Bushman’s Baobab – Liwonde National Park

We’re not really sure how to begin describing the three days and nights we have just spent in Liwonde National Park in Malawi….our first African safari experience feels quite surreal and truly magical and we are only too aware of just how lucky we have been. 

Sunset at Bushman's Baobab

We have spent our time just outside the small town of Liwonde at a place called Bushman’s Baobab, which sits right against the border of Liwonde National Park on the banks of the Shire (pronounced shiree) River.  The owners of Bushman’s Baobab, a Malawian man named Pious and a Zimbabwean woman Sarah, have done a spectacular job creating a welcoming and relaxing environment that acts as an extension of the National Park.  Bushman’s Baobab consists of a small number of beautifully simple, open-air huts (some tented, some solid structure) with grass-thatched roofs; a dining hut and recreation hut.  We were booked into a Safari Tent, however on our arrival Pious and Sarah let us know that they had upgraded us to one of their new Chalets – the height of African bush luxury!!  There is no electricity on site though each evening a central campfire is lit, as well as many hurricane lamps, to provide some lighting – though walking around at night is not encouraged as the camp is often frequented by herds of elephant and hippo grazing beyond the National Park (the poor mango farmers in the nearby villages don’t often have much luck keeping fruit on their trees for this very reason!).  We have been amazingly well fed across three meals per day, have felt so welcomed by all of the staff and had many interesting conversations with other guests.  On our last night, we were the only guests remaining at the camp – we felt so privileged to have some quiet time to ourselves.

At first light on each morning during our stay, we were taken on safari tours of the National Park by jeep and canoe where we witnessed baboons, impalas, elephants, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, waterbucks, buffalo and sables in their natural environments – amazing!  Here's a few snaps to share with you though we've also uploaded further photos from our time at Bushman's Baobab onto our Flickr page. 

Warthog on the banks of the Shire River

Hippo, Shire River

Buffalo, Liwonde National Park

Waterbuck, Liwonde National Park

Each day, as the morning sun reached full strength, we were then taken back to Bushman’s Baobab to spend the day reading, eating and snoozing and experiencing more of the local wildlife.  On our first morning at Bushman’s Baobab we had just got comfortable with our books in the shade outside our huts and were just starting to doze off when Alick heard a branch breaking behind us.  On looking up, we found a herd of about six elephants had settled into graze in the reeds about 20 meters from our hut.  This became a regular occurrence over the next three days and our afternoons have involved wandering over to have some ‘me-time’ observing the elephants grazing along the banks of the river at regular intervals.   

Elephant across the river from our accommodation

More elephants!

Lying in bed during the evenings we were treated to a chorus of elephants and hippos coming by to graze, grunt and otherwise converse.  On our first day here we were warned that if the elephants approached our open air huts during the evenings, the most important things to remember were to not scream or use flash photography so as not to alarm the elephants – thankfully the elephants didn’t come close enough during the evenings for us to need to heed that advice! 

Bushman’s Baobab has also recently partnered with an organisation called IFAW (who work to conserve the Liwonde National Park and deter poachers) to fund the Chinguini Trust Mchire Children’s Centre, an early childhood centre for the local villages just down the road from Bushman’s Baobab.  On Monday morning, after our canoe safari, we spent some time at the Children’s Centre talking with the manager, Gilbert, some of his volunteers and singing with the children.  The Centre has been operating for nearly three months now, though the biggest challenge is the student numbers - the Centre was based around funding for 30 children under 5 years old, however between 60-70 children turn up each day.  We spent some time talking to Gilbert, and were really interested to learn more about his views on getting further support from the local communities and church groups to ensure the centre’s sustainability at a local level, rather than being dependant on international aid and donations.  As a local man with a passion and educational background in HIV awareness and support, it is also Gilbert’s aim to have the centre’s teachings grounded in student education about HIV prevention and promotion of social inclusion strategies for children who are HIV positive.  We were both incredibly inspired by Gilbert’s interactions with the children and approach towards the children’s centre and are keen to be updated about future developments with the Children’s Centre.

Mchire Children's Centre

All in all, our time at Bushman’s Baobab has been a truly unique experience and one that will be sure to stay with us for some time – we are so thankful to Alick’s dad Simon, and of course Kate, for helping to arrange such an unforgettable few days. 

