Kilimanjaro: Introduction to Tanzania

On Thursday I had to pack my bags last minute as I just returned from another hiking trip in Luxemburg.


The first day of my journey is all about airplanes and airports.
I had to stop in 3 Airports in order get to my destination in Tanzania. First I flew from Brussel to Paris, where a sudden snowstorm was keeping up lots of plains. After a 2,5 hour wait the plain needed some de-icing, which was really necessary considering the amount of snow on the wings. Because of this delay I almost missed my flight from Ethiopia to Tanzania. I had to rush so fast to the gate that I almost didn't notice the temperature difference of 25 degrees.

Hopefully we can teleport to our vacation destinations in the near future :)


When the airplane arrived at the airport in Moshi I could mount Kilimanjaro in the distance. The first view on that I wanted to climb for many years. My hart rate raised and my hands got sweaty as I suddenly realized it finally was going to happen.


A friendly driver took me to my hotel in Moshi and he gave me a basic introduction to Tanzania. Along the way we've seen lot's of cattle that was walking freely on the highway, a sandstorm that hit us by surprise and the crazy traffic in the city.

Moshi seems to be a very busy town. 
On every inch of the side walk there is some kind of small store, or at least someone that is selling something. 
From car parts and plants to food and clothing (actually everything you can imagine). Combine this with a temperature of 35 degrees and you have a very interesting mix of smells flying around these streets.

I can’t seem to sleep on an airplane, so that means I’m already awake for 32 hours. Currently it’s 16 o’clock so I try to stay awake or a little longer so I can get into the right rhythm.

I still have 2 nights before my actual trip to the top of the Kilimanjaro starts. That should be enough to catch up on some sleep and start the journey well rested.

But first food! I’m going to explore the local food today. Wish me luck :)

Kilimanjaro: Exploring Moshi

Wow! Today was a pretty intense day!

In the morning I went for a walk inside the busy streets of Moshi to find out what they were selling in the local outdoor gear store (Gladys Adventure). It turned out that they only have second hand gear that you can hire. They get donations from people who climbed the mountain and didn't want to take their gear back home.
I have seen some really vintage stuff over here. I guess that you only hire a sleeping bag that’s 20 years old if you have no choice at all. Funny to see that there were summer models as well that they recommend to take with you on to the mountain. Seems like a bad idea to me considering the -15 degrees on the top. So always check what you rent or buy, the conditions will be harsh!

On my way back I passed by the most chaotic bus station ever. People were shouting that their tickets were cheaper than the ones from their neighbours, others tried to sell food and drinks to the ones who were waiting for their bus to arrive. 
And on the border of this bus station people were selling chickens and other small animals. 
Absolute chaos! But it was fun to watch :D

At lunch time I met with some people who were planning to help as a volunteer at a local orphanage. 
I asked if I could help and soon the 4 of us were on our way. 
We arrived at the orphanage we got a very warm welcome from the principal, teachers and the kids. 
There are 550 children living here from different ages. (even babies)

We donated some books, colour pencils, ballpoints and other stationary that we bought during the trip towards the orphanage.

Recently they received a donation of 48 I-Pads and a laptop. So they reserved a special classroom to be turned into a computer class. 
Today I helped with the cleaning of the classroom and getting it dust proof to protect all the electric equipment. There are a lot of sandstorms in the area, so extra isolation on the windows and doorstrips are a small but effective adjustments. 
They also told me that they have been trying to set up the WiFi network for all the equipment but they didn’t succeeded. They work via a satellite transmission over here, but it seemed to be the router that caused the problem. I fixed it in a half hour and everyone was very thankful.

Afterwards we had one of the kids guide us through all the buildings and than we had a chat with some of the children in a class room. 
It was very moving, they hugged us many times and they even made some drawings and wrote a letter specially for me.

After this intense day I went to a nearby bar to taste one of the local beers to cool down a bit. They had Kilimanjaro branded beer and it was super tasty and refreshing.
I met some Dutch people from my hotel that were going to follow the same route to the top and they even start on the same day. Seems like a lot of fun to travel together with these people!

