I have summarised the 5 day walk into a few key points below. If
anyone wants more detail or info on the experience then feel free to
email me direct.
Day 1. Marangu Gate to Mandara Huts ~ very easy walking through rain
forest on well maintained path. Nice temperature under the trees and
not too much sun. Approx 7 k covered in about 4 hours. One of the
party badly bitten by Safari ants so watch where you sit on this
section. Spent night sleeping on tables in dining room as park
overbooked the huts !
Day 2 Mandara Huts to Horombo Huts. Terrific days walking, 11 k in
about 7 hours through scrublands again on easy paths. First signs of
altitude kicking in as much breaking of wind took place, very amusing
! First views of Mawenzi and a glimpse of Kibo at the days end.
Day 3 Horombo Huts to Kibo huts. Six took the "lower" route but
three of us took the "high" route to Kibo huts by Zebra rock and the
Mawenzi path. Mawenzi is STUNNING ! What a mountain close up, much
more attractive then Kibo. Had lunch on the high slopes then down to
the saddle and 6k of exposed alpine desert to cross to Kibo Huts,
arrived about 4:30 pm, Cup of tea, plate of soup and off to bed at 6
pm.
Day 4 Left Kibo huts at midnight ( one of party did not start the
climb this day due to altitude sickness ). A long and very slow
ascent up the scree past Hans Meyer cave and through a beautiful
sunrise to top out on the crater rim at Gilmans point. I arrived with
one colleague about 7:30 am with 4 others about 30 minutes behind. (
two more dropped out on the ascent ). Paula Crewe and myself headed
out to Uhuru with the rest satisfied with reaching Gilmans. the
summit glaciers were superb and the view back to Mawenzi over the rim
were incredible. Meru was poking through the cloud base and the whole
vista was excellent. sadly we turned to descend and had great fun
running the scree on the way down to Kibo. A quick break and back
towards Horombo again this time by the lower route. Fantastic storm
this night with ball lightning and thunder immediately overhead
followed by massive and long downpour. Woke next morning to see Kibo
covered in snow from top to bottom. Must have been a hard ascent that
night !
Day 5. Horombo back to Mandara for lunch and the park gates around
2:30pm
What a fantastic experience and a trip of a lifetime and I was very
fortunate not to have a single symptom of AMS and therefore enjoyed
every moment.. With respect to another thread on the ng this was a
charity event but of a non commercial basis. Our trip expanses were
donated by mobile phone manufacturer Nokia ( £10,000) who also
supplied £6,000 of branded good quality outdoor clothing. This means
that every penny of our fundraising is available for the partnership
charity ( National Autistic Society ). To date our fundraisng has
exceeded £32,000 which is being doubled by the Vodafone Foundation.
With ongoing fundraising until our mid march cut off we still hope to
raise almost £100,000 for the charity.
Further detail available re food, clothing, equipment etc should
anyone want more, just ask
--
Cheers
Graham
284/284 113/219
If you wish to sponsor me and my colleagues for the Vodafone / NAS
Kilimanjaro climb in January 2005 please visit
http://www.justgiving.com/VFKilimanjaro ~ Thank You.