Kilimanjaro and Tanzania

The Kili part of the trip started, as I am sure many journeys to Kilimanjaro start, with a group Pilates class. We had had a few days without exercising, and in light of the fact that we would be carrying our day packs on our backs for the next six days, Hayley suggested we should mobilise our backs with a few simple exercises. She led us in an enjoyable class which must have made an unusual sight to the staff of the hotel in Marangu as we worked out beside the pool. Gary Barlow complained a lot about his back during the Comic Relief trip up Kili - I bet he didn't do his mobilisation exercises before he started his trek!

Packing my large bag with only the stuff I needed for the trek, taking out all the clothes and equipment I had taken for the Kenyan part of the trip, proved tricky. There were a few repacks required and some of the items I had brought for the trek didn't make the final cut. I eventually arrived for breakfast and announced that I had taken the St Mark's vision for the year of going ALL IN for Christ quite literally, as I had finally managed to get everything I needed ALL IN my rucksack. But then the smile was wiped from my face as  I found that my bag was 5kg over the 15kg normally allowed by the porters. Fortunately, a few of the others in the team had bags well under the limit, so I was eventually allowed to leave my bag as it was and not to remove anything. This was fortunate, as I was struggling to think of anything I could leave out. I'm pretty sure it was the inflatable camping mat which took the majority of the space and the weight in the rucksack. My porter, John, seemed to cope with the weight and I did give him a decent tip at the end!

Tabitha had fallen ill the previous evening and was in a bad way as we drove to the mountain. We stopped on the way so that Emma could get her some antibiotics. Being the youngster of the group, Tabitha seemed to recover pretty quickly and was soon back to full performance, which as our premier worship leader was important. She quickly proved why 'Grit" is her middle name.

In Kenya, we had seen a matatu (shared taxi / minibus) with the phrase "Fear Less, Dominate More" painted on its side. This became our motivational maxim during the course of the trek - with a grunted "Hoorah!" added to the end for extra motivational power.

The first day of trekking up the mountain was relatively straightforward. We were trekking up the Rongai Route. The weather wasn't too hot. The countryside was green and pleasant. There were fields of maize as we walked up. Nothing too steep to start with. As we set off, there was a group of young children walking up with us, going back to their homes along the path.They all grabbed the hand of one of us and we began our journey holding the hands of these local children. Later we gave them a piece of chocolate which seemed to satisfy them as they ran off to their houses.

We got our first view of our campsite which our porters had managed to rush ahead and set up - it was an impressive operation. We had our own private toilet with flush, and a large and comfortable-looking mess tent in which the team met to chat and eat.

We had our first acclimatisation walk that late afternoon - this was a short walk, only about 25 minutes further up the mountain on that occasion, during which we briefly experienced a higher altitude before going back down to the campsite to eat and sleep. The maxim to help acclimatise to the high altitude is to 'Walk High, Sleep Low' and so this was the reasoning behind the acclimatisation walk.

We then experienced one of the highlights of the trip for the first time - something we had been told in great detail about before, but we didn't know the full excitement of until we had experienced it personally - that was the phenomenon of 'washy washy'. This involved each of us being given a washing-up bowl of fairly hot water which we were able to use to clean ourselves in whichever way we wanted to. All the ladies in the group hid themselves away in their tents and obviously found their own techniques. The boys all used the same technique, it appeared, but some were more extroverted about it than others. This technique was to strip down to the underpants, lather up and wash the whole body before stepping into the bowl to clean the feet to finish. Paul was the one who was the most outgoing during his washy washy times - his routine was strip off in an exhibitionist way while singing "You can leave your pants on", a song of his own composition which did bear more than a passing resemblance to "You can leave your hat on" from the Full Monty film. This routine was only interrupted if he caught one of the girls trying to film his performance, whereupon he became a bit more shy!

Each evening we met in the mess tent, sang some worship songs, had some prayer and testimony which Emma expertly led, we normally sang grace before we ate a delicious three course meal (with Paul leading the female part), and had a great time of chatting and learning more about each other. It was a really lovely time. It just showed how much fun you can have getting to know each other when there isn't the distraction of mobile phones. We had six days with very little internet access and phone reception - I didn't bother to turn my phone from airplane mode for the whole six days, mostly because I was worried that, even with a camera with two fully topped up batteries and two mobiles with full batteries, plus a solar power pack to recharge my phones and watch, I would run out of juice at the summit and not be able to take a photo to document any achievement of reaching the summit. We also had a time of discussing our 'roses and thorns' for each day - which were our highlights and any negatives of the day.