Afterwards I took some time to relax because tomorrow morning the climbing will start. From the humid jungle to the rock fields all the way up to the glaciers on the top. By tomorrow evening I should already be at around 3000m. From there we still need to cover lots of kilometres in order to reach the path on the other side of the mountain that will lead us to the top of this magnificent mountain.

This means that there will be some radio silence for the next 7 days. No worries, I’ll be back soon. 
Goodnight!

Kilimanjaro: Machame village to Machame camp (1)

Today is D-day! 
My bags are packed and I’m ready to go.

This morning at 9 o'clock a small group of people (12) were waiting for the bus that would transport us to the starting point of our journey. After a while a small bus arrived to pick up the group. Our guide jumped out and greeted us with the words “Hakuna Matata”. 
This dude looked like a real Rastafarian with his dreadlocks and colourful clothing. 
We had to throw all our bags on the top of the bus and then we drove towards the starting point.

We had to drive 40 minutes towards the Machame gate. Plenty of time to get an impression of how the local people live here as we drove past many little villages.

During the ride we saw an impressive mountain dooming up in the background. Damn that’s high, and there is definitely snow at the top. 
Everyone on the bus was suddenly silent, which empowered the relaxing Bob Marley jams on the radio.

Once arrived at the Machame gate the chaos began. There are a lot of porters here that want to carry our stuff up the mountain, but only a few can join us. 
The guides select the once that they seem to find fit enough for the journey. They will be carrying food, cooking supplies and even a large tent that we can use to eat in. Too much luxury from my point of view, but it’s standard for all groups that go up the mountain. You can't start the journey without a guide and people that carry your gear. Every year people die on the mountain and the government wants to reduce the number of casualties by assisting the climbers to the top.
I’ve planned to carry my own backpack during the whole trip and I really had to discuss this for a while with the guide. I assured him that I was experienced and that I wanted to have the real experience of concurring the mountain. Everyone else didn't bring a hiking backpack. Instead they brought a standard travel bag with way too many gear inside. The porters will follow us and carry their bags towards the base camp near the top.

After al the chaos at the gate we ate a quick lunch,  filled up our drinking bottles and payed a last visit to a decent toilet. Bye bye hygiene for the next 7 days :)

The Machame gate is located at the edge of the rain forest, the first monkeys were already greeting us. Their hungry eyes were focused on the leftovers of the lunch. 
Minutes later we entered the warm and humid forest.

The guide was setting the tempo, which was pretty slow in my opinion. I really had to adapt to this slow pace and he kept repeating in Swahili “pole, pole” which means “slow, slow”. 
Well, that was maybe the best choice considering that not everyone in the group has the same energy and training level.

After a 5 hour walk the forest slowly began to change. The vegetation was less dense and the trees were getting a lot smaller. We almost reached the tree line. A half hour later we entered a new vegetation zone with low bushes and grasses. We will set up camp here for the first night. 
We have walked for almost 6 hours and gained 1200 meters in height. Pretty good for the first day.

The evening meal was absolutely delicious. We had fried fish with potatoes and mixed vegetables. The chef did an excellent work.

After diner people were looking forward towards a warm sleeping bag and it didn’t took long before I heard the first tent zippers.
When walking towards my tent I could see the top of the Kilimanjaro bathing in the light of the moon. A beautiful scene to watch. I already know what the theme of my dreams will be.

I’m now typing this when laying inside my sleeping bag but I feel that I’m not really tired yet. 
Hopefully I can catch some sleep. 
Goodnight!

Kilimanjaro: Karanga to Barafu (5)

Another freezing cold night. Luckily we had warm tea in the morning. I could feel the heat going up my spine and my body was warming up again.

Unfortunately There was some bad news this morning. One person of our group got acute mountain sickness this night. He had problems with his lungs and he had to go down to a lower altitude this morning. Too bad, because he was really fit enough to make it to the summit.
By the end of the day we heard that he was hospitalized to get the moisture in his lungs removed. His condition is stable.
The height and the lack of oxygen really changes the way your body works. At the top there will be only 50% of oxygen in the air. I already know that I will need to push my limits.

