Zo Versus the Volcano

First things first: We made it all the way up! Sorry for ruining the suspense, but I’m pretty excited and shocked that we made it all the way… Oh, and for all of you who (rightly?) suspect that I’m too much of a pansy to make it all the way, we have about 300 photos to prove it! Ha!

Where to begin? I guess I’ll start at the very beginning…

About two weeks ago Robinson and I met up in Moshi (a small city in Tanzania, at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro) and began our climb up the tallest mountain in Africa (the tallest free standing mountain in the world!), with Zara Tours. Our climb began on a Monday at Machame Gate and was a full day of climbing through the rainforest. The rainforest was really lush, there were waterfalls along the way and we stopped for a huge packed lunch half way up. I think the most surprising part of the day was realizing how many porters were joining us up the mountain (5 porters, 4 staff) and how much stuff they had to carry. Most of them were carrying about 25kg (on their head or on their back) and were constantly overtaking all us visitors. It was pretty crazy to see, and really put our ‘heavy’ backpacks into perspective. The first day was pretty manageable (not too steep), but some of the questions we were asked made me doubt whether we were actually ready for the climb. In particular: ‘So what other mountains have you climbed?’, to which we replied, ‘we’ve never climbed a mountain before’… or to avoid further scrutiny Rob would sometimes say ‘Mont Royal’ (which usually caused sufficient confusion) haha. Our first campsite was pretty nice, surrounded by short trees covered in long Spanish moss and constantly surrounded by fog/clouds. It reminded me of the movie Labyrinth (which quickly turned into a discussion of David Bowie’s current fate). When we arrived at the first campsite our tent was already pitched (yay!), tea and popcorn was waiting for us, and we were given a big bucket of hot water to wash ourselves (a system of bathing we grew to despise with time haha). Dinner was also pretty great, always beginning with an excellent cream soup, followed by some sort of meat, vegetables and fruit dessert. We ate very well the whole week. The first night’s sleep was pretty good too, our sleeping bags kept us warm and we got lots of sleep (minus the odd middle of the night bathroom trip that Robinson kindly/grumpily accompanied me on haha). Oh and when I say bathrooms, I mean dirty, poorly designed huts with holes in the ground. Niiiice. Clearly not designed for the lady climber ;) … the rest of the night was pretty uneventful except for the elephant shru that I heard outside of our tent snuffling around. I felt privledged to be so close to the elephant shru, as it was discovered only about a year ago due to its elusiveness. Robinson seemed bitter to have missed out on the little animal, and therefore remains suspicious of its existence (/my truthfulness).

The next day we were treated to a hot breakfast and sent climbing by 8:15. The climb was a lot steeper than the day before, with more big rocks to climb over and around, and we were climbing in the clouds much of the day. Although it was a bit more challenging the climb was pretty interesting because the vegetation started to thin out and trying to scramble over the rocks added a bit more excitement. For lunch we were again treated to a feast, but this time on a table, sitting out in the sun. It was great, except that half of Team Extreme (our very original team name) doesn’t like eggs, so I was required to eat double egg portions at every meal (in exchange for my porridge in the morning). As a result, I don’t really like eggs any more haha. After lunch we kept climbing (not much further) and reached our campsite at about 3pm. There’s not much to tell about this campsite, it was pretty bleak and forgettable, but a fine place to stay. The only bad thing was that it rained all night and our stuff got a little wet. But still, a good night’s sleep.

The next day was less steep than the one before but the altitude started to become noticeable. Landscape-wise it was sort of rolling hills covered in slate-like rock. No plants or animals at all. At lunch time we had to decide whether to take the long, higher altitude trek to the campsite (past Lava Rock) or take the more direct, low route. Although I was feeling a bit nauseous (I pretty much felt nauseous on and off for the rest of the trip), we decided to take the longer route because it was better for acclimatization and we wanted to see the Rock. I actually felt better after lunch and the hike up was really enjoyable. The Lava Rock is just a huge black Rock (I was relatively unimpressed, but I think Rob was amused ha), but the walk down from it was gorgeous (my favourite stretch). We passed through a lava gateway (two lava walls) and climbed down a steep valley towards the campsite. The whole way down it snowed/hailed and rained, the vegetation started to reappear and there were a few streams/waterfalls at the bottom. The plants were great to see after so much rock, but looked pretty random (i.e. “plant, why would you choose to grow in this most inhospitable spot?!”). Our favourites were the random Kili trees (medium-tall, gangley, palm/cactus-like plants found only on Mt. Kili), though I took pictures of most of the flowers we saw (much to Rob’s delight). Haha. The campsite was absolutely beautiful. It overlooked the city and had the snowy mountain as a backdrop. We had an excellent time at that campsite, but really could feel the change in altitude as we were out of breath whenever we moved around.

