Mt. Kilimanjaro Stories
A collection of stories from climbers who have attempted to climb Kilimanjaro.
Rising Cost of Safaris
Anybody notice how the once coveted “affordable” safaris in Tanzania has now becoming downright expensive for the average person.
On July 2006, the camping and entrance fees to all Tanzania National Parks was raised for Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Park as well the Arusha National Park. It was $20 camp fee, now is $30. On Mount Kilimanjaro was $40, now is $50 and entrance fees for those park was $25 now is $35.
This January 2007, they again raised the entrance fees for Serengetti and Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro Crater fee from $25 …
Date: October 5th, 2006 |
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Be kind to your porters
This is a photo of our porter Haji. He carried all the “rescue/safety” equipment on the Tusker Trail & Safari trek my son and I took in 04’. This included oxygen, stretcher, artificial pressure chamber and first aid supplies. I was 53 when we reached the roof of Africa and for whatever reason; Haji was my wingman, always 15 feet behind me, not my 17 year old son. Hmmm, maybe it was the graying hair…
I couldn’t speak Swahili to Haji other than, Jambo (hello), asante sana (thank you) and karibu (your welcome). Over …
Date: August 17th, 2006 |
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Rwanda Flights Into Kilimanjaro
In an effort to boost tourism in Rwanda, it was announced that Rwanda Air Express will now serve Kilimanjaro International Airport, to Rwanda, only a few hours away by plane.
The reason is, like Uganda, Rwanda has great tourism potential, with mountain gorillas as the number one tourist attraction. The problem is, in the past, it was difficult to get to Rwanda, as you had to fly through Nairobi instead of Kilimanjaro.
The Rwanda tourism authority wants to attract the legions of safari people that visit Northern Tanzania.
Date: June 6th, 2006 |
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Hello, My Name Is Kilimanjaro
Mayor KilimanjaroMt. Kilimanjaro does strange things to people. Symbolically, anywhere in the world, climbing an enormous mountain like Kilimanjaro represents a Herculean task, creating many skeptics that the human body can climb to the highest point in Africa. I have heard many Kilimanjaro climbers say that when they told their friends they were climbing Africa’s highest mountains, they were told their were crazy, going to die of malaria, tribal wars, or altitude sickness. This type of energy from friends and …
Date: April 28th, 2006 |
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We Are Not in Minnesota Anymore
Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
By Brad Moir
Arrival
We arrived in Moshi last night in pretty good shape - not much jet lag. Mark decided to try his oxygen inhaling skills as he felt weak and slightly passed out. That’s not bad, but we hadn’t left the plane yet! We were heading to Amsterdam and a lady woke me up asking if I was traveling with him. He was on the floor in the galley sucking on oxygen. He’s fine - no Baileys or wine before the climb. That’s what I always say.
We hiked in town today and to a forest and saw some monkeys and ran into some street kids - with no where to go. Our guide told us about them. They were fascinated with looking through the binoculars and seeing themselves on the video cam for the first time. It was very funny to hear them giggle.
I am heading out a 9 am for the Kilimanjaro climb. We went over everything with our guide today. I saw the top of it through the clouds and it is very impressive. I’m ready - guess we will be walking on one of the glaciers. We will summit Fri am about 6 in the morning. It’s a nine hour difference.
Back From Mountain
We have returned from the mountain. I got the flu in night of day 5 and didn’t summit. Everything else went well. I felt I was well-prepared, only had a headache once when we went up to 13,000 feet and got better when we descended. Otherwise, the breathing was good, appetite was good, and no signs of altitude sickness. While it was disappointing, some things you have no say over. If I would have been 80 percent, I would have tried but I was only 20 percent after 3 hours of sleep and no food in me. I proved you can live on water alone as I barely made it DOWN 3,000 feet, let alone UP 2,000, which would have been the next days journey. The following night would have been the summit.
When I got to camp I slept from 2 pm/m until the next day except for 1 hour of attempted supper. I figured it would be the hardest thing I did physically but was thinking up not down. Mark was challenged and made it to the summit at 6:05 am He said it was 20 or so with a 10 mph wind so it very cold. He stayed about 15 min then descended with our guide.
The views were incredible early in the morning and at night. The glaciers were moonlit so all the water one drinks made it worthwhile to get up a few times a night and water the rocks. The rest of the day was pretty much in the clouds, which was neat by itself. The temperature got to maybe 65 to 70 depending on if cloudy or not. In the evenings, it was maybe 35 to 45 depending on the altitude. A few nights we had frost on the tent in morning and only our noses and mouth were sticking out of sleeping bags.
The guide and staff were excellent. They waited on us hand and foot. The saying on the mountain is “pole pole” (po lay po lay ), which means “slowly, slowly.” One step at a time and drink lots of water about 3+ liters a day. The first few days had trouble picking up their English so when we were served soup, which was good, we were told what it was. The only interpretation we figured was chicken lips soup. We started laughing! Later it was something leek soup, spelled with two ee’s for the twisted minds that may read this.
