Sunday, January 25, 2015

Kilimanjaro Climb

If Al Gore ever gave me anything, it was the desire to see the glacier atop Kilimanjaro before 2010. It was a goal I had set for myself while watching An Inconvenient Truth. The movie mentioned Kilimanjaro's glacier was rapidly disappearing  and I decided it was something I needed to see before it was gone. As we entered 2009 I started to research a trip to get me there. For a couple of weeks I had been looking at Kili map routes and airfare. One night Heather was out with some friends and when she arrived home I got up and said "I am going to Tanzania!" as she was just putting down her things. Naturally, she was taken aback, but then she came over and looked at the laptop screen. After telling her about how I would get there and what I was going to climb she said "Okay." Yep, it was that easy. We had discussed it in the past, but hadn't talked about it for years. This is the relationship we have and if you are thinking "Wow, they are perfect for each other." it's because we are.

We had already planed on having dinner with a couple of Heather's co-workers, and friends the following night and she suggested I talk to one of them about Africa. One of the guests had spent time working in Kenya years before. Once we sat down to dinner I immediately jumped into describing my plan. It was perfect because the guest had befriended someone who now was in Tanzania and owned a company leading safaris and Kilimanjaro climbing expeditions. A few days later I started making contact with this friend, Exaud, through email. Since it was just me, Exaud suggested finding others to lower the costs of the climb. I went to work putting up flyers around town with my phone number to see if anyone was interested. There were no takers, not a one.

Exaud contacted another friend of his from Switzerland that mentioned interest in climbing Kilimanjaro previously. She was in for the trip, but something came up and she had to cancel. Exaud was gracious enough to keep the price the same for the climb and we made our plans.

We decided on the Mechame Route, a six-day hike to the summit.






Since I wanted to spend some time in the region as well I made it a ten day visit, filling in a complete two weeks including travel to and from. I had read somewhere early in my life about this area of Africa being the "cradle of life." I was enthralled about getting to be there and climbing one of the seven summits while I was at it.

Due to last-minute flight cancellations (there are not many options for getting from the US to Kilimanjaro International Airport daily) my travel plans had to change withing a few days of my departure. It happened too fast for me to get in touch with Exaud to let him know.

I arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport, Tanzania not knowing if Exaud had received my message about the change. Turns out our flight was the last one of the day for the airport and I waited until they shut the place down. One of the attendants found me a cab and sent me to a motel between the airport and Arusha. Arusha is where Exaud is based and after that much travel I was just looking to get closer. The motel was nice, but it was still outside of town and I was kept up all night by wildlife sounds outside. What does wildlife sound like? In this instance, it was wild dogs, and they sounded like they were killing each other. I slept in a bit and headed to breakfast. While eating there were two English-speaking ladies having breakfast and we started talking. One of them was from Wilmington, DE and we started asking each other how we ended up here. They were doctors and were visiting from Kenya and on their way to Dar Es Salaam for some shopping. It's a small world after all.

During my visit with my physician before the trip I was warned not to drink milk, eat pork or eggs. For breakfast I had eggs, sausage, bacon and milk for my coffee. It was explained by the two ladies that the milk was fresh and the cow was on the premises. I couldn't resist.

I called Exaud from the motel after breakfast and he made plans to have me picked up and brought to Arusha. I settled in to a place called the Meru House Inn, located on the south side of Arusha. We spent the next couple of days planning the climb and gathering porters. Since it was just me, it was very intimate and most plans were made at clubs (bars) while we drank local brews. Everyone was very interested in life in America, to which I responded "Life is good when you can hang out with friends at the local club." Life was pretty good. This is just what I was looking for, to be immersed into the local life. Speaking of local life, we stocked up on food supplies at a Shop Rite a couple of blocks away from the Meru House.

Once we had food and porters we headed to the Mechame trail head and Exaud had to negotiate getting started with the National Park authorities. We needed more porters per park rules, but we didn't need them since it was just me and Exaud and I were splitting duties carrying my large pack and day-pack. I had also brought a water filter so we did not have to carry gallons of water. We finally consented to take a few more porters with the agreement we would drop them as we continued. Park services everywhere have their politics. I was okay with it since the rule is made to ensure the locals get their due.

Getting a late start due to the negotiating, we arrived at the first camp after dark. It was a beautiful clear night and we were far away from civilization now. The first tent-meal was spaghetti and it was delicious. I think the was the only meal I ate alone as I made it a point the next and following nights to dine with the porters.

Pole pole (pronounce po-leh po-leh) became the phrase of the next few days. Pole pole means slowly in Swahili. The climb was slow and purposeful. The key to high mountains is acclimatization. The next few days we saw all of the climates of the continent. We even walked through a snowfall and we were only a little over 200 miles from the equator. It was surreal and very much real at the same time.

