling off for our lack of eating. The Horombo huts were up a lot further, and a lot colder! It would be our base for the next two nights.
Day Three:
Merry Christmas! We were lucky enough to have a rest day for Christmas Day, in order to acclimatise ourselves more for the ascent. We went for an hour walk up to Zebra Rocks, which funnily enough, were striped like a zebra. We spent most of the day sleeping and trying to get through the mountain of food fed to us before our next big walk. Christmas away was different, but with no way to communicate with home or family, it didn’t really seem like we were missing anything! Except a whole lot of ham and turkey :(
Day Four:
Another big walk for day 4; 10kms. We weren’t really feeling any effects from the altitude apart from a lack of appetite and shortness of breath when walking. Though that could have been because the walking was soooooooo long and slow and constantly uphill! I cracked it by lunchtime and chucked my iPod in for the afternoon walk, walking along to The Beatles until the iPod decided to not work, further increasing my bad mood. I should mention here that Marty found the walk trying at times too, I’m not just being dramatic :)
Once we reached Kibo Huts, we were to have a rest, be woken for dinner at 4.30pm, have a briefing, and then sleep until 10.30pm, when we would be woken to start the summit. As we were sleeping in a dorm room, this was easier said than done! Everyone did really well trying to keep the noise down, but I think we were all geared up and nervous for the summit and overthinking too much to sleep. So at 6.30ish we went to bed after choosing how many layers we could wear at one time and packing our day packs full of snacks and energy gels (thanks Dad!). 10.30 came around too soon, as we had one CRAZY Bolivian girl who had walked all 3 days/stages in one day and was then going to summit, who must have packed only plastic bags and fussed around in her pack, ate dinner in her bed AND brushed her teeth in bed for a good hour. Lets just say she didn’t make many friends!
So the layers went on, we had one last cup of milo/tea and we started walking at 11pm. A good time for going out, and amazingly, a good time for walking. Because you can’t see where you are going, apart from the dim light your headtorch shines. So you just keep walking. Zig-zagging up a mountain, walking on more sand than path, up you go. I hit my low point at about 2.30am, when I had no energy left and felt physically ill from the effort. It was here I got a bit of tough love from our guides and was told that we were close to the halfway point. Another energy gel down and off we went. Lots of stops, lots of water, and it was at this point a guide took my daypack, meaning just me and my poles kept going up! Marty was faring well, except a quick trip to the bathroom walking fast meant he was out of breath for a while after. You can’t do anything fast. Even though we weren’t feeling unwell or showing any signs of altitude sickness, you are out of breath so quickly!
We reached Gilmans Point at 5am. After climbing a motherload of ridiculous rocks, ones that I had to be physically lifted up in order to make the step. That was our walk. Sand and rocks. Until Gilmans, when we found snow! The walk passed quicker once we were at a fairly similar level and knew that we would reach the summit.
And reach the summit we did :) At 6.30am we touched the sign of Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the continent of Africa. Incredible. And crazy. Considering we didn’t train, wore our boots once before leaving to ‘wear them in’ and weren’t tooooo fussed with reaching the peak. But we did, no sickness, no injury greater than a sunburnt nose. But you don’t get long on the peak, so after 5 minutes, and a few tears from me, we went down.
Now I’m a reader. I read a lot about this trip, where to go and what to do. No one, and I mean no one mentioned the horror of the walk down. A lot of people say how good it is going down due to altitude, but seeing as we weren’t suffering, we just found it hard. But, at least we didn’t see what we were walking up in the darkness. We were quite surprised just what we had walked, and found it hard coming down in pretty much sand. I was dragged down the hill by Daniel, and Marty and Joshua sand skied a little bit behind us. We arrived back at Kibo at 11 for a quick nap and some lunch, as well as finding out how our new friends went on the climb. It was a particularly bad luck day, with only 3 out of the 10 groups we knew of reaching Uhuru Peak. Most made it to Gilmans, earning 1 certificate, but quite a few suffered from altitude sickness. It really showed how lucky we were. The weather was quite bad so we had to leave after an hour to the next camp, 10kms away. This is where we learned that downhill is not as fun as it seemed. Double pairs of socks lead to the stubbing of toes on the front of our shoes. We started off at a good pace but soon tired, and found the last hour or so of the walk infuriating, particularly when the guards wouldn’t tell us how much further it was to go. We spent our last night mainly sleeping and eating a little, I think we were so overtired that we didn’t feel like eating. We were definitely looking forward to getting down to a shower, a bed and a real meal!
Once we reached Kibo Huts, we were to have a rest, be woken for dinner at 4.30pm, have a briefing, and then sleep until 10.30pm, when we would be woken to start the summit. As we were sleeping in a dorm room, this was easier said than done! Everyone did really well trying to keep the noise down, but I think we were all geared up and nervous for the summit and overthinking too much to sleep. So at 6.30ish we went to bed after choosing how many layers we could wear at one time and packing our day packs full of snacks and energy gels (thanks Dad!). 10.30 came around too soon, as we had one CRAZY Bolivian girl who had walked all 3 days/stages in one day and was then going to summit, who must have packed only plastic bags and fussed around in her pack, ate dinner in her bed AND brushed her teeth in bed for a good hour. Lets just say she didn’t make many friends!