The night time also provided an opportunity to see something we don't see a lot of in London - stars! The night sky was amazing from the mountain, getting better and better the higher we ascended. There were so many stars, so bright and so clear. I had checked before we arrived in Africa whether we would have a chance to see the International Space Station going past during the days we were on the mountain, and sadly the answer was no. But there was so much going on in the night sky without this that it didn't really matter. I just wished I had a better knowledge of the constellations - there was Orion, and the Plough, and the Southern Cross, at least I thought there was, but other than that, I was struggling!

The food we were given up the mountain was very good. James was the head chef and provided some great meals. We had been warned by the group who went to Kili four years ago that the porridge was inedible, so most of us had brought various toppings - chocolate, jam, golden syrup, honey, protein powder - to make the porridge bearable. But in fact, the porridge was very tasty - we all wondered what the other group were complaining about. Each lunch and evening meal was a three course meal, the first course was always soup, then a hot main course, and then fruit or cake for dessert. We had been told on many occasions that one of the keys to overcoming altitude sickness was to eat lots and drink lots (of water), even when we didn't feel like it. One of the symptoms of altitude sickness is a loss of appetite, so this is when you have to force yourself to eat. I didn't suffer this problem other than on the fifth evening when we were already descending the mountain, but Hayley did suffer for a few days on the way up.

The second day started with another popular institution - 'bed tea'. We were woken up by the porters and offered a choice of tea or coffee in bed, then we had 20 minutes or so drinking it in our sleeping bag before we had to get up. Each day at breakfast, we learnt a 'memory verse' from the Bible, to remember and think about and pray over during the day. The second day was a long day - we were walking for about eight hours. The porters carried the kitchen tent and the mess tent and set it up halfway along the route, and so we had a hot lunch. That was such an amazing sight to see after walking for four hours. The morning walk was relatively steep too, so we were a bit exhausted by that time. The second day was also the day when I lost control of my faculties - firstly I managed to damage my hand on a tree trunk as I jumped off a rock. This required a plaster, and also meant I received a 'I was brave today' sticker from Tabitha. Then later on I stepped on a rock which moved as I trod on it, so I fell over. I tried to put my hands out to break my fall, but the walking poles I was holding got in the way, so I ended up banging my head on a grass verge. I was very close to hitting my head on a rock though, and things could have been very different if I'd fallen a few inches to the right. I slightly grazed the area around my eye, and grazed my finger, which required another plaster. Luckily Jackson, the chief guide, had a well-stocked first aid kit! I was particularly touched at the end of this second day, as the rest of the team mentioned my fall in their 'roses and thorns' for the day - they were genuinely concerned and worried about my welfare and well-being. Fortunately my head was ok, or at least no worse than usual.

Our route on the second day naturally took us to a higher altitude than the campsite so we didn't need an acclimatisation walk on this day. So when we arrived at camp, it was straight to washy washy, to hearing Paul sing in his pants and then go to the mess tent. When we arrived it was still reasonably warm, but as the sun went in, it got properly cold. The temperature overnight was below zero, and in the mess tent in the evening, we did all require hats and gloves.

One of the things we had been told about beforehand was that we were only required to carry a small backpack, a daypack, each day. Our large bag plus all the tents, the toilet, the kitchen equipment, the water purification system etc. would all be carried by the porters and assistant porters. Before we went, this sounded slightly weak, but when we were on the mountain, and already feeling some of the symptoms of the altitude by the second or third days, it was completely understandable. If we'd had to carry our own equipment, none of us would have made the summit. At least we had a good chance of summiting in this way. This is why there was such a large group with us - there were 11 of us, which included Ben, then there were 6 guides, including Charles who was the chief guide dealing with the local guides and Jackson who was the chief chief guide and who ate with us and oversaw the whole project. There was James the chef, and Raphael, who served the food and cleared up. With all the porters and assistant porters, there were 43 (I think), so a whole little village going up the mountain. We left before the porters each morning, they packed up the tent and everything else, put it on their backs or heads and overtook us, then they set up the campsite in the new area before we arrived. It was so easy for them, they did not look out of breath. Despite carrying around 20kg of equipment each, they were not particularly large or muscular, just fit and toned. They all got a good tip from us at the end which was well-deserved. Many of us had had our daypacks carried by one of the guides at one point and they offered us some good advice and were good to chat to during the walks. John, my porter, got a tip despite regularly being seen wearing a Watford FC jacket!

