So no more map to begin with. We’ve done it! Today is the 1100m between us and modern life including hot showers! As great as it has been to have done this experience, getting back to electricity and other modern conveniences will be awesome!

Our day today begins with a song, which is performed by Ashard and his team for all of those who climb and summit. Even if you don’t summit you have to give this team a lot of respect because they do everything in their power to enable you to succeed.

They do this many times a year and make it look so easy. Most of their kit is donated so they work with what they have. They don’t use sports drinks, nutrition bars, etc, etc like most visitors. They do it naturally. It’s impressive.

We run into lot of people we have met on the mountain, including Ryan whom we finished the walk down to the gate with. A word here about Ryan. Not only did he let me borrow his spare Buff scarf/covering/all-around-awesome-invention when I lost mine, but he basically was the best trekker who was not Tanzanian. He could have summitted in four or five days if he really wanted to, but he chose to take his time. And to also take some cool pictures along the way.

Finally, after a few hours of trekking, we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We see the Mweka Gate. Hurt ankles and knees feel like nothing compared to the fact that we have formally crossed the finish line! 🙂 The trek is really over now. We go to sign ourselves in one last time and so some other formalities and then we are off back to the Springlands hotel \o/ Back to hot water! Back to internet connectivity! Back to hot water! And most importantly, back to hot water! 😀

Back at the hotel, we’re clearly exhausted, but we keep it together long enough to get our GOLD Uhuru Peak certificates from Ashard and Abraham in a small ceremony in the courtyard. I have to say that the proof in the hand (besides all of the pics and video) felt really good 🙂

So after our ceremony, it’s hard to believe that it is all over. I celebrate by taking the longest shower I have ever taken in life. It feels so nice to shower. Hot water feels fantastic! I must have taken 30-45 minutes at a minimum. And then we have lunch at the hotel and I have nap.

After being an object at motion for 7 days, it’s time to be an object at rest. Inertia(!) indeed 🙂

I don’t have wise or insightful things to say just now. I think those will come with time after I have had more time to think about what I have just been through. I am grateful to have had the experience. I am grateful to Christina for organising the adventure and for being my Kili Buddy and friend. I am grateful to Ashard and the staff for their help on the mountain. I am grateful for the people I met along the way. In some way, I am even grateful for the people who didn’t think I would make it to the summit because they gave me some of my energy.

And so ends the adventure that was Kilimanjaro.

“It’s only 139 meters up” I tell myself. I’ve made it to Stella Point by physical strength and with only 40 minutes of work, I rationalise to myself that I can get to Uhuru Peak on my own, just as I gotten to this point.

After all, Kilimanjaro might be an experience where you climb in groups or with friends, but like I said earlier, only you can get you up the mountain.

So with that frame of time, I leave Stella Point on the way to Uhuru Peak. Christina is progressing at a good clip and I have no doubt she’ll hit Uhuru Peak in under 40 minutes. I however, am I different story.

The journey starts off well, but after 20 minutes I am quite simply out of energy. After 30 minutes of walking I am covered only about half of the distance needed (whereas I should be at the end of my journey). I can see the sign for Uhuru Peak, but it starts to look too far away. All I know is that I must keep moving. Inertia! If I as an object rest then I know that is the end of my journey. I won’t have enough strength to make it to what seems the really short distance to the peak.

And then humbling moment #1 happens.

Ashard (our guide) took my hiking poles, had me hold on to the straps of his backpack, and litterally for about 200 meters pulled me along, forcing me to take bigger steps so that I would get to the summit sooner. I hadn’t asked for help, but it was clear that I needed it. And besides already carrying my backpack within his own backpack, he literally pulled me along until I could take big steps on my own.

And within 15 minutes I am back to my slow pace. The tank is empty. The peak is visible, but I really don’t know if I can make it. Rather, I think I can make it, but although the Peak is only a 10 minutes walk away, I figure I will need about 20-25 minutes since I am back to taking small steps as that is all of the energy I have.

And then humbling moment #2 happens.