So the layers went on, we had one last cup of milo/tea and we started walking at 11pm. A good time for going out, and amazingly, a good time for walking. Because you can’t see where you are going, apart from the dim light your headtorch shines. So you just keep walking. Zig-zagging up a mountain, walking on more sand than path, up you go. I hit my low point at about 2.30am, when I had no energy left and felt physically ill from the effort. It was here I got a bit of tough love from our guides and was told that we were close to the halfway point. Another energy gel down and off we went. Lots of stops, lots of water, and it was at this point a guide took my daypack, meaning just me and my poles kept going up! Marty was faring well, except a quick trip to the bathroom walking fast meant he was out of breath for a while after. You can’t do anything fast. Even though we weren’t feeling unwell or showing any signs of altitude sickness, you are out of breath so quickly!
We reached Gilmans Point at 5am. After climbing a motherload of ridiculous rocks, ones that I had to be physically lifted up in order to make the step. That was our walk. Sand and rocks. Until Gilmans, when we found snow! The walk passed quicker once we were at a fairly similar level and knew that we would reach the summit.
And reach the summit we did :) At 6.30am we touched the sign of Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the continent of Africa. Incredible. And crazy. Considering we didn’t train, wore our boots once before leaving to ‘wear them in’ and weren’t tooooo fussed with reaching the peak. But we did, no sickness, no injury greater than a sunburnt nose. But you don’t get long on the peak, so after 5 minutes, and a few tears from me, we went down.
Now I’m a reader. I read a lot about this trip, where to go and what to do. No one, and I mean no one mentioned the horror of the walk down. A lot of people say how good it is going down due to altitude, but seeing as we weren’t suffering, we just found it hard. But, at least we didn’t see what we were walking up in the darkness. We were quite surprised just what we had walked, and found it hard coming down in pretty much sand. I was dragged down the hill by Daniel, and Marty and Joshua sand skied a little bit behind us. We arrived back at Kibo at 11 for a quick nap and some lunch, as well as finding out how our new friends went on the climb. It was a particularly bad luck day, with only 3 out of the 10 groups we knew of reaching Uhuru Peak. Most made it to Gilmans, earning 1 certificate, but quite a few suffered from altitude sickness. It really showed how lucky we were. The weather was quite bad so we had to leave after an hour to the next camp, 10kms away. This is where we learned that downhill is not as fun as it seemed. Double pairs of socks lead to the stubbing of toes on the front of our shoes. We started off at a good pace but soon tired, and found the last hour or so of the walk infuriating, particularly when the guards wouldn’t tell us how much further it was to go. We spent our last night mainly sleeping and eating a little, I think we were so overtired that we didn’t feel like eating. We were definitely looking forward to getting down to a shower, a bed and a real meal!
Day Six:
Finally the last day arrived! We knew we had a difficult walk ahead of us; 20kms downhill. We packed up, said goodbye to new friends and tried to shovel down as much breakfast as possible so we could get down the hill.
However, our last challenge was not the walk; it was tipping. Tipping is something that we don’t understand to start with. Its not a case of leaving the coins from your change in a restaurant or rounding up the cost of the bill. It is expected. We had tried to ask around as much as possible prior to leaving, as we had been quoted as much as $300US each to tip our team of 8. The day before we left, we were given figures by the tour company, which we took with a grain of salt, expecting them to be a little inflated. By their calculations, we were expected to tip around $550 to the group of 8, with each staff member receiving a different amount. To put that in perspective, that’s how much money I would see after tax working 3 games of footy at Etihad. Luckily, we had talked to our room mates on the last night, who had spoken to their porter about the subject of tipping. He told them that the tipping cycle has become inflated due to tour groups asking too much, and at the end of the day, it is a tip. Luckily we had that conversation before we gave over all the money! It left Marty and I with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths, particularly because the guides initiate a ‘group photo’, after which we are expected to hand over the money. The argument can be made that they earn so little per month, but I think that problem lies in the tour companies, rather than relying on the tourists to supplement their salary. It cost us $1440US each to do the walk. Park fees are $585 and the remaining money is then for the food, a ‘cut’ for the company, and I’m guessing salaries come last. There is a market for a western based company to sell trips with the slogan ‘no need to tip’!
But back to our walk. Down we went. We knew that we had to walk 12kms downhill to our lunch stop, and we went hard and fast, before the rain started. And once it started raining, it didn’t stop. We were so wet! We only had a 15 minute lunch break because we got too cold having stopped. Luckily we had company (as Marty walked ahead of me all the time!) and we were able to pass the time with laughing and telling stories. Finally, the other girls’ guide told us 7 minutes left, and we made it down to the check in, where we signed back in, got our certificates and thought what the hell did we do that for?