The sad thing that we found out during our chats with the guides was that the numbers of tourists doing this trip had been dropping off over the last couple of years. This is because the Tanzanian government had increased the daily rate and the tax on the daily rate for being in the National Park. The guides said that this increase was said to be for conservation of the mountain, but that in reality the park had not seen a huge amount of this revenue. The costs were putting Western tourists off coming to the mountain, and now the guides said they generally didn't know when their next trip was going to be, so were having to find other ways to earn money during the times when they were at home. We found out that becoming a guide took a lot of training, some exams and a physical challenge - to get from base camp to the summit and back in less than four hours. All the guides - Jackson, Charles, Brown, Warrior David (not to be confused with our very own King David), Raphael and Brown - were so helpful to us and even taught us a new song:
  "Jambo! Jambo bwana!
  Habari gani? Mzuri sana!
  Wageni, mwakaribishwa!
  Kilimanjaro? Hakuna matata!"

Day three started with the usual routine - bed tea, washy washy, breakfast - and then we set out from 3,600m. This was a lot shorter walk than yesterday - only took about four hours until we reached our campsite by a tarn at the foot of Mawenzi peak. This was one of the steeper climbs so far. We had risen to 4,330m and I, along with one of two others, was starting to feel the altitude as I had a headache coming on as I arrived at the camp. Of the eleven of us, nine had decided to take Diamox to mitigate the effects of the altitude sickness and Ben was a regular at the summit of the mountain, so didn't require any. Cardine was the one who wasn't taking the medication at that stage, and she was really struggling with the effects during this day. She started taking the Diamox from this point onwards and soon recovered.

The acclimatisation walk this day was up to a narrow ridge further up towards Mawenzi peak, overlooking the tarn and our campsite. This was an amazing walk - there were fantastic views, but importantly it did the job it was supposed to do as I felt so much better as I came back to the campsite that afternoon.

We had been warned about the day four walk before we began our trip - that it was a long walk over the 'saddle', a flat ridge in a lunar landscape, that we walked over this saddle for four hours, with the green roofs that topped the Kibo Huts which signified the Kilimanjaro Base Camp, in front of us and in sight for the whole time, that these roofs never seemed to get any closer, that the landscape was flat and featureless, and this was all true. But the walk was never as long and as tedious as we'd been led to believe. The grey and black dust with occasional rocks was still a striking sight. as we walked 'pole pole', ('slowly slowly') as we had done every other day. This was another way to mitigate the altitude sickness and help the acclimatisation process - to take everything slowly. The roofs of the huts did eventually get closer and this marked the end of our day four walk.

This also marked the beginning of a strange set of sleeping patterns - we all knew that later that evening, starting at midnight, we would be commencing our attempt to reach the summit. We had lunch when we arrived at base camp, then went to bed for a few hours. Then we had an early dinner at around 5.30pm, then back to the tents to sleep again. Then up at 11pm for breakfast before the summit night.

I had been variously excited and terrified in the days and weeks before the trek, and now the evening of the ascent was nearly upon us. We had been told that another of the symptoms of altitude sickness was being unable to sleep, but I wasn't suffering from this at all. I managed to get a good few hours' sleep that afternoon and another few hours between dinner and breakfast, despite my worries about the climb to come. The following day, I did become rather ill in the evening, but we all went to sleep at 7pm, and I slept pretty solidly for 12 hours - like a big fat baby!

I don't think I was the only one who was feeling the anxiety as we lined up at midnight facing the peak. We had taken to telling Becky in the few days beforehand that she was going to be snatched away by crow-like vultures or 'crultures' which stalked the campsites, in an attempt to take her mind off her concerns, but now we were all worried and silent. We turned on our head torches. We put on the final of the many layers of hats, gloves, down jackets, buffs, scarves, and contemplated the mountain ahead. Many people turned their i-pods on and put in their earphones. We numbered ourselves in order - I was number nine - then it was time, and we started trudging towards the slope.

