Gazetteer of Dr Nick Ford’s Kilimanjaro climb 4-16/7/2024
4th July depart London Heathrow to Nairobi.
5th July depart Nairobi to Kilimanjaro Airport, Tanzania. Minibus transfer to Springlands Hotel, Moshi.
6th July briefing by lead guide Wilbert and weighing in of 15kg duffel bag to be carried up the mountain by the amazing team of guides and porters along with tents, toilet tents, mess tent, tables and chairs, food, water, cooking equipment and emergency oxygen cylinders.
7th July Minibus to Machame Park Gate (altitude 1,640m). 11km trek to Machame Camp (altitude 2,850m) through tropical rainforest. Lush green with no mosquitos.
8th July 9km trek to Shira Camp (altitude 3,810m)leaving the glades of the rainforest and continuing on an ascending path up to a steep, rocky ridge. On the Shira Plateau, passing through heather and open moorlands, then crossing a large river gorge to Shira 2 Camp.
9th July 15km trek to Barranco Camp (altitude 3,900m) via Lava Tower (altitude 4,600m) “trek high camp low” Alpine desert scenery with the strange but beautiful Senecio plants approaching Barranco Camp.
10th July 5km trek to Karanga Valley Camp (altitude 3,995m) starting with a descent into a ravine to the base of the Great Barranco Wall, then climbing the non-technical but steep, nearly 900 ft cliff. From the top of the Barranco Wall crossing a series of hills and valleys until a sharp descent into Karanga Valley. One more steep climb up leading to Karanga Camp. A shorter day meant for acclimatisation
11th July am 4km trek to Barafu Camp (altitude 4673m) through bleak almost lunar rocky scenery. Early evening 1-hour “practice” of the start of the very steep rocky climb that we will be doing later that night by head torchlight. Wilbert decided to start the 3 senior trekkers (Michele aged 80, Rose and Nick aged 70) an hour early at 2300 to give us a better chance of reaching the summit before time constraints and the hot daytime sun dictated having to turn around.
12th July 10 hour midnight 5km ascent to Stella Point (5,756m- the lower of the 2 official summit points on Kilimanjaro)) in freezing cold and wind. Complicated by altitude sickness (extreme breathlessness, unsteadiness on feet -not good on narrow rocky climbs, and later diarrhoea). Despite our earlier departure Michelle and I did not reach Stella Point for the African sunrise-we were over 2 hours behind schedule and made it there at 0900. The guides were clear that safety must prevail and the extra 2-hour round trip along the crater rim to Uhuru, the highest peak 170m further up, was unrealistic given the time constraints and how we were feeling. The descent back to Barafu Camp was extremely difficult due to the deep powdery “scree” no longer compacted by the ice of the night and I was hugely grateful for the assistance of a relay team of guides and porters helping me, “Babu”-Swahili for “Grandad”, down. After a late lunch and brief rest at Barafu Camp we descended a further 4km to Millenium Camp (altitude 3,733m).
13th July 11km descent to Mweka Gate (altitude 1,676m) over a relentless rocky downhill trail that was very hard on the knees (I broke a walking pole trying to protect them!) and toenails (all 10 black and bruised from trauma against the toe chambers of my boots). Minibus home to shower beer and celebration at the Springland Hotel.
14th July Celebration Safari at Arusha National Park. We were devastated to learn on our return that Rose, the other 70-year-old on the trek, had died of altitude sickness.
15th July minibus transfer to Kilimanjaro Airport for night flight to Dar es Salaam via Zanzibar.
16th July Flight from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi then Nairobi to Heathrow.
