Lisa writes.... It
is very difficult to describe how I felt when we finally got to see the
snow capped peak of Kilimanjaro. Awed, humbled and
bloody, bloody terrified!
Simon writes....
Another plus for the Umbwe route, in our opinion, is that while the
first two days are tough going up quickly to around 4,000 metres, we then
had two days acclimatising to the altitude while we walked around with two
days of 4 hour hikes at around the 4,000 to 4,500 metres level and left us
at the Barufu camp before lunch on the assault day, or technically summit
day. We were meeting others who had taken longer to get to 4,000
metres but then were rushing up the mountain. However altitude
sickness strikes everybody differently. We as a group don't think we
suffered form altitude sickness because of the skill of our guide Julius
in taken us up 'pole pole' (slowly slowly).
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Ann Marie writes... waking up to a layer of ice on the tent, and a view of the next cliff face we had to climb. This day was slightly different - every time we went up, we then had to go down again. Not sure what is easier... going up or down?!?
) What goes up ... |
) Gathering our breathe |
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Nigel writes... we now emerge from the two days in the rain forest and the change in surroundings is amazing - it is like a line being drawn and you enter a different environment. Altitude sickness is the big unknown here, we are still climbing but Julius is taking a lot of effort to ensure we acclimatise as well as we can. We start to notice the lack of oxygen, everything is taking more effort. Surprisingly the porters don't seem to have the same problem...
) Arid landscape |
) Clouds rolling in |
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Debbie
writes... The team are impressed by my meticulous planning and timing
of this trek. Of course I knew there would be a full moon - that's why I
booked it when I did. Yeah, right!! As luck would have it, we are rewarded
to amazing views of the moon, which shines in full brightness. Quite
spectacular!
Days summary:
Ascended: 511m
Descended: 536m
Trekking time: 4 Hours 51min