We zig-zagged up the mountainside. The terrain was mostly scree, which occasionally did slip back as you trod on it. The reason for commencing the attempt at night is that the scree freezes over and becomes easier to walk on. Even so, it was still hard-going. The gradient was steeper than anything we had encountered to date on our trek, and I was having to concentrate on breathing in and out deeply to get enough oxygen. We hadn't been trudging for too long when we found ourselves behind another group of trekkers. Even though we were walking pole pole, the other group were going far too pole pole for our guides' liking, so we zoomed past them as though they barely there. This was the point when I felt a lot more confident about our attempt on the summit, we were all feeling bad and yet we had easily overtaken this other group. It was a wonderful feeling!

We had been told that the time taken to get from base camp to Gilman's Point, the first point on the crater rim at 5,685m, would take around six hours, so we were prepared for a long and slow trek in the darkness. The guides broke up the walk into sections of about 40 minutes, whereupon we stopped for a quick break before continuing the trek. On our breaks, most of us were tired and breathless, but otherwise in generally good spirits, as we passed around the mints and sweets to each other to keep us going. Before we reached Gilman's Point, there was a trickier section called Jamaican Rocks - so called because 'Jamaican me crazy' (copyright King David). We put our walking poles away at this point, and concentrate on using our hands to help us navigate this difficult part. Extra exertion was required here, and I was certainly breathing heavily and the heart rate was fairly high at this time. It wasn't that long a section though, and very soon we had passed this.

A little farther on, the sign signifying Gilman's Point appeared in view and we were there - at the top of the volcanic crater. It was only 4:40am when we got here, so we were making surprisingly good time. Many people use this point as the point they turn back - when the altitude sickness kicks in and they feel they can't go any further. Ben was warned us that if one person chooses to turn back here, then often other people follow, rather than deciding to take on the two and a half hour round trip around the crater rim to Uhuru, the summit. We stopped here for a sit down and the guides produced hot tea for us all - even though it had sugar in, it was well-needed and much appreciated. Nobody seemed to be considering turning back - we had an unspoken agreement that we would all continue. Hayley had been suffering loss of appetite for a few days, but she seemed fine. The guides surreptitiously checked us all out and everyone was good to go. We got back into our walking order and strode out towards the summit.

At that point, the weather became a bit nastier. Snow and sleet started blowing horizontally into our faces. We pulled up our hoods and our buffs and trudged on. We could see snow beneath us and the glacier to the side as we walked round a fenced detour. The section from Gilman's Point to Uhuru is relatively flat, as we only gained a couple of hundred metres of altitude traversing the rim. We passed Stella Point and then the sun began rising. Suddenly we were warming up, which as the temperatures were down at around -10 degrees C was good news! Also though, we started getting fantastic views of the glacier, the volcanic crater and the countryside around as they were bathed in sunlight.

We climbed over a few more ridges admiring the sunrise and then there it was - the summit at Uhuru peak! I slumped down on a rock beneath the sign. Tim went around hugging everyone. Hayley sat with her head in her hands, feeling pretty bad at this point. But SHE HAD MADE IT! WE HAD ALL MADE IT! A few tears were shed. Lisa didn't have her earrings on, but still looked effortlessly glamorous. King David got his SLR battery from one pocket and took some wonderful snaps of the view. From another pocket he produced a hip flask of whisky and had a wee dram. Tabitha's ukulele had been carried up by Charles, and he now handed it to her. None of us were able to sing though - the ukulele merely formed an interesting prop to our summit photo! Even a few weeks later, I don't think the full enormity of what we had achieved has sunk in. I did have a tear in my eye a week or so later, when I saw Becky's video diary, as she sobbed to the camera, "I flippin' made it to the top." The guides later told us that no group had ever all made it to the summit together - so we were unique in that regard. We had pushed each on and all motivated each other to this great achievement together. Together we had 'feared less' and 'dominated more'. Hoorah!

We were at the summit for around ten minutes, the cold and the high altitude meant that we didn't want to stay up there for long. Paul was struggling a bit, and he rushed down as quickly as possible with Tim in tow. We were able to see Stella Point and Gilman's Point in the daylight as we walked back around the rim. We climbed over Jamaican Rocks and then we were back on the scree which had now thawed out. We 'scree skied' down the mountain - I had been worried about this as my views on normal skiing are well documented, but in fact it was ok. You just had to allow your feet to slide down a bit as you stepped down. I soon worked out a method and was feeling the warmth of the morning sun combined with this bit of exercise. As we neared the bottom, we saw people walking towards us from base camp. And then we realised, it was our porters! They had come to relieve us of our daypacks! What an amazing gesture!