From Liwonde we made our way to Blantyre where we’re now spending a few days with Kate and Dom and getting and even greater sense of the work they do (having now experienced their fantastic destination recommendations in Nhkata Bay, Cape Maclear and Liwonde).  As ever, news from home is welcomed and thanks to everyone who is commenting on our posts – apologies we’ve not yet had a chance to respond given our intermittent internet access over the past week or so!!!

Transit Tales

When planning for the Africa leg of our trip, we made a very conscious decision to do our internal travel independently by road, rather than flying or through organised group tours.  Apart from the significant budget savings, we also viewed this as an opportunity have a very ‘real’ experience of travelling in Africa in addition to giving us the challenge of navigating local transport systems.  During the last 5 days, we have well and truly had a decent taste (or rather buffet!) of African transport systems as we made our way across the length of Tanzania and into Malawi via commercial bus, local mini-bus, motorbike, walking, shared taxi, private car, hitch-hiking and on the back of pick up trucks. In some steps we feel we negotiated the local systems wisely and fairly and are rather proud of ourselves.  In others, our experiences have considerably increased our awareness about local systems and the marked inflations on tourist prices (though in the scheme of things the odd $10 here and there means very little to us compared to how far that can stretch here).  

Thanks to the expert advice and bookings from Alick’s step-sister Kate at the Responsible Safari Company, our journey has been suitably broken up by a two night stay at Mayoka Village in Nhkata Bay and two nights at Cape Maclear, Lake Malawi – from where we’re currently writing this post.   We have learnt to never estimate journey length by kilometres – it can take 6.5 hours to drive 240 kms; to never again think a car is full just because there’s a person in each seat; to never take loo stops for granted; that we foreigners (Mzungu) are a source of utter fascination, and sometimes fear for small children, to always be prepared to resort to a plan B for mode of travel and above all, that the transit journey is often just as much of an experience as the destination we are trying to get to.  So in saying that, we thought it worthwhile to jot down some notes about the last five days as we are now sitting safe, sound and well rested by the water in Cape Maclear.

Moshi to Mbeya - 1,180km

We set out at 6am from our hotel from Moshi to catch the 7am Hood bus from (in Tanzania’s north) to Mbeya (in Tanzania’s southern highlands) – an anticipated 15 hours which was meant to see us arrive in Mbeya at 10pm; and perhaps that would have been an accurate estimation had our driver not gotten into a fight with a neighbouring bus driver a few hours down the road related to a very near miss which saw us waiting on the side of the road for quite some time while the two drivers vocalised their frustration with one another.   Being the only white people on the bus, the other passengers exchanged many kind glances with us during this time when it was very uncertain when, and if, we would ever resume our journey.  When we eventually did resume our journey, our driver was definitely a little subdued, with the overall pace noticeably more gentle.

One of the highlights of the journey came shortly after a stop at the Hood bus headquarters in Morogoro in central Tanzania.  As the sun started to set, we entered the Mikumi National Park, in the mid-south west of Tanzania.  Not really sure what to expect, we were both very happy to have the opportunity to have a ‘safari from the bus’ as we drove along.  First spotting antelopes (we think probably Impalas) and a couple of warthog, we later saw lots of elephants, giraffes, zebras and a couple of monkeys!  It was amazing to catch our first glimpse of African wildlife from the windows of a rickety old bus hurtling through the countryside!  Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures (being very cautious about bringing out cameras in front of fellow bus passengers), but it is one of those memories that will stay with us.

We eventually arrived in Mbeya at 1.30am.  We had previously called ahead and booked a room at the ‘Rift Valley Hotel’ in Mbeya, and luckily their reception was still open when our cab dropped us there at about 1.45.  Having been shown to our very basic room, we hit the single bed for a few hours rest before the border crossing into Malawi the next day...

Mbeya – Nkhata Bay  428km

At 6.15 the next morning, we made our way back to the bus stand.  Having been descended upon by a mob of touts, we were whisked to a booking office and sold tickets for the border (which we later found to be at a markedly inflated price!).  We reached the border crossing at about 10.30am and with the help of a fellow minibus passenger, boarded motorbike taxis from where the bus dropped us to immigration control. 