So today it was an easy walk towards the base camp.
We had to pass through different valleys and had to gain 600m in height. We had a clear sight on the summit early in the morning. But around 11 am the top was covered with clouds.
We arrived around 3 pm at the Base Camp. Plenty of time to let the body rest before the start of the real work.
Two other routes also arrive at this camp but it’s not crowded. There aren’t that many people climbing the mountain via these routes.

At midnight we will start to climb the last 1200m towards the roof of Afrika. Why do we do this last part in the dark? Well, the weather on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro is quit stable. Every morning there is a window of  a few hours where there are no clouds at the top. And as of 9 am in the morning the top starts to get misty and soon thick clouds will cover the top. We aim to be at the top at 7 am. In that way we will catch the sunrise and we will have a clear view on the world bellow.

It will be full moon tonight, so we will have enough light to find the trail. However, this also means it will be freezing super hard. It’s now 7pm and the green tent is slowly turning white as ice is covering the outside. Even on the inside of the tent you can see the ice shimmer like diamonds. 

Luckily we could eat enough food today that will need to provide us with enough energy until noon tomorrow.
We had some soup that was a little spicy. (read very hot!)
After that we had stew with potatoes, bananas, carrots and aubergine. Followed by spaghetti. Power food!
It was a little too much but we need the calories. I already know that I lost some weight during these days. My pants is a little too lose right now.
Hopefully I don’t accidentally “moon” the other climbers :p

So time to go to bed and dream about floating to the top. In a few hours it’s gonna be for real. Wish me luck…

Kilimanjaro: Mweka camp to Mweka village (7)

Today I woke up with a big smile :D

Yesterday was a pretty though day, but it was all worth it.
Standing on the top of the Kilimanjaro was truly a very intense and wonderful feeling.

We had to wake up today at 5 am. No time to let the muscles rest.
We still had a 4 hour walk to do towards the Mweka gate. We take a different route down than the Machame route that we have been following for the past days.
At 6 am we started to walk towards the end point of the journey.

The route was leading us through a beautiful part of the rain forest. Going from rocky landscapes to the colorful rain forest is a nice experience.
As soon as we were under the treeline the whole trail turned green. We heard many birds sing and the mosquitoes were back again.

After a few hours walking we could hear monkeys shout. When we looked up there was a big group jumping through the treetops. There were at least 40 Blue monkeys.
A little further we could see the Collobus monkeys. They have enormous white tails. That makes it easy to spot them.

Suddenly the rain forest ends and we pass by a big gate. I notice that there are cars up here and there is even a bar. This was such a weird moment. I mean, after a few days in the wilderness it feels a bit weird to be thrown back into the civilization. 

We had to pass by the office of the local ranger to register our self so that they know we arrived save and sound. Soon a driver would pick us up and bring us back to the city.
After saying goodbye to the crew we took a last look at the mountain and drove again to the busy city of Moshi.

Living in the wild is always a great experience. Coming back to the civilization feels always a bit weird in the beginning.
A cold shower washed the dust from my skin that had been building up for the last days.
How does a normal toilet work again?

I can’t believe that the expedition is already over. Time has been flying by the past week.
I’ve seen the most beautiful far sights and stunning pieces of nature. Walked through the rain forest and ice fields. Seen some cool animals. Made a bunch of new friends. And stood on the top of the largest free standing mountain in the world.
Mission accomplished!

In the evening we went out for dinner and some beers to celebrate.
The next days will be about relaxing and getting some rest.
Well, relaxing…, I already planed a safari for tomorrow and have to leave at 6.30 am. Nah, no need to rest, thinking about the past week provides me with enough energy :)

So that’s it for this trip.
On to the next one!




Check out the essentials to know about a trip to the Killimanjaro on our website: Backpack on Track, Kilimajaro
And have a look on the video bellow to get a impression of the journey to the summit.