Although we had gone up to the summit in a group, we came down in dribs and drabs. I waited at base camp to applaud the last finishers back to camp, and then we went back to our tents for a nap. At this time it was 9.30am on a Saturday morning. We had climbed to the summit and back to base camp before most people are out of bed on a Saturday. It was just surreal. On the way down, both Tabitha and Emma had started to feel the effects of the altitude sickness and both now vomited as they arrived at camp - but on the plus side, both earned themselves a sticker of a unicorn vomiting a rainbow!

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the walking for the day. After lunch, we still had to trek another three or four hours down to the next camp. Tabitha showed that her middle name is Grit, by storming off as quickly as possible. Emma took things a bit more slowly, veering off into the bushes regularly but only being able to dry retch. The campsite was back down at 3,720m and the effects of the altitude sickness were passing for most people. I did feel a bit unwell that evening, shivering in the mess tent and not being able to eat, but it was probably just exhaustion, and the 12 hour sleep made me feel as right as rain the following morning.

It wasn't only strange sleeping patterns and loss of appetite though that were a struggle on our bodies - most of us suffered some kind of 'digestive problem' during the trek. My stomach was still a bit funny for about a week after returning. I don't know if it was the food - which was very tasty, but maybe different to what I normally eat in a week back home - or perhaps the cocktail of tablets I was taking - malarone as my anti-malarial tablet, diamox for the altitude, paracetamol for the headaches. Some of the others were taking various different drugs in addition, like the antibiotics that Emma had picked up from the pharmacy. Most likely though, it was the general dirt and dust from being outside that was causing the diarrhoea. We all had a pack of wet wipes to clean ourselves as best as possible, also in most cases we were using plenty of alcohol gel to disinfect our hands, but these in addition to the 'washy washy' weren't enough. I had to rush off into the bushes for an al fresco poo at one point. Lisa very proudly announced that she was the first to do this on the second day, high fives all round! She also claimed a second award for the highest poo on the crater rim and still looked glamorous immediately after! The cold temperatures at night meant that many of us didn't fancy a night time rush to the toilet, so we experimented with a 'pee pot' in the porch of our tents. I think the second and fifth nights were the coldest, and these were the nights I tried out the pee pot, but it wasn't as easy in the middle of the night as I had anticipated and I often ended up going out in the cold anyway.  

The final morning arrived and it was time to say goodbye to the porters, as they would carry our bags down to the gate and leave them there. There was a fun ceremony before we parted ways - all the porters, assistant porters, guides, chef, kitchen staff got together and sang and danced in front of us. They did sing the 'Jambo, Jambo Bwana' song. We then presented them all with tips for their hard work and support over the six days.

The final descent was actually our longest walk - it was about 13 miles. However it was a reasonably gentle gradient on fairly easy terrain. The rule about pole pole didn't apply to the descent, so Ben ran the 13 miles back to the gate. Cardine's feet were in pretty bad shape by this point, so she opted to take a car down to the gate. The walk was mostly in rainforest and was fairly pretty. We saw some colobus monkeys in the trees as we walked down, then some blue monkeys, including some little baby monkeys! We stopped for a final lunch where we met a lovely group of local deaf and mute guys who wanted to have photos with us, and then we sang and danced to Tabitha's 'Positive Mental Attitude' composition for the last time. Cardine met us at the gate with Kilimanjaro beers and cold cokes - which was very much appreciated by all. As we reached the gate, there was a sense of relief that we had made it down safely, but there was also a sense of sadness that the exciting trip had come to an end.

There were some highlights in the last couple of days of the trip - the chief one being that hot shower when we got to the hotel in Arusha after six days on the mountain, but also the awards ceremony and dinner that evening, sitting by the pool in the sunshine the next morning, the trip to the Maasai market to get artistic souvenirs, the rush to get our minibus into the Kenyan immigration control queue before the 52 seater bus full of vicars and nuns - but really the highlight was the mountain. We had been reasonably lucky with the weather, we had seen some great sights, we had made it to the top as a team, we had got to know each other so well during those few days, we had felt the presence of God keenly over the six days. To coin a phrase, "We flippin' made it to the top!" We had motivated each other with the mantra "Fear Less. Dominate More. Hoorah!"

I had been told that being at such altitude would improve my cardio fitness and so on my return home I went for a run anticipating that I would be sprinting round the 5km course like Mo Farah. Sadly, I was slower than before I had gone away. So that means I'll have to go up Kili again soon - to see if it helps next time!