After an uneventful border crossing (having dodged all of the touts offering money exchange) our passports were stamped and we were into Malawi! It was amazing how different the tone of two countries can be; from the frantic, slightly edgy feel of Tanzania, it was quite a relief to move to the very relaxed, almost lackadaisical attitude of people in Malawi.  We shared a taxi with our the guy we’d met on the mini-bus to Karonga, which looked to be a good idea until we were stopped at a customs border post, and one of the other people in the cab was asked to pay additional taxes on the goods she was bringing in – interestingly they didn’t even cast a glance at our bags, and appeared only interested in things that could be used for trade purposes.  We eventually covered the 40-odd km to Karonga in around an hour, and boarded a minibus to Mzuzu, the main town in the northern region of Malawi. 

On departure of the minibus, it was clear quite early on that this was going to be a longer trip than we expected.  Our friend had advised us to expect to reach Mzuzu at around 4.30 (it was midday when we left Karonga) – we couldn’t really see how it would take 4 ½ hours to cover the 220km, but accepted that we were in Africa and things just ‘took longer’. It seems that we had boarded possibly the slowest minibus in Malawi!  That, combined with the bus being stopped at another customs post and again two people being hauled off and asked to pay hefty duties on their goods, made the trip probably the longest 220km that either of us has ever endured.  At one point, as we heaved our way up a long hill, there were baboons and monkeys trotting alongside the bus – and then running past and overtaking us!!  It was quite laughable, although Alick did lose a little patience with Africa when, after 4 ½ hours of travel, it was clear that we still had over 70km to run into Mzuzu.  Tess calmed Alick down, and eventually we rolled into Mzuzu at around 6pm.  By this time we were utterly exhausted, and just wanted to get to Nhkata Bay – another 45km west, on the lakeshore.  We had previously read that minibuses from Mzuzu to Nkhata Bay took around 1 ½ hours; we simply didn’t have the energy for this, and resorted to a taxi – which while being significantly more expensive, felt like a much more manageable option.

We had our first experience in this taxi of a problem that has gripped Malawi for a number of years – the continuing fuel crisis.  There was a queue of probably 15 cars lined up outside one of the petrol stations in town, which we joined with our driver Francis.  It was really something to witness – people pulling up in their cars and filling not only the fuel tank, but also every kind of container imaginable.  We eventually reached the front of the queue, and having put in just enough fuel to get his car from Mzuzu to Nkhata Bay and back, Francis was on the way.  It was probably one of the most nerve-wracking taxi rides either of us have ever done.  Francis freewheeled down hills in neutral to save fuel and not wanting to brake around corners in case it killed the momentum. In the end, Francis willingly delivered us safely to the gates of Mayoka, and helped us with our bags down to the bar to check in.  That bar was a real sight for sore eyes!! 

Mayoka Village, Nhkata Bay

The beer was possibly the sweetest thing that either of us had ever tasted, and after only a couple we both passed out in the four-poster bed in our lovely Banda, sleeping for around 10 hours!  Lovely!  The next day, we treated ourselves to a bit of a rest - reading books in the sun, swimming at the beach, walking through town and chatting to some of the locals (in particular, three guys called Sunshine, Happiness and Fresh Potato).  

Nhkata Bay to Cape Maclear – 448 kms

The advice we received in Nkhata Bay about the trip to Cape Maclear seemed very straight-forward compared to our travel two days earlier – catch the 6am bus from Nhkata Bay to Salima, mini-bus from Salima to Monkey Bay and cab or pick up truck from Monkey Bay to Cape Maclear by mid afternoon…and we’re sure that plan would have worked well had the bus not experienced some ‘technical difficulties’ about an hour and a half down the road which saw the engine overheat and the entire bus fill with smoke.  We have never seem 60-odd people move so quickly, scrambling for personal belongings while jumping off the bus – we’re sure that most of the passengers were sure the whole thing was about to go up in flames! After about 30 minutes waiting on the side of the road, the driver stated that everything was fine now and we could leave again.  There were three young American Peace Corps volunteers who had also been on our bus, and between the five of us, we were slightly hesitant about jumping back on the bus but in doing a quick weigh-up of our options, didn’t really seem to have much choice.  So we go back on the bus and sure enough, 15 minutes later the engine overheated again!  Thankfully, the American girls were quite comfortable with the African hitch-hiking systems and managed to flag down a car who was happy to drive us a further 100kms down the road into a town called Nkhotakhota (which was then only 100kms short of Salima – our original bus destination).   On reaching Nkhotakhota, the American girls found a mini-bus headed towards their destination of Lilongwe, while our only option to get to Salima was on the back of a pick up trip – so we climbed on board and hung on for dear life!  On that pick up truck, we were seated next to (or rather, on top of!) an elderly woman named Serema who explained that she was also on her way to Cape Maclear with her friend Ivy.  That was music to our ears and at that point we decided that we would be Serema and Ivy’s shadow for the rest of the trip! About an hour down the road, the pick-up truck stopped and we were all moved onto a different pick up truck (the driver said that us Mzungus should ride in the cab with him – we think he either took pity on our white skin in the full sun, or decided that with our need to hold onto the edges of the truck at all times, we couldn’t make ourselves as compact as the locals and therefore they could fit a lot more people in the back if they moved us into the cab!).

