I am currently doing 13 challenges in 10 months, and it all started with my booking Kilimanjaro! It then escalated with me booking others to do within 10 months such as;
– Mt Etna
– Everest base camp
– 76 mile bike ride
– 28 mile walk
– Half marathon over the downs in December
– And more!
But summitting Kilimanjaro is definitely one of the best experiences of MY LIFE! And the hardest…
I will put together another blog with what I wish I knew prior and tips…but for now here was my journey to summiting Kili and if you want to book this is who I did it with and definitely recommend – https://bit.ly/3Gmz7B1
Arriving in Tanzania
Walking off the plane…there and then was my first visual of Mt Kilimanjaro, I couldn’t believe that I’d be hiking up there the following day! From the airport we travelled close to the Machame entrance to the mountain in Moshi.
The journey to our hotel for the evening reminded me a lot of my time in Madagascar and the fact this a very poor country, however I’d like to add everyone we met were absolutely amazing and so happy… Today was just about relaxing, eating and preparing for the next day, where I commence my hike to summit Kili. New Paragraph
Day 2 – Machame Camp
I really enjoyed this, we arrived at Machame entrance and had some lunch prior to starting one of the best things I’ve ever done. The first day of hiking was mainly through the jungle. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any monkeys, however did spot two squirrels! What surprised me most on this first day was the pace in which we walked ‘pole pole’ which means ‘slowly slowly’ in Swahili…you will hear a lot of this. They are keen to keep you walking at a slow pace, as importantly they want to reserve energy for the tougher parts, alongside helping with acclimatisation.
Once we arrived at Machame camp it was again all about relaxing and eating/drinking (lots). The food cooked by our camp chef that hiked up with us was very impressive, they put together large amounts of really good food that tastes great the whole way up.
Early night of 8.30pm as planned start of 6am tomorrow.
Distance Covered: 16.75km
Elevation: 2835m 
Day 3 – Shira Camp
Started the day with pancakes, porridge, omelettes and toast…then off we went.
This was far steeper incline today to Shira camp, but I’m there for the challenge so enjoyed this. Weatherwise was mostly cloudy the whole way so not much visibility.
Once at camp it was more of the same, relax…eat…drink. Before dinner we carried out another acclimatisation walk, totalling around 1 hour 15 minutes ish of walking up then back down to camp. The dinner and another early night, ready for day 4.
Distance Covered: 14.53km
Elevation: 3750mNew Paragraph
Day 4 – Lava Tower & Baranco Camp
Was a tough night’s sleep, I don’t think I got more than 2 hours sleep this night. Altitude & the cold (it was freezing) can do that to you, however waking up to an amazing view of Kilimanjaro summit definitely got me going in the morning. Up and out the tent for 6am, very cold and ice everywhere, tasty breakfast and off we go at 8am. Oddly by 8am it was roasting hot! I found the weather changed so many times throughout a day you were constantly adding/removing clothing.
First part of the hike was to Lava tower, this was an easy enough hike and no real challenge, stopped there for lunch then we set off to Baranco Camp, where we will stay for the night.
Really missing my family at home at this point and was great as finally had signal so could see how my two year old was etc.
Distance Covered: 18.31km
Elevation: Lava Tower 4600m then descended to Baranco at 3900m
Day 5 – Karanga & Barafu Camp
My favourite day of the expedition (bar being at the summit) and the second hardest (summit night was the hardest). First thing to do was summit Baranco wall, it looks like a sheer drop and you wonder how are you meant to climb that!!! But I loved it, real fun. There was a point at the kissing wall I wasn’t loving it so much, essentially you have to hug a piece of wall and drag yourself round over a drop…not a fan of heights but the climbing and challenge of it was still great overall.
It took around two hours to get to the top of Baranco wall, once at the top we stopped for a snack before setting off again to Karanga camp.
This was a tough day and a constant incline thereon. Annabel who joined me for climbing Kilimanjaro got really ill after climbing Baranco wall and I really felt for her, however she got to Barafu.
We stopped off at Karanga camp for lunch, then set off to Barafu, again the constant incline continued!! Overall a very tough but BRILLIANT day!
Distance Covered: 18.39km
Elevation: Karanga 3995m stopping at Barafu 4673m
Day 7 – Back to the hotel
We woke at 5.30am to get an early start. In the morning we were welcomed with a brilliant song and dance from our porters, and a thank you presentation also. We then set off at 7am, making our way down to the exit of the mountain. It took a total of 3.5 hours to get down to the exit, where we made sure we bought some beers, thanked our porters and guides as without them there is no doubt we wouldn’t have done it then got our certificates confirming summit. At this point I was desperate to have a shower to be honest, I stunk…the only cleaning consisted of teeth brushing and baby wipe showers at best.
We then made our way back to the hotel, on the way we stopped for some lunch and then just chilled and had another early night. At that point all of us (Andrew, Annabel & Chris) were absolutely knackered and needed sleep.
We had the next day to do other activities before flying home and I would definitely suggest doing so. We went to Materuni & Kikuletwa Springs and it was absolutely amazing and definitely needed. You can also book this via Chris at Active Mountaineering if you used him here – https://bit.ly/3Gmz7B1
Overview
This was one of the most amazing things I will likely ever do and definitely recommend doing it. A big thank you to Andrew & Annabel for joining me as it definitely made my experience EVEN better, to experience it with great people. And thank you to Chris at Active, he was so passionate and again based on others we saw, doing it with a UK company who actually attend definitely has its benefits.
Keep an eye out on my next blog on Kilimanjaro with top tips and what I wish I knew.
