Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro

Hello Steemit friends.

(video now added to end of post)

So as I am between trips right now I thought it would be cool to do a retrospective blog about my Kilimanjaro climb from 2015. My wife, Charlene and I, did this climb as part of a charity fundraiser to raise money for SANDS after we lost our unborn child, Isobel in February 2015 after 29 weeks of pregnancy.

We funded the climb ourselves and arranged it through Kandoo, who are excellent at these kind of treks. Our climb would take 8 days and we would be taking the Lemosho route, which is one of the quieter routes to start with until you get close to the summit and other routes join. Our group consisted of just the two of us and the porters who carried our gear, tents and everything we needed to get up the mountain as well as our two guides Deuss and Evance.

Our first day started in Moshi and we would travel by van with all of the porters and guides to Londrossi gate where we would formally register as climbers and start our trek. The day didn't start well though - we got a puncture on the gravel roads and had to wait an hour or so for it to get fixed. It was a good time to chat to our guides though! Once we were back on the road we made our way to Londrossi gate where we signed in and had some lunch in preparation for our trek to Mti Mkubwa camp, otherwise known as "Big Tree" camp.

A 4 hour, 7 mile trek through rainforest got us to Mti Mkubwa camp at 9170 ft above sea level. The trek was relatively easy, a quite sharp climb to start which levelled out and became a nice brisk stroll. This was the first time that either of us had ever camped - we like to jump in at the deep end. The camp, as the name suggests, was full of big trees so it was quite a nice place to stop. On arrival we got some food (mostly popcorn and biscuits), drink and a couple of bowls of warm water to wash in. You could hear the calls of the colobus monkeys all around which was pretty awesome - we had managed to see some on the trek up to the camp.

At this altitude, the symptoms of altitude sickness had not started to show yet so things were quite comfortable. Dinner was chicken nuggets, chips and a vegetable stew which was really satisfying. We would come to learn that it gets harder and harder to eat as you get higher and higher up the mountain to the point that you just cannot eat anything without feeling sick. More on that in the future though. After dinner and our daily healthchecks, we got an early night, ready for the trek across the Shira Plateau to Shira 1 camp the next day.

Thanks for reading

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro - Day 1