The next morning we had a big breakfast – good preparation for our very long day ahead. The first task was to scale Barranco wall – a very steep, tall, lava rock wall situated beside our campground. It took about two hours to scale it (mainly because we had to do it single-file very slowly), but it was a lot of fun to do because it was real rock climbing (minus the harness). Once we got to the top we had a few more hills and valleys to hike through, another steep climb, and finally lunch. Along the way we saw caves and got a drink of water from the last little stream (at the base camp there isn’t any water). Lunch was at a campsite that some people stay at to acclimatize (they take 7 days versus 6) and was a very rushed meal as we were running a little late. The rest of the hike was really really cloudy, rainy/snowy and bleak. Again, there were only grey rocks, and no sign of life – much like I imagine the moon must be. Tired, wet and cold we finally reached base camp at about 6pm. I won’t get into all the dreary details, but the next few hours were pretty unenjoyable as we were exhausted, our tent had been pitched in a mini ice lake and all of our clothes were wet. I was pretty snappy and Robinson was pretty unimpressed. Happy Valentine’s day, eh? Haha. Anyways, things were a little better around supper time (we had a very romantic candlelight meal!) and our guides came into the tent to prep us for the final climb. They clearly had been drinking (actually pretty customary for guides during the last stretch) and had many humorous comments pertaining to Valentine’s Day, the final climb and how good they thought Rob’s and my relationship was (awk-ward), haha, yeah but pretty funny. After that they sent us to bed for three hours to rest.

For those three hours (8-11pm) Rob coughed, I rolled around (too cold to sleep) and neither of us actually rested. We were woken up at 11, told to get dressed, have some tea and biscuits and then we were off. With our headlights on, and bundled in our warmest gear we began the very very very slow walk up the rest of the mountain. It was (of course) pitch black, and the terrain was pretty steep and flat (i.e. just gravel, few rocks). Not to get into unnecessary detail but we were both feeling pretty uesless. Rob had an upset stomach and headache and I felt really nauseous the whole way up. As a result we had to stop a fair bit, and I required coaxing much of the way up. Because Rob wouldn’t play 20 questions with me (we were both too dazed to talk properly), I had to amuse myself looking at snow patches and deciding what animals they most looked like. There were many geese and giraffes en route…

Finally, at 6:30am the sun began to rise and we arrived at Stella Peak (the second tallest peak). At this peak I told Rob something along the lines of “I feel like dieing, I’m not going any further, please go to the top without me”…. However, him nor the guides seemed to convinced of my ill state and made me keep walking. In the end I’m glad we all kept going because the sunshine made us both feel a lot better. After about an hour of hiking (fortunately at much less of an incline) we were at Uhuru! It was gorgeous up there! We were above the clouds, so close to the sun and surrounded by snow and glaciers. Really beautiful, and well worth the trek. Unfortunately though, in my oxygen deprived state I forgot that the peak was on the edge of a crater and didn’t even see the crater. Rob claims to have seen the huge crater (despite his lack of photographic proof), but I somehow missed it :(

As the sun kept rising we began to descend. We basically ran and slid down the side of the mountain (the gravel was no longer frozen and became all sandy). It was a lot of fun though the fatigue started to kick in near the end and our toes hurt from descent. Aside from the expected difficulties Rob actually began to suffer from serious altitude sickness. His heachache was much worse, he was dehydrated and lost all energy (he staggered down the mountain and appeared intoxicated) and finally he actually collapsed on the trail. Altitude sickness can be life threatening if you don’t descent quickly (your brain swells), so I was really really worried about him. Fortunately though, we got water from other hikers who were walking by and the porters brought water up from the base camp. At camp Rob slept a bit, drank a lot, took altitude medication and we decided we’d descend all the way to the base on that day (normally you go part way, sleep the night, and finish the next day).

The rest of the day was spent descending the mountain through a shorter route than we took on the way up. Fortunately, we went quickly and Rob felt much better by mid-day. However, the trails down were pretty miserable (we were basically walking through a rocky river the whole way down), it rained the whole time and I seriously hurt my toes (even now they’re all infected and I’ll probably lose two toe nails, grosssss). So walk walk walk, lots of rain, few stops, moon scape-mossy forest-rain forest…. And finally we were at the bottom (it took about 8 hours). Unfortunately we were both too useless to take pictures on the way down. Luckily, we were picked up by the tour company at the very base (at about 7pm) and whisked off to the hotel where we showered (the best part of the day!), ate well, drank a little ‘Tusker’ (Kenyan beer) and went right to bed.

So that was Kili. It was great!

Despite my minor complaints, I’m really glad we did it and couldn’t have asked for a better partner. I think we both had a lot of fun and will never forget the adventure and unbelievable landscapes of those five days : )

... More 'off the mountain' details to come...

Photos @: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2196187&l=0d859&id=13613119

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2196303&l=cd5b4&id=13613119

looking back...

(Other than the people at home I really love and miss…) I’m pretty sad to be leaving Zambia so soon. As I was walking home at sunset today, dodging the rocks and mud on one of my field short cuts I thought ‘this is a pretty sweet deal’. Every now and then, when left to my own thoughts and devices, I really appreciate how excellent my life here really is.

I’m really enjoying the work I’m doing these days (the gender project), my coworkers make me laugh a lot, I’ve made some friends here I think I will keep in good touch with for years to come and who have been such fun companions during lunch breaks and on the weekends, the weather here is almost always great (sunny, sometimes rainy), I get to swim and run around a fair bit and I am learning so much, often in the most unexpected of places. All this to say that I’m very happy these days and getting all sketchy at the thought of leaving.

Don’t get me wrong though, I am certainly very much looking forward to being at home, seeing everybody I have been so far away from and of course chowing down on some sushi/lattes/bagels!

p.s. Robinson will be here in 3 days! ahhh! :)