Regardless, we made it to Salima in one piece, followed Serema and Ivy into a local minibus (travelling with locals meant that we could easily deflect the many touts trying to sell us bus tickets!) which got us half way to Monkey Bay, and from there, it was simply a matter of following Serema and Ivy into a further two pick up trucks and cab until we got to Cape Maclear at around 7.30pm (Serema and Ivy thought we were hilarious and kept on bursting into laughter each time we pointed out to people that we were going wherever they went.  During the length of the final pick up truck, Ivy steadfastly held and patted Tess’ hand, just saying ‘Tess, Tess’ over and over again).  One of our favourite moments from the pick up truck journey was around 30kms outside Monkey Bay.  There were around 40 people crammed onto the back of the pick up truck (and that’s excluding the babies, chickens and goats!) and one of the guys was travelling with a double bed frame – which was strapped onto the back of the cab and was working as a much needed handrail during transit.  He was unable to make the journey from the drop off point on the edge of the main road to his village while carrying his bedframe so the driver agreed to take him all the way into his village (all in all about a 45 minute detour in our trip across very bumpy dirt roads!)  By the time we drove past a couple of houses, kids started running out screaming at the tops of their lungs ‘Mzungu!  Mzungu!’ (Foreigner! Foreigner!) and then, after seeing the both of us on the back of the truck the cries changed to ‘Azungu! Azungu!’ (Two Foreigners!).  Within five minutes of being in the village, we were swamped with kids – with everyone wanting to point, wave at us and shake our hands (even though when we said hello, some of them were so embarrassed they had to hide behind a tree!).  The others on the back of the pick up truck thought it all most amusing!

Cape Maclear

Cape Maclear is an absolutely stunning place and our accommodation is literally right on the beach.  We have spent another relaxing day in the sun swimming and paddling kayaks out to some of the nearby islands where we snorkelled with the gorgeous electric blue fish.  Pure bliss!  We'll put some photos from both Cape Maclear and Nhkata Bay on the Flickr account shortly...

From here we’re making our way down to Liwonde National Park tomorrow for a three-day safari – which we are so excited about and will be sure to update you on our adventures from there shortly... 

Tess and Alick xx

Kilimanjaro!

Wow, what a lot has happened since our last post!  We had the most incredible time climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, culminating in achieving the summit very early on the morning of October 12th....  It is hard to describe what the experience of the trek was like, but we've gone through on a day-by-day basis below, for those interested in reading along...

We've also uploaded a bunch of pics from the climb to our Flickr photostream - you can find the set here.

Day One - 7th October 2012.  Machame Gate (1828m) to Machame Camp (3020m) - 10.8km.
Having had a thorough briefing from Manneseh (Tanzanian Operations Manager for Hidden Valley Safaris, with whom we were climbing) the night before, we were met by our guide, Harold, at our hotel at around 7.30am.  A quick stop in Moshi town to finalise any rental gear, and Tess, Alick and five companions from various parts of the world set off toward the Machame Gate of Mt Kilimanjaro.  Spirits were high, although there were also butterflies in all of our stomachs!!

We had decided to climb via the Machame Route (also known as the Whiskey Route), over 7 days, to give ourselves the maximum opportunity to acclimatise to the altitude before we attempted the summit.  You can have a look at a map of the various different routes below:

Having signed in and registered for the climb, met the assistant guides Allen and Godfrey, and ensured that our gear wasn't too heavy for the porters, we set off up the hill for the 10-ish kilometer climb from the Machame Gate to the Machame Camp, our first overnight stop.