Christina, seeing how I am struggling to keep a good pace, comes to me, puts my arm around her shower, says “come on Kili Buddy, we are almost there”, and helps me by walking with me until we are almost the peak area. Christina had her own issues (a sore ankle) and could have made it to the peak and been taking photos whilst I was still on the way there. But she decided to help a friend first.

It was then that the realisation came to me that the journey to the peak had never been in isolation. There were people on the trek with me who believed in me and wanted me to succeed as much as I wanted to.

And sometimes, when the goal seems far away, all you need is a little help from a friend. Whilst the most important event of the trip was to reach Uhuru Peak, the best moment of the trip for me is captured in the picture with Christina.

Eventually, I got to the Uhuru Peak! I feeling of relief and happiness washes over me.
Finally, I sit down and give inertia a much needed rest. After 5 minutes or so to collect myself, we take pictures of the amazing views and I even find the energy to post a new video.

 What goes up must come down

So after a successful summit (!) which took around 8 hours, we must begin the descent down first to Barafu Camp for a short nap and quick lunch, and then continuing down to Mweka Camp. So basically we need to descend 2800m today.

Contrary to popular thoughts, going down a mountain is not as easy as it looks. It too takes energy. Energy which I had found as a result of reaching the summit. So I was on my way down and only lost focus for a moment when…

CRASH. I stumble and hit my knee against a pointy rock. It wasn’t bleeding and nothing seemed broken, but there was significant stiffness and swelling. It hurt to walk downwards as it applied pressure on my knee. Stupid idiot me! After being so very careful, to be so careless on the descent. The terrain we are descending down to reach Barafu Camp is steep in some places (good for knee), and rocky gravel and downward sloping in other places (very bad for knee). After a while it became apparent that my knee was agitated enough that I would have difficulty to get down the gravel parts. It wasn’t an emergency requiring evacuation or anything, but it certainly was inconvenient for the group. We should have been able to manage the descent to Barafu Camp in about 3-4 hours. But with my knee it took my 5-6 hours to hit Barafu Camp. At some points on the slippery gavel, Ashard and Frankie had to hold me up by my shoulders and we slid down the gravel. Hurt. Like. Hell. But it was necessary. We eventually made it back to Barafu Camp where I took a much needed nap and I could elevate my knee and apply a heat/pain patch to it. I also got some painkillers which worked wonders to reduce the inflammation and stiffness to help with the descent from Barafu to Mweka.

Christina’s sore ankle. My busted up knee, dry hacking cough due to the dust I had to eat, and tiredness were a small price to pay to make it to the summit.

We got to Mweke camp feeling excited and proud of ourselves (the journey down was scenic and we ran into Dino, Paul, and friends on the way down as they were doing the 6 day hike so we converged again). We had dinner, our evening briefing, and then literally we each went to our tents and passed out. It was sleep well earned.

And my final video blog featuring me.

This is going to be a long post. I apologise for that in advance. It’s also going to spread over two posts. I feel like a movie franchise that splits the most important part into separate pieces in order to keep your attention. But there is a reason for it so please bear with me.

Points vs Peaks

For a paragraph it’s good to explain the “points” and “peaks” of Mt Kilimanjaro.

Uhuru Peak. The highest point of the mountain is Uhuru Peak, which is 5895 meters above sea level. That’s the end goal for everyone. Reaching that peak entitles you to a Gold Certificate from the national parks authority in honour of your achievement. Given our climbing route (Machame), the average success rate to reaching the summit is about 65%. Adding an extra day of acclimatisation brings that to around 80-85% depending on which sources you consult.

Stella Point. This is the second highest point on the mountain, which is 5756 meters above sea level. For a lot of people, they stop here and attempt the additional 150m to Uhuru peak. In most cases I am sure it is because of lack of desire, but because of sheer exhaustion or signs of altitude sickness. Making it to Stella point entitles you to a Green Certificate from the national parks authority in honour of your achievement.

Gillman’s Point. This is the third highest point on the mountain, which is 5685 meters above sea level. From this point you can probably start to feel altitude sickness. I know you get a certificate, but we never asked about it.