Date: March 6th, 2006 |
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I heard the Gnus today, Oh Boy…” A Tanzania Safari Story
(I recently organized a safari and Kilimanjaro climb for a group of people. One of the participants published this great story on his safari in Tarangire and the Ngoro Crater. If you are thinking about going on safari, this is exactly what you can expect.)
The 3-day safari was included as a part of our Kilimanjaro climb, so the morning after returning from Kili Bob, Julie, Kristen and I all piled back into the landcruiser and set off for the Tarangire National Park. This safari was organized by BootsnAll Travel Network. The plan was to camp at a campground just outside the park, and we arrived at the campground in the early afternoon. We stopped long enough to drop off our cook, Hamisi, and unload our gear, and then headed off into the park for a few hours of game viewing. Once inside the park it wasn’t long before we saw our first wildlife, spotting some zebras and elephants at a watering hole off in the distance. We were excited to find these animals so quickly, but little did we know that this was just the beginning.
Date: August 22nd, 2006 |
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The Roof of Africa - A Story
The four of us were accompanied on our climb by a crew of twelve. In addition to our guide Jamaica, we had two assistant guides, Rama and Muhamud; two cooks, Abel and Ronaldo; and seven porters. These guys were amazing, packing all of our gear and equipment up the mountain ahead of us, setting up and tearing down camp each day, and preparing all of our food. The food on the mountain was beyond anything I’ve ever eaten while camping before. Coffee and tea with each meal, fresh made soups and bread, fried fish, roasted pork, pastas and rice, fresh …
Date: August 14th, 2006 |
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19,340…Almost
By Derrick Slack
Day 3
I woke up late and was feeling extremely delirious when I went to the bathroom outhouse and for a minute I didn’t know where I was. I was nearly feeling the full effects of High Altitude Sickness (HAS) with a full blown headache and the funny bloated turning feeling in my stomach. I didn’t sleep well at all the
night before with the tossing and turning and these crazy, bad dreams that I felt were caused by not having a pillow (you try sleeping on a pad made for a midget with no pillow). It was though all packed to go to our first major altitude test at Lava Tower which is 4,600 M (15,000ft). We ate lunch there and man was it some test. The altitude was murder, my hands swelled to nearly twice their already enormous size and the headache went from a 7.6 right up to 11.9. We stayed there for about an hour to “acclimate” and then headed down to about 3,900 M where we would camp. During the 3 hours it took to get to camp, I had to utilize some of my mind trick to take total control of my body who kept saying, “Dude, I’m tired let’s give up” I said back to it ignoring its requests to cower, “I can, I will, I must, I trust…my mind is stronger than my body,” saying this only 4,003,274 times till camp.
Day 4
No appetite, deadly sign of HAS. I only drank some tea the porters served, not realizing I only ate the eggs and not the 4 other courses they offered. We trekked for about 4:30 to the next camp which was about 4,300 meter, and I am convinced that I have full blown HAS only without the vomiting that usually
occurs (good sign I only hope). Though the only reason I wasn’t actually returning my food to the earth the wrong way was perhaps I wasn’t eating, now at all. I retreated to my tent freezing cold around 13:00 and an hour later the porters were shoving food in my tent. They came back about 45 minutes later to see that I hadn’t touched a thing. They kept waking my up every 5-10 minutes saying eat. By the time dinner came and everyone figured I wasn’t eating, they sent in the big guns: Joshua, my guide. A very matter-of fact speaking gent, he said, “Derrick, my friend, eat or you will die tomorrow!” I took to the souplike air, and the other food-like concoction like water, or so I thought. After learning that I still had only eaten very little, they said they would make a big breakfast and let me sleep. I slept all of 16 hours.
Date: May 4th, 2006 |
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Settings Records on Kilimanjaro
First Bearded Hippy Riding a Unicycle Up Kilimanjaro Given that it’s easy to climb and relatively safe, Mt. Kilimanjaro is known as a mountain to set a new record - and garner some quick fame as “being the first” person to either 1) climb the mountain in a certain way 2) or to be a type-of-person that has NEVER climbed the mountain.
In the last few years, there have been a new record - every few months - of a trekker trying to “become the first” person that climbed Kilimanjaro. To be honest, it’s getting to the point where it’s a bit ridiculous.
Let’s see, this year we had the following:
1. We had the youngest person climbing Kilimanjaro.
2.We had the first HIV positive person to summit Kilimanjaro. Read HIVman attempts record climb. I would like to dispute this as many people with HIV have climbed to the top of Kilimanjaro. They just haven’t documented it.
Date: March 31st, 2006 |
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Kilimanjaro Park Fees
In 2006, the Kilimanjaro National park fees were dramatically increased. Almost all outfitters mountaineering companies include the park fees into the overall price of the trip. However, it’s important to see how the price breaks down:
This is PER PERSON, PER DAY on the mountain.
Daily Charge $60.00
For a six day trip, you would pay $360.00 per person to the Tanzanian government. On a seven day trip, you would pay $420.00 per person.
Night Charge $40.00
For a six day trip, you would pay $200.00 per person to the Tanzanian government. On a seven day trip, you would pay $240.00 per person.
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Date: February 28th, 2006 |
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