Our climbing group, from left Alick, Jess, Veronica, Jess, Julio, Tess and Ania.

Day one was a slow, gentle walk, albeit on a steady incline - but left us in good spirits that we were capable of achieving the climb; it was a long, uphill push, moving from lush rainforest (complete with monkeys) through to mid-alpine scrubby woodland by the time we reached Machame Camp.

A section of the trail en route to Machame Camp

We also became aware of two things that would characterise the rest of our climb; first, we learned the true meaning of the Kiswahili saying 'pole-pole' - basically it means slowly or gradually, which is exactly how we climbed. Second, we discovered (much to our delight) that the quality of food that we were to be served over the course of our climb was incredible...  Lunch consisted of cucumber soup, fried chicken, avocado sandwiches fruit, muffins and salad - delicious!  Our lunch was set on a table with camp chairs around it, off to one side of the walking track - we were treated like royalty, and it was a sign of things to come!

On arrival in Machame Camp we were shown our tents, given fresh popcorn and tea in the mess tent, and recommended to rest until dinner.  We took the opportunity to have a look around the camp, get to know some of our crew, and take a few pictures, before dinner and bed.

Day Two - 8th October 2012.  Machame Camp (3020m) to Shira Camp (3847m) - 5.2km.
Day two saw us being woken by one of the waiters, Charles (who was to become a very welcome and familiar face over the course of the week) with steaming fresh ginger tea, to have in our tent before we got up for breakfast.  We also got our first view of Kibo (the main peak of Kilimanjaro) this morning, looming in the distance...

Kibo in the early morning sunshine from Machame Camp

Each day before breakfast we needed to pack all of our sleeping gear (and anything else we didn't need for the hike that day) into our duffel bags for the porters to take to the next camp, and head to breakfast with our day packs ready to go.  We both felt a little strange packing things up and just leaving them for the porters, but we realised quickly that the mountain provides significant employment opportunities for people living in the local area; to give a sense of this, for our group of seven climbers, we had a crew of 28 guides, cooks, waiters and porters...

Our chief guide Harold (in blue) and one of our Assistant Guides Allen, resting on the climb to Shira Camp

Day two was a tough day; the first 3/4 of the climb was a very steep and rocky trail, taking us up into more of an alpine tundra landscape.  It was a very scenic trek, winding its way along a ridgeline to Shira Camp, which looks out over the Shira Plateau (one of Kilimanjaro's three main peaks - the others being Mawenzi and Kibo).  We were served lunch at the end of our climb, at Shira Camp - which worked as a good incentive to get there!

From Shira Camp we had beautiful views out over the Shira Plateau, until the clouds rolled in in the early afternoon, and the temperature dropped rapidly; we took this as our que to have a short nap before dinner to recoup some energy.  We were lucky enough to wake up to clear skies and an amazing sunset, looking out over the Shira Plateau and Mt Meru in the distance...

Shafts of sunlight piercing the cloud before sunset at Shira Camp

Sunset at Shira Camp

We were served another delicious dinner (zucchini soup & beef stew) before heading to bed; it was noticeably colder on the mountain this night, and we awoke on day three to find our tents iced up - both inside and out!

Day Three - 9th October 2012.  Shira Camp (3847m) to Lava Tower (4642m) to Barranco Camp (3984m) - 10.7km.

Day three was an important acclimatisation day, which saw us starting at Shira Camp and climbing up around 800m to the base of Lava Tower (which sits at the foot of the main Kibo peak), and then descending again around 600m to Barranco Camp.  This 'walk high, sleep low' altitude profile was supposed to help our bodies get used to the reduced oxygen in the air at higher altitudes; and we all felt it on our way to Lava Tower.  It was a long and steep climb up to Lava Tower, and we stopped for lunch with the rock monolith visible across the plain...

Lava Tower (4,600m) from our lunch break on Day Three

Most of the group developed slight headaches and mild nausea on the way to Lava Tower, but were assured by Harold that this was perfectly normal...  It was clear that it was not only us feeling the effects of the altitude, as we saw our porters taking the opportunity to rest while we lunched...

