Climbing Kili: Day 1 to Day 5

Day 1: To Machame gate and Machame camp.

We reached Machame gate around 10:00 AM in the morning after a bumpy ride from Moshi. After finishing the formalities, we began our first day's trek.



We were joined by Daniel, a doctor from San Francisco - he had missed his group by a day and hence joined our group. We went from ~1,900 m at Machame gate to Machame Camp at 2980m, a distance of 18KM, walking through lush rainforest. It was a pleasant hike, Jakob walked along with us for a long stretch explaining how he moved from working in a restaurant in Arusha, to joining a training academy for guides and eventually becoming a guide on Kilimanjaro. We also walked with Daniel for a stretch exchanging notes on how expensive real estate was - him representing San Francisco and us, Bangalore. We reached camp while there was still some light.



We had trekked the whole day with a single layer of clothing since it was fairly warm. However, it got cold later and I couldn't sleep well since I had underestimated the warm clothing required for the night. The next day Daniel, who had covered himself with multiple layers immediately on reaching camp, revealed his thumb rule that its always easier to stay warm than to recover from a cold on the mountain - made a lot of sense and we followed this rule religiously after that.

Day 2: From Machame camp to Shira camp

This was a steeper climb - from 2,980m to reach Shira camp at 3,840m, after hiking a distance of 9KM rising from rainforest to heather with sparser vegetation. This was a much more scenic route, we took several breaks, aradhana photographed many flowers and we enjoyed the hike. We kept crossing paths with Suresh and Sharat who were also walking at a slow pace. Suveer, Sandy and Chetana were ahead of us, going at a faster pace which they maintained during the rest of the trek.

We were much smarter on reaching camp this time and immediately covered ourselves with inners, wool cap, and warm jacket. The view from camp was spectacular - we could see Kibo behind us and the jagged peaks of Shira, one of the three volcanoes on Kili, in front.



Day 3: From Shira camp to Barranco

We started the day by climbing the Barranco wall, a wall of rocks 250m high.



This required some rock climbing and was great fun - breaking the monotony of walking the past two days.



This day was a very long trek, around 18KM I think and tiring. However, this day helped in acclimatization - the rule of acclimatization is to "climb high and sleep low" - and we went from 3,900 m to about 4,400 m and came down to camp at 3,950m, in the valley at Barranco. I would have a mild headache come on at times but it would disappear after I took a few sips of water. Proper hydration is extremely important in coping with the effects of high altitude. While Aradhana adapted well to the altitude she was quite tired at the end of the day.

Barranco valley had curious cactus-like plants which the "New Map of the Kilimanjaro Natl. Park" (which is a must-buy) informs me are Lobelia and the giant Senecio Kilimanjari which grew up to 3-4 m were all around.



Day 4: From Barranco to Karanga

This was a shorter trek and we went from 3,950m to camp at ~4,200m. Adidas accompanied us for a long stretch and entertained us with stories about his previous climbs, how he started in this profession, etc. He was trying to convince us that climbing Kilimanjaro is made to seem tough but its actually not - it was just a ploy to make others think you have done something great!



We did not camp in the Karanga valley, since Adidas felt it would get very cold in the night with the wind blowing into the valley and hence we camped slightly higher.
Some of us in the group had begun to feel the effects of altitude - lack of appetite, headache, etc. I felt okay but Aradhana was losing her appetite and that was cause for concern since the remaining stretch would be in high altitude where the body would really need the energy. Pratima too was having a tough time. In terms of appetite Suveer turned out to be the real surprise - revealing an amazing and everlasting appetite not apparent in his slim appearance.

We had a fun time in the mess over dinner discussing all sorts of things including the Indian arranged marriage system, Sandy's not having been to "foreign" despite traveling all over Europe (in Bangalore, unless you have been to U.S you are not considered to have traveled to a "foreign" land, and traveling "to foreign" is important especially in the arranged marriage market for the prospective groom :), and .. Suveer's appetite. A typical dinner menu consisted of leek soup, some vegetables, vegetable curry with rice, crepes, bread, butter, peanut butter, poached eggs, (chicken some times) and fruits (pineapples, mangoes, bananas, or oranges).

Here, Daniel, strong and well acclimatized having already climbed Mt. Meru (alt. 4,560 m), consulted with us and proceeded further to the next camp without stopping at Barranco, taking a guide and a porter with him. We eventually missed this extra guide since on our summit bid we had just one guide for our entire group.

Day 5: From Karanga To Barafu Camp

We proceeded on day 5 from Karanga (~4,200m) to Barafu (~4,600m), walking through a remote and desolate landscape. This was Alpine desert, no vegetation, no life anywhere, not meant for human inhabitation. We were kept company by Adidas and then Pratima, who was having a tough time with the altitude but was bravely soldiering on, and Suveer, for whom this was almost a walk in the park.



Incidentally Barafu camp is named after "Barafu" or ice in Swahili which is very close to "Baraf" meaning ice in Hindi. We could see Mawenzi and the Marangu route on the east from Barafu camp.



As we reached camp, Aradhana vomited due to the altitude and her appetite was non-existent. She didn't seem confident about continuing but decided to take a final call later. Sandy and Chetana had contracted a cold but Pratima's condition seemed to have improved. We all needed a good sleep to get ready for the summit bid to start around midnight and retired early just as the sun was setting.