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.