Porters and cooks resting as we had lunch just before reaching Lava Tower

As we reached Lava Tower the clouds rolled in in earnest; the temperature dropped and freezing rain started to fall - but we were all very happy to be on the way back down to thicker air at Barranco Camp.  Tess felt quite awful at Barranco Camp, with the nausea and headache really taking their toll, but an afternoon nap fixed that and we were both able to enjoy the beautiful location of the camp at the base of the Barranco Wall, and to spend some time in the kitchen tent discussing a range of things with our guide, Harold - who is a very intelligent and interesting guy.  It was particularly interesting talking with him about the porters, given that we had both seen a porter fall with his load that day and hurt himself (one of our Assistant Guides stayed with him to make sure he was OK, even though he wasn't with our crew), and we had also noticed a female porter for the first time - which Harold confirmed was a slowly increasing trend amidst fears by some guides that this may result in the introduction of prostitution on the mountain.

Our climbing group at the foot of Lava Tower

The clouds rolling in en route from Lava Tower to Barranco Camp

After another delicious dinner, we were early to bed, in preparation for climbing the Barranco Wall the next morning....

Day Four - 10th October 2012.  Barranco Camp (3984m) to Karanga Camp (4040m) - 5.8km.

The trek from Barranco to Karanga starts with a steep ascent 300m up the 'Barranco Wall', a rocky cliff face that involves scrambling and short sections of climbing.  It was a pretty tough way to start the day, and once again caused us to marvel at the skill of the porters, balancing their loads up the steep incline (except for one poor guy who lost his load around half way up, and it fell all the way down into the valley - he had to go back down to collect it and start all over again).

Starting the climb up the Barranco Wall

We had a great view from the top of the Barranco Wall, and really felt for the first time as though we were getting close to the base of the huge cone of Kibo...

Tess and some of the climbing group at the top of the Barranco Wall

This was another day of ups and downs, however, and from the top of the Barranco Wall we descended again to a lower altitude than we began the day...  We finished the day with a long climb up the Karanga Valley to Karanga Camp.  Again we joined some of the crew in the kitchen tent and as well as marvelling at what the chefs were able to produce from that tiny kitchen, we also spoke more with Harold about the state of things in Tanzania (such as house prices - US$6,000 for a block of land, US$20,000 for a nice house - but still very much out of reach of most people, given the low wages and high rate of unemployment).  It was fascinating to hear his insights into the challenges facing his country, and really put things in perspective for us.

Rajab, the chef, preparing dinner at Karanga Camp

Harold, our Head Guide

The camp kitchen

It was a beautiful evening, with another stunning sunset enjoyed by climbers and porters alike...

Porters enjoying the sunset at Karanga Camp

Day Five - 11th October 2012.  Karanga Camp (4040m) to Barafu Camp (4680m) - 3.4km.

Having gone to bed as a rainstorm hit Karanga Camp, we awoke to a snow-capped Kibo in the background, with snow having fallen to around 4500m overnight.

Snow-covered Kibo, from Karanga Camp

It really brought home to us how unpredictable the mountain could be, especially given that we were now less than 24 hours away from making our summit attempt...  The climb from Karanga to Barafu (which is the base camp for around three different routes up Kilimanjaro) was very steep and quite difficult at times, and required us to hike through snow and ice by the end. 

Hiking from Karanga to Barafu through snow and ice

Once again, our respect for our porters increased further when we learned that there was no water at Barafu camp, and thus having taken all of our luggage and tents and set up camp, they were required to hike back down into the Karanga Valley to refill with water, before lugging it back up the hill to Barafu camp.  Incredible...

Having arrived at Barafu at around 11am, we went to our tents to rest and prepare for the summit attempt later that night.  We were woken for meals (lots of carbs!!), but otherwise left to rest in our tents to retain energy for the night ahead.  Shortly after dinner we all had our blood oxygen levels tested by Harold, to check that we were well enough to make the climb.  It was clear that the acclimatisation process had worked quite well, and none of us had dangerously low blood oxygen levels, and were not really feeling the effects of the altitude as we had at Lava Tower.

Just as we retired to bed after dinner, a huge storm rolled in, bringing thunder, lightning, wind and snow...needless to say, none of us slept very much in the ensuing few hours....

Day Six - 12th October 2012.  Summit Attempt: Barafu Camp (4680m) to Uhuru Peak (5895m) 4.5km one way.

