Mt Kilimanjaro

After my two weeks overlanding got a lift to Moshi from where I planned to have a crack at Kilimanjaro. Met Nick at the hostel who was planning to do the same and had found a trip leaving in two days on the Machame route. I'd been thinking of giving one of the lesser used tracks a go but this was too convenient to pass up and having someone to do the trip with was a great bonus. Booking the trip in Moshi was a lot cheaper than doing it online, the cost was $1400 for a 7 day hike with gear included.

We arrived at Machame Gate about midday then had an easy climb up to Machame Camp with was nestled in the trees.

Another fairly easy climb. Once we reached the camp we went for a walk to check out some nearby caves.

Harder trek today as we reached some altitude climbing up to Lava Tower before descending to our camp. Ended up with a bit of a headache but it had faded by the morning.

As we were on the seven day trek today was a short day, only 3 hours hiking while the others on the six day climbed up to the next camp to get ready to ascend. We spend the afternoon by going to a nice two hour walk and enjoying the stunning views.

We made our way up to highest camp in the morning then spent the rest of the day trying to sleep in prepartion for the midnight ascent.

We started our ascent in the early hours. It was slow going and for me got slower the higher I got as I struggled for air. Even so we made the summit in about 6 hours, arriving at 5:48 am. It so cold at the top with a blistering wind blowing in that no one had any interest in staying around for the hour that had been previosuly suggested to watch the sunrise. We snapped a couple of pictures and bolted back doen the hill. On the way down the clouds were coming in so any view wouldn't have lasted for long.

The last day was a quick 2 hour descent from the last camp and then a drive back to Moshi.

Got the River Side shuttle from Moshi to Nairobi to catch my flight. A 6 hour ride turned out to be closer to 10 but arrived three hours before my flight departed so was fine, although I was getting nervous sitting on the bus watching the sun go down.