Kilimanjaro Part II: the part that is better than Part I

I’m sorry that I am a terrible blogger updater person. One would think that a 6 month gap of this trip and me writing the rest of the adventure would be a problem. However, there are just some things that are hard to forget (like the unpleasant situation of climbing a mountain for lots of days.) I now finally present to you “Kilimanjaro Part II: the part that is better than Part I”

Day 3: Shira (3840 m/ 12,598 ft)--> Lava Tower (4630 m/15,190 ft) --> Barranco Camp (3950 m/ 12,959 ft)

This day was for acclimatization. So, you climb high, sleep low. After five hours of climbing, you descend for two hours to camp. Necessary, but frustrating, especially when you are starting to struggle…. With life… in general…. Because you are climbing up a giant mountain.

Anyways—Acclimatizing!!!! So, people often get altitude sickness and it comes along with really unpleasant symptoms. Before climbing Kilimanjaro, you go to the doctor to get special meds to help you with acclimatizing faster. This is called Diamox. Chami and Kedy were quite discouraging of our taking of Diamox as Diamox comes with it’s own set of side effects. I think it probably really would have helped me not feel like a crazy person BECAUSE I would have been eating more food, and drinking more water and therefore, probably thinking a little clearer. Usually, altitude sickness symptoms include headache, nausea, and fatigue on the mild end of things, while one of the most severe is pulmonary edema.  If you do need to be assisted off the mountain, there are some very questionable “ambulances” to help you. These ambulances are actually just really fancy wheelbarrows.

We climbed for a very long time. Kedy stayed with us the entire time. Chami would fall back and then two hours later would be coming from ahead of us. I think besides OG and head guide, he is also a magician. After climbing for almost forever (4ish hours), we stopped and had lunch. At this point, the food was seeming a little tedious to eat, and we were basically force feeding ourselves. Since it was only lunch, they did not set up our toilet tent, so we went on a mini adventure to pee. It was mostly a barren landscape as we had entered the desert area at this point. Nothing like peeing behind a tiny rock with about 300 other people on all sides of you. After lunch we started the descent part of the day. It was actually kind of enjoyable, the vegetation and landscape was pretty cool, especially towards the end of the day.

We eventually arrived at Barranco camp, signed the visitor’s log with Chami, and went to eat some food. At this point I was feeling EXTREMELY fatigued.

The small rocks

The vegetation

Barranco Camp

OG Update: Chami had to tell Heather at lunch to eat her chicken, not once, but two times. Heather ate her chicken. Do not mess with Chami.

Day 4: Barranco Camp (3,950 m/ 12,959 ft) --> Barafu Base Camp (4,550 m/ 14,927 ft)

I woke up in the morning feeling like a huge pile of poo. Nauseous with a headache, such a fun way to start off the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That’s sarcasm for those of you reading who have difficulty with social cues). Within the first hour of climbing, I think I had to stop at least twice, if not more. Then the REAL climbing started, where you are actually perched on a ledge, off balance, in a crowd of porters, guides, and other people trying to get through a space made for ½ of a person with a giant pack on your back, while simultaneously feeling like you are inevitably going to vomit, and now if you are going to vomit, it will probably be on a very unfortunate person. This rock wall is called the Great Barranco Wall. Our trip itinerary described it as “an awesome looking obstacle.” LIES. At this point in time, my thinking was very negative, and really all I could think about doing was laying down on a random rock like the cute little mountain creatures, and take a nap. Just when things could not (in my mind) get much worse, it started raining while we are rock climbing the “awesome” wall. Not a cute little mist or sprinkle—LIKE REAL RAIN. We put our ponchos on and kept going. Eventually, we reached a plateau of sorts after climbing for what may or may not have been forever. I was grumpy, on the verge of tears, and hungry at this point—hangry. Such a bad, mental place to be in while you are climbing a mountain that you cannot just merrily climb down.

It was raining.

It stopped raining for the last little leg before we got to our lunch spot. We ate lunch, except for that I don’t think I ate much and I hadn’t really drank much water that day either. The sun was shining, I was hoping everything would magically dry, it did not. It was also very windy, and we were sitting on these ridiculous little stools and the tent was at a 45 degree angle, and it was taking a lot of effort to sit there. Yes, this is what I remember. This is when I remember the crazy starting.

After lunch is over, we get to rest for just long enough to get really sleepy. Then we have to get up and start climbing again. An hour into climbing it starts down pouring. We are now in the alpine desert, so when we go down little hills, it is muddy. I do a nice little slide and get mud inside of my poncho and so my hands are muddy, and I’m very angry. I’m angry at Mother Nature for kicking me when I’m already down. It just seemed really rude. I was trying to keep my mind occupied. To achieve this, I was making lists in my head. I tried to think of all the countries in the world, all of the names of the bones in the human body, etc. At this point I was also thinking about taking more naps and wondering if I could legitimately get away with taking a nap on a rock. That was my dream, alas I could not make it a reality. I was so sad.

After being miserable for a full day, we finally got to base camp. At this point it was starting to be really dang cold. Heather and I were freezing. We refused to leave our two person tent so they brought us food in the tent. When we had to go to the toilet tent, it was awful because it was sososososoooooooo windy and cold. Could I feel colder? Could I feel any more exhausted? Could I feel more crazy?

Yes, I absolutely could.

Day 5: Barafu Base Camp (4,550 m/ 14,927 ft) -->Stella Point (5685 m/ 18651 ft)--> Uhuru Peak (5895 m/ 19, 340 ft) --> Mweka Camp (3,100 m/ 10,170 ft)

The crazy feelings kept coming as we are woken up at approximately 11-11:30 pm to start our ascent to the summit. Breakfast is brought to the tent. I literally do not want to eat any of it, I might have had a piece of pancake bread? I’m not sure. I do remember Heather knocked over some of the hot water and I started flipping out because it spilled on one of my long sleeved shirts that I was going to wear. Like lunatic flipping out going “No! No! No! No! Why is this happening?” And not being able to stand up and pace and complete the picture of an actual lunatic.