The storm set in hard, blowing our tents around the covering everything with around 6 inches of snow. We were all waiting to see whether our guides would change the plan for the summit attempt because of the weather, but at around 10.45pm the wind suddenly eased, the snow stopped and the storm moved away.  15 minutes later, right on schedule, we were roused by the crew and told to get ready for the summit....  At 11.30 we were brought hot ginger tea and ginger snap biscuits to eat in our tent as we got ready, and emerged at around 11.55pm, ready to start the ascent at midnight.

When we stepped out of our tents we could see how much snow had fallen, and really felt the cold as we set off into the night.  Our first target was Stella Point, at 5753m, which we expected to reach around sunrise; from there it was only 1.2km and 143 vertical metres to Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kibo.  Given the terrible weather conditions, in addition to our three guides Harold had asked a further three porters - Bwana, Yone and Rasheed -  to join us on the ascent to provide additional support (and escort us down if we weren't able to make it)- without their help we really would have struggled to make it up the mountain.

It is hard to describe the experience of climbing to the summit through the night, but suffice to say that it was the most physically, and in many ways psychologically, challenging thing that either of us has ever done.  We lost one of our party at around 2am, when she felt that continuing on was risking her health; she was helped back to camp by one of the guides, and the remaining six of us trudged on through the night, one very slow step at a time...with our guides singing a constant stream of Kiswahili songs to keep our spirits up. 

Another one of our party fainted around an hour later, but was able to get herself together enough to continue (amazing!), and I am sure that all of us at one point or another considered giving up and turning back.  It was around -20C, with wind gusting at what must have been 30-40km/h, in six inches of fresh snow, at over 5,000m.  Very very tough.  Alick made the mistake of looking up the hill every now and then - it felt like the stream of headlamps zig-zagging their way up the mountain was never-ending - a truly disheartening feeling!  To top it all off, Alick's pants (which we had hired in Moshi) kept falling down, so he had to borrow Tess' belt to hold them up, and Tess' headtorch (with brand new batteries) died at around 3am; both of which made things a little more difficult.

We finally reached Stella Point (named after the first woman to climb Kili, who sadly passed away on reaching what is now Stella Point) at around dawn; Alick cried with relief on seeing the sign, but we were given no time to celebrate and were quickly ushered on toward Uhuru peak.

Around 45 minutes later we arrived at Uhuru peak.  It was a totally surreal experience - a complete white-out blocked any view that we might have had of the surrounding countryside, although we did catch glimpses of amazing ice-cliffs from one of the glaciers on our left, and the soaring rock spires of Mawenzi on our right.  There were probably 15-20 other climbers at the peak at the same time as us, and our guides efficiently ushered us in for photos, before gathering us together to start the descent.  We couldn't have been on the peak for more than 6-8 minutes, but the sense of achievement, after such a long and hard slog up, was incredible.

Our climbing group at Uhuru Peak

Day Six and Seven - The Descent!
And then the descent.....which proved to be quite difficult with the rising sun quickly turning the snow into ice and slush.  Tess in particular found this to be incredibly difficult having used every last inch of energy.  However between Harold, Rasheed, Yone and Bwana, she had a constant stream of crew to hold her hand while making the slow (and painful!) descent from the summit.  From there we had a short break for lunch and over the next two days made our way back down the mountain - followed by a celebratory dinner with some of our porters and guides back at the hotel on Saturday night.

We'll try to add some more posts soon, but for now we have to go and catch our bus to Mbeya, en route to Malawi!

Bye for now, Al & Tess x

The First Few Days

Well, we’re in Moshi, Tanzania in the final stages of packing and preparation for the start of our Kilimanjaro climb tomorrow – so we thought it timely to provide a bit of an update on the first few days of our trip – which in some senses have flown by though when thinking about what we’ve seen so far, our departure from Melbourne feels like so long ago…

Our transit was broken up by a 20 hour stop-over in Doha, Qatar – so we took the opportunity to see a few sights.  Doha itself was an absolute maze of construction and development – with much of it in preparation for the 2022 World Cup– interspersed with beautiful Islamic architecture.  It was difficult to get around – partly because of the heat (some 38 degrees) while we were wearing full-length dress and partly because of how scared we were of crossing the road – pedestrian walkways and lights were scarce and the Doha driving was an experience unto itself!  We did manage to experience amazing food at the Souq Waqif (Gold Market) and venture to the Villagio Shopping Centre– which was like stepping into Vegas – complete with ice skating rink and rollercoasters.  One of my favourite moments from our time in Doha was the 5am taxi ride to the airport when the streets were filled with people out for morning prayer as the sun was rising – a spectacular sight.