Walking was now a big issue, with my legs having given up, and the prospect of a 3 hour bus ride ahead of us was not appealing. Luckily we warmed up and settled back into our seats with the thoughts of all the food we were going to eat when we got back.
But of course we had one more hiccup. Our accommodation was overbooked and we had to be moved to another hotel, luckily 10 meters down the road. I think the look on my face was pretty unimpressed, and I would have been a scary sight, all wet and tired and dirty, so they ushered us to the new place. Marty had to speak sternly to reception for us to get our clothes washed, but everything worked out in the end. We were safe, well, clean, and could order whatever food we wanted and eat as much or as little as we wanted.
All in all, writing this a week later, it was a strange experience. It was one we weren’t particularly ‘motivated’ or felt challenged to do. We hadn’t prepared any more than making sure we had the right clothes to wear. It wasn’t on our bucket list. We got sick of walking and didn’t like our guides sometimes. But as much as this all might sound a little ‘whatever’, we did it. We made the top and I cried at the effort and determination needed. It was truly hard to keep going some days. But we were lucky to not get sick or injured and as the guides said at 2.30am when I had had enough, there was no reason for us not to make it. We had to keep walking.
However, our next holiday will definitely not be an adventure one. We’re thinking more resort with room service and an infinity pool :)
However, our last challenge was not the walk; it was tipping. Tipping is something that we don’t understand to start with. Its not a case of leaving the coins from your change in a restaurant or rounding up the cost of the bill. It is expected. We had tried to ask around as much as possible prior to leaving, as we had been quoted as much as $300US each to tip our team of 8. The day before we left, we were given figures by the tour company, which we took with a grain of salt, expecting them to be a little inflated. By their calculations, we were expected to tip around $550 to the group of 8, with each staff member receiving a different amount. To put that in perspective, that’s how much money I would see after tax working 3 games of footy at Etihad. Luckily, we had talked to our room mates on the last night, who had spoken to their porter about the subject of tipping. He told them that the tipping cycle has become inflated due to tour groups asking too much, and at the end of the day, it is a tip. Luckily we had that conversation before we gave over all the money! It left Marty and I with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths, particularly because the guides initiate a ‘group photo’, after which we are expected to hand over the money. The argument can be made that they earn so little per month, but I think that problem lies in the tour companies, rather than relying on the tourists to supplement their salary. It cost us $1440US each to do the walk. Park fees are $585 and the remaining money is then for the food, a ‘cut’ for the company, and I’m guessing salaries come last. There is a market for a western based company to sell trips with the slogan ‘no need to tip’!
But back to our walk. Down we went. We knew that we had to walk 12kms downhill to our lunch stop, and we went hard and fast, before the rain started. And once it started raining, it didn’t stop. We were so wet! We only had a 15 minute lunch break because we got too cold having stopped. Luckily we had company (as Marty walked ahead of me all the time!) and we were able to pass the time with laughing and telling stories. Finally, the other girls’ guide told us 7 minutes left, and we made it down to the check in, where we signed back in, got our certificates and thought what the hell did we do that for?
Walking was now a big issue, with my legs having given up, and the prospect of a 3 hour bus ride ahead of us was not appealing. Luckily we warmed up and settled back into our seats with the thoughts of all the food we were going to eat when we got back.
But of course we had one more hiccup. Our accommodation was overbooked and we had to be moved to another hotel, luckily 10 meters down the road. I think the look on my face was pretty unimpressed, and I would have been a scary sight, all wet and tired and dirty, so they ushered us to the new place. Marty had to speak sternly to reception for us to get our clothes washed, but everything worked out in the end. We were safe, well, clean, and could order whatever food we wanted and eat as much or as little as we wanted.
All in all, writing this a week later, it was a strange experience. It was one we weren’t particularly ‘motivated’ or felt challenged to do. We hadn’t prepared any more than making sure we had the right clothes to wear. It wasn’t on our bucket list. We got sick of walking and didn’t like our guides sometimes. But as much as this all might sound a little ‘whatever’, we did it. We made the top and I cried at the effort and determination needed. It was truly hard to keep going some days. But we were lucky to not get sick or injured and as the guides said at 2.30am when I had had enough, there was no reason for us not to make it. We had to keep walking.
However, our next holiday will definitely not be an adventure one. We’re thinking more resort with room service and an infinity pool :)
hey Rach just read this, sounds painful! I don't think I could hack it!
ReplyDeletetipping was something we also had a lot of trouble with on our safaris, its just not something that we are used to in australia!
I think we ended up paying our guides $10 per day US. gave the cook a bit more because man he was amazing
I think you should be really proud! I just looked at Kili from the ground at Amboseli haha. its so massive! it dominates the landscape when you can see it in the morning.