Climbing Kilimanjaro – Diary Guide and Tips
Jambo, (which is Hi in Swahili 🙂
At 6pm on day two, snuggled by my ski jacket in the tent, I decided this was as good of a time as any to start writing a diary while climbing Kilimanjaro. I made the conscious choice to climb ‘the beast’ at the beginning of last year.
The Flightathon
It all started with a proper ‘flightathon’ to get there which involved two Qatar Airways flights from Manchester through Doha to Dar es Salaam and then an internal flight from Dar is Salamander onto Kilimanjaro followed by a 45 minute taxi ride to Moshi where the hotel was.
Been there done that tip:
If your flight to Kilimanjaro isn’t included in your long haul flights, try to book a flight with FastJet (who are owned by Easy jet). The other main carrier for internal flights can be unreliable.
I stayed at the Spring Land Hotel which was surprisingly good and much needed considering the conditions for the next days. With a pool, a buffet, laundry service, TV and Wi-Fi and very friendly staff this was a great place to help prepare for the challenge ahead
Let’s get climbing Kili – Day 1
Me and my friend decided to go on the Machame route. After an hour drive to the Machame Gate we were on our way in what was a nice walking climate equivalent to a nice British spring day. This didn’t last long though. As we got deeper into the rainforest it started pouring rain. The rain became heavier and heavier and it was now we started to realise we were not in Kansas anymore and that this would be common in our trek.
The rainforest terrain was muddy uneven and very steep in places. After 7 hours we got to Machame camp and we were soaked through despite our best efforts and preparation with waterproofs. It was at this point I started to gain an obsession for drying stuff.
Some of the more creative attempts were:
– putting a candle under a chair and draping clothes on top of the chair
– wrapping hand warmers in underwear
– putting talc in hiking boots
Our main topic of conversation over dinner was to create a list of items we should have brought with us, the top ones included:
– A rain poncho
– A day sack rain cover
– A wetsuit
– Swim shorts (as a replacement for underwear)
We woke up the next morning to find that all our drying creations were a #fail. Oh the joy!
If you have any tips that helped you through your climb give a shout in the comments. Would love to find out what else I could’ve done.
Thanks to Lloyd for sharing his journey in this Guest Post series.