Between the Doha stop-over and some last minute re-routing of our plane from Nairobi to Dar Es Salaam, we had all but convinced ourselves that our bags would not arrive in Moshi at the same time as us.  Fortunately we were wrong - our arrival into Moshi could not have gone more smoothly and our bags were some of the first to come onto the carousel.  We were met at the airport by Moses from Hidden Valley Safaris (the company we are doing the Kilimanjaro climb with) who brought us into Moshi.  We had booked our first two nights in Moshi independently from Hidden Valley Safaris – partly due to the cost but also because the accommodation used by Hidden Valley is a way out of Moshi’s centre and we wanted to give ourselves some time to get to know the place a little.  We are both so pleased with this decision as our time in Moshi gave us some wonderful insight into the place – and what a place it is!

Our friends and family who have been to Africa before have told us there’s nothing quite like it – we completely agree, though can’t even begin to describe it and won't try here as we won’t begin to do it justice.   This place is an absolute whirlwind….

During our walks around Moshi yesterday morning, we came across the office of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, who provide training and advocacy for porters and loan basic climbing equipment. It was quite distressing to hear about the conditions some climbing companies place on porters.  KPAP’s push for particular employment conditions for porters seems to be a sensitive and political topic – made all the more complex by the fact that KPAP is an initiative of a USA-based non-governmental organisation, advocating for conditions within Tanzanian-run businesses.  Nonetheless, our visit to KPAP provided us with greater awareness of the conditions of porters on Kilimanjaro climbs and some practical things we, as climbers, can do and look out for in relation to the treatment of the men who are working as porters on our climb.   

It appears that, apart from the Kilimanjaro Climb, Moshi tourist activities are mainly comprised of day trips to coffee and banana plantations or local waterfalls, and the Moshi streets are filled with tour guides touting their business – some of whom are connected to a tourist office, some working independently and others who seem to jump behind the desk of any office in town, with a small payment to a office manager.  One of the most admirably persistent such guides was a young man called Abuje – to whom we stated that we were not interested in a tours but invited him to have a drink with us instead.  Abuje is a bright young man with such a gift for storytelling and shared with us stories of his upbringing, life with his girlfriend Barbara and one-year old son Hillsun, and his work establishing an out of school hours program for kids in his township next to a rice field a few kilometres outside of Moshi.  Alick and I agreed to go with Abuje that afternoon to see the work that he was doing there – and the afternoon truly was an unforgettable experience.  The out-of-hours program was not actually on (someone had forgotten to turn up with the keys?) but it was such an amazing opportunity to see the community, meet Barbara and Hillsun and spend some time with the gorgeous kids who had turned up to attend the program.   The program Abuje has been involved in is called the Kilimanjaro Youth Skills and Talent Centre and the project sponsors (I think they’re from Germany?) have set up a website at www.kystc.com.

This was also really the first place we've been to where we have felt it appropriate to take photos (the kids loved the camera!). The first picture is of Abuje and Hillsun.

Getting home from Abuje’s community proved somewhat difficult, however thanks to Abuje’s assistance it did mean that Alick and I got the opportunity experience our first Dala Dala (local mini-bus)!

This morning we checked out of our Hotel in the centre of Moshi and have moved to the resort booked through Hidden Valley – Sal Salinero.  It is a different world from the Moshi we have been in – it is absolutely vast with beautifully manicured gardens, swimming pool and more space in our hotel room than we know what to do with.  We were warned by many friends and family to be prepared for the African culture shock, yet as strange as it sounds, it feels like that culture shock has only really hit us since being at Sal Salinero and seeing the direct contrast from where we have been over the last few days and just how out of reach our lifestyle is for so many, sending many thoughts and conflicts churning in both our heads at the moment….

This evening we met the other four travellers in our climbing group and received our pre-departure briefing from Manneseh, the Hidden Valley Safari Director - who has assured us that the climb should be very relaxing (?!)…we’ll see.  The nerves about the climb are certainly kicking in for both of us about now.  We are travelling with another Australian, two women from the States, a Colombian man and there is also a 7^th group member arriving before the morning.

And on that note, we’d best head to bed and get some sleep before day one of the climb starts!   Last night the clouds cleared enough for us to get a view of the top - so this is where we'll be from tomorrow.