Kilimanjaro, my dream to battle Africa’s highest peak

After 30 years of waiting and dreaming of climbing Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, I finally reached Uhuru Peak at 5685 meters. Because of restrictions, you may not hike on your own. You can hire private guides or join a group. I traveled with Hvitserk, a Norwegian tour operator.

My dream

I had asked all my friends and even colleagues to join me, but they all had good reasons for not wanting to come along. I do not take it personally. I could not wait any longer, so now I was ready at age 55.

After an overnight flight, we arrived at the hotel in Moshi, Tanzania, the day after. Here we got the first glimpse of Kilimanjaro. It did not look so high, but it was from a long distance. Already we were up on about 2000 meters in height. One morning we woke up, and it had been snowing on the top.

Rongai Gate Kilimanjaro Park

We were going to hike the Rongai route. The good thing about this route is that it only goes up, so you do not meet people on their way down. You walked at a slow tempo, and you did not see any other people during the day of walking. Only at the camp will you meet other people. We started to hike on December 28th, 2018, so the gate had Christmas decorations.

Simba Camp

We arrived at the first camp at 2671 meters. The carriers had already put up all the tents and prepared our dinner. About forty people, including local guides, chefs, and carriers, were looking after us. They lined up and sang while we arrived.

Second Cave Camp

On the first day, we walked through Forest and almost jungle-like vegetation. Now we started to go through heather and moorland. We began to get a view of both the steppes of Kenya and Kilimanjaro, the top we were going to climb. Now we have reached 3450 meters.

Kirkelewa Camp

I had booked the trip with a single room and a single tent. I find it far too intimate to share a small tent with a stranger for a whole week. The food tent was an excellent meeting point for breakfast and the other meals. In addition, the food was perfect considering we were camping. On this day, one of the younger women felt unwell from height sickness, and she chose to leave. A Helicopter picked her up, and she was in the hospital for one day. We met her again when we came down from the mountain. Today we reached 3600 meters.

Mawenzi Turn hut

This was the last day of 2018. The landscape had changed, and we were now more in an alpine desert. When we had eaten lunch, we rested a bit and then took a walk higher for acclimatizing, and we had a