Mechame Rain Forrest

Mechame Camp Morning

Exaud Climbing on Day 2

Fellow Climbers Arrive to Barranco Camp

Dendrosenecio Trees After Snowfall

Leaving Barafu Camp After the Summit

The summit attempt from Barafu Camp started just after midnight and we slowly made our way up. Mt. Kilimanjaro was formed from a volcano and the area surrounding the summit is made of volcanic ash. During the night temperatures drop enough for the ash to freeze, making it similar to walking up a snow field. Perhaps due to the Konyagi we consumed the night at camp, Exaud turned back and so it was just me and the lead porter, whose name escapes me, but now I call him Victor. I remember he told me he was from the Lake Victoria area. With the ash crunching under our boots, we caught up to a team of Swiss climbers and stayed just behind them until we reached the final ridge. We stopped on the ridge and we each had a Clif Bar for breakfast. We caught back up to the Swiss team at the summit and they were kind enough to snap some photos with my camera.

Uhuru Peak (Before the new sign)

The Roof of Africa

The Glacier

We headed back down to Barafu Camp to get in some sleep before making our way back down the Marangu Route. Since I had felt pretty comfortable on the way up we decided to make the descent a single-day affair. 
The day before, when we arrived at Barafu Camp, another team was coming in just after we arrived and they had a climber who was suffering from high-altitude cerebral edema. The team she was with seemed confused about what to do so Victor jumped in and ordered a cart from the closest Marangu Route camp to get her down. I have had summit attempts myself that did not go as planned and I believe to this day that it is not up to you to get to summit, it is up to the mountain. The cart arrived and she was taken down safely.

Starting the Descent From Barafu Camp

Marangu Route Down
The Marangu Route is a much more packed straight-forward trail. We stopped at a camp on the way down to pick up the certificate for the successful summit. Just before getting the end of the Marangu Route trail we came across a Blue Monkey that was visibly upset with our being there. We continued on without incident.

I slept like a baby on the ride back to Arusha. Our six day trek was over in five. Although Exaud had planned a night out at a club with a Rasta band playing, I ended up oversleeping and stayed in that night at Meru House.

I had not brought a belt for the trip and I had lost a little bit of weight on the climb. I also was in need of nail clippers for my toenails as they were not trimmed enough for that long descent. I ran into a local street artist, Abraham (Mikey) selling art on the sidewalk. He helped me obtain my necessities and then invited me to visit his village.
With the time I had left in Tanzania I visited Mikey's village, rented a motorcycle and got lost at another village and got to attend a funeral. I am as connected to the people I met on this trip as I am to my closest friends and family. I will always cherish my time in the "cradle of life." There is wisdom in this part of the world that only comes with time.
Now I am going to tell you a story...
The day I rented a motorcycle I rode to a village in the foothills of Mt. Meru. It actually ended up being the wrong village as Exaud had given me directions to another village and I ended up not going far enough down the road. I rode into the village and up a dirt road hill to the end. At the end was a farm with a barn. I parked the motorcycle outside the farm and started walking back down the road. One of the tings I had learned about village life in the area was that everyone had a job that helped the community. As walked down the road I got to witness these jobs. It was refreshing to see communal work as being a way of life. It is just the way things get done. I stopped at a club, covered in dust from the motorcycle ride, to quench my thirst. The club had what I think is the only television in the village. On the television was an early Mike Tyson fight. I watched the fight with a few others (it didn't last long, it was Mike Tyson) and we cheered him on. After the beer, I continued down the road and I passed a schoolhouse. Children came running out of the school house and surrounded me yelling "Hello! Hello! How are you?" A few grabbed my hands and started petting the backs of my hands. The teacher came out after them and explained that the students were learning english and they were very excited to see me. It took me until later that night when I was back in Arusha to figure out why some wanted to touch my skin, it is white. It was such a beautiful, sincere gesture and I think about those kids at some point almost every week. Hard to explain... Later in my walk down the road I had to move off to the side as some Maasai children led a herd of cattle down to some high grass on the side of the road for a feeding. The Maasai children were no more than twelve years old and they had complete control over about thirty head of cattle. After seeing this, I headed back to the motorcycle.

Once I arrived back in Arusha the motorcycle stalled and I could not get it started again. I ended up calling Heather from a payphone, mind the time difference. She ended up getting in touch with Exaud and through an actual game of "telephone" he found me and we got the bike started again. This all happened within the time frame of about an hour and a half. It was kind of amazing for being having three people be halfway around the world from each other.

It was a great opportunity for me to meet the people people there. No matter who we are are or where we are in the world, nine times out of ten we just want the chance to hang out with our friends at the club at the end of the day.
If you ever get the itch to visit this part of the world yourself, let me know. I have some friends.

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