As I said before, our goal is the Peak and the Gold Certificate. We aren’t really thinking about anything else.

It’s almost time

It’s 23.00 (or thereabouts) and Frankie calls out to let us know that the tea and biscuits are ready. There’s only one problem. The winds are so strong that our mess tent blew over. So tea and biscuits will be served at Casa Tent de Rodney. No problem. I have barely slept because of the wind, which has picked up and gotten stronger in the evening.

You can feel that it is colder. I suit up in many layers of clothing. For the summit I am wearing 2 pairs of thermal underwear in addition to my snow pants. I am wearing 2 thermal shirts in addition to another t-shirt, my fleece jacket and my snow jacket. I have on 2 pairs of gloves in addition to glove warmers. And I have feet warmers in my hiking boots. And I can still feel the cold getting in layer-by-layer. Body heat and tea will be my friend on the moment.

Before we begin our trek up, Ashard gives some final reminders:

1. “There is always the mountain”. In case we don’t summit, that we can also try again
2. Be honest with how we feel. Reaching the summit should be a life-affirming experience, not a life-ending one
3. Thing about something other than climb. For example, I should think about Zanzibar and Christina should think about her safari.
4. Vomiting 3-4 times is okay, but more than that and it’s usually a sign of a problem.

We promise to be honest and to positive and work for our success! I am clearly the one to be more concerned about and for good reason. Climbing up the mountain as I felt (like Day 2 all over again) meant that I had to be smart and careful.

So with our kit ready, our night gear on, and much determination, we leave Barafu camp and head up the summit path.

Ascent towards the Stell Point

There are many groups of us going. All going slowly which is good. It looks surreal to see lots of lights from headlamps all heading in the same direction – up! The trek is in complete darkness except for the headlamps.

About 40 minutes into the ascent, you can see and hear people vomiting. I feel bad for them. I understand that wanting to vomit feeling, but I am suppressing everything. Besides, I have bigger problems.

I’m not getting enough air. It’s noticeable even to Ashard who asks if I am okay. So now I make my first decision on the night. I can remove the covering from my mouth to protect against the insanely strong wind and dirt in order to get in more oxygen. Or I can just wear it and see how I do. I decide to remove the buff protecting my mouth. Inhaling dirty and dealing with a cough seems to me to be an acceptable price to pay. Within 15 minutes I am breathing easier again, even if it is from air with dust.

The ascent is the steep yet gradual type of ascent. The one that I find extremely tiring and exhausting. My rate of ascent starts to slow down. At this point we have fallen behind most (but not all) of the other groups also ascending towards the summit. After a few hours, it becomes apparent that we won’t hit Stella Point by sunrise and will instead have to enjoy sunrise on the way up. I had tried my best to push myself and make that happen, but for all of the extra energy that I had used to try to keep up, it wasn’t enough.

The good news though is that I had no symptoms of altitude sickness. I was just tired. All of the tips and tricks over the past 5 days were helping, but we hit a point (around 05.30 in the morning), where I understand that my sheer physical size was going to have to power me up to Stella Point. To get from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak was another problem I could deal with when I got there. But for now:

Inertia! Ain’t no mountain high enough!

Well around 07.00 I am happy to say that we made it to Stella Point, the second highest point on the mountain!

For me personally, making it to Stella Point had come at a large cost. I had used just about all of my energy to make it to Stella Point. The lack of oxygen wasn’t helping. Everything hurt. I had now made it to Stella Point, but how was I going to make it to Uhuru Peak. It’s “only” 139 meters higher, but an a good day with normal energy it takes about 45 minutes to complete.

Ashard asked me a pretty direct question: if I get to Uhuru Peak, would I be able to get back down the mountain under my own power. The honest answer would have been to respond “it’s 50/50 at this point”, but I answered “yes” on the assumption that sheer force of will had got me to Stella Point. I didn’t have any altitude sickness. I didn’t vomit. I had no headaches. It was just a matter of wanting it badly enough. So after a 5 minutes pause, we began the journey towards Uhuru Point…