Middle of the night wake up call--thrilled about climbing non stop for the next 17 hours.

The part that was cool was the full moon. However, it was pitch black because it was the middle of the night. It was very rocky, and snowy, and miserable. Miserable. Absolutely miserable. All I could think about was taking a nap in the snow. I took polé polé to a new level of moving slowly and seriously, all I could think about was taking a nap in the snow. I was stopping every 20 feet and hoping I could take a nap in the snow. Eventually Heather went on and I kept going extra polé. After forever, the sun started rising. At this point the little water I was drinking had frozen, so it was also basically impossible to drink water, even though the tube from my camebak was insulated.

Beautiful sunrise on the mountain!!

After thinking about taking a nap in various snowbanks for a solid 7 ½ hours, I made it to Stella point!  Stella Point is on the rim of the crater. Cool views of glaciers up there. I was still really miserable though. Heather was nice and jolly waiting for me at the top! After we got to Stella point, it was another hour climb to get to Uhuru Peak. At which point I thought about taking more naps, only this time on slabs of ice because we were almost to the highest point in Africa, and DAMN, IT IS COLD UP THERE.

We reached Uhuru Peak, and my thoughts temporarily changed to how great it would be to just take a sled down the glacier, but then I would have to climb back up that and I would DEFINITELY want to take a lot of naps along the way. So, at the peak I was really cold, but felt happy I had finally made it and after the burst of happiness my next thought was “Get me the &*%! off this mountain!” Repeated as many times as the thoughts of taking naps in snow banks. Anyways, we took some cutesy pictures, except you can’t even tell it was me because I was still kind of miserable and frozen and tired and refused to take off any of my gear. Good times!

At this point we were finally able to start our descent. I was still really miserable because then we had to climb down for three hours. My legs were jello-y and it was still difficult for me to climb down, directly attributed to me probably eating and drinking less than a Holocaust victim because that altitude sickness had me crazy. We eventually get back down to Barafu Base Camp, eat lunch (I didn’t eat any lunch because I was crazy) and then began another three hour descent. I started feeling much better during our descent, and my brain started working and I started chugging water and eating snacks. We passed a lady who was about to pass out, and later passed an ambulance on the way to get her. It started sprinkling, but I didn’t even care because I was basically a filthy wild rabies infested animal who just wanted to get the &*%! off of the mountain.

Eventually, we made it to our base camp for the night, signed the log, had some yucky dinner, and went to bed. Heather forced me to spoon her because it was still really cold. I’m glad we are still friends post-trip.

OG Update: Between Stella Point and Uhuru Peak, Chami saw a guide he knew, stopped for a minute and shook hands. Before the shaking hands took place, he grabbed a cute little pill and handed it over during the handshake. I see your sly moves, Chami. 

Views from the top

Glaciers/ Uhuru Peak views

Uhuru Peak

Done and climbed Africa's tallest mountain!

Kedy, me, Heather, and Chami

Stella Point

Us with the porters, Kilimanjaro in the background

Us with Kilimanjaro in the background

Us with Chami and Kedy

yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy we are almost off the mountain!

These are the ambulances I was speaking of earlier.

Peace out!

Day 6: Dreaming of showers and that is the only thing

We wake up, the porters sing us some Kilimanjaro camp songs, and then we start our final descent, and are really close to getting the &*%! off the mountain. My nap urges at this point have subsided significantly, and I think I’m starting to act like a human sans crazy. After about three hours through the forest, we reach Mweka Gate. We paid people 2 USD to scrub our filthy boots and we used a toilet that we could flush. It was magical.

We then joined the long, long line of people signing out of the park, and received our summit certificates. We reached Uhuru Peak, so we got gold certificates (obviously). We drive out of the park, and start heading back to Arusha where a shower awaits. They (our guides) keep trying to make us stop and eat lunch, but we don’t want anything, we just want a shower. There was also a huge finagle with tipping the guides and porters, which was really uncomfortable, but we really didn’t know what else to do. At this point they take us to a tourist shop (no, seriously take us back to the resort), and they very clearly got commission from shop owners. I ended up buying a really crap painting of Kilimanjaro, but I knew there was nothing else I would have besides pictures of the trip. Also, I was definitely going to burn or throw away most of the belongings from the trip—so filthy.

Eventually, a million and a half hours later, we made it to the resort. I let Heather take a shower first, because I’m an incredibly kind and generous person. She then repaid my kindness by using all the hot water. I had to quadruple wash my hair (in cold water), because climbing Kilimanjaro is filthy work. I had clean clothes (so fresh, so clean clean), and then we went for a drink and ate some dinner at the resort. This was really an exciting time—electricity, running water, and edible food. So great.

OG Update: While we were waiting in line for our certificates, Chami opened up the First Aid Kit he carried with him the entire trip (like held it in his hands the ENTIRE climb). Aside from all of the typical things one would find in a first aid kit, this was evidently where he also kept his burner phone. Chami gets the burner phone out, then an extra SIM card out, changes the SIM card in the burner phone and starts calling people. Classic OG.

Day 7: Back to the homeland

By homeland, I mean Dubai. Not without a stop in Nairobi via propeller plane (which Heather loves), but it wasn’t a very long layover, and there was electricity, running water, and our favorite dive bar in the corner. We arrived in Dubai, with our things, and were happy and clean and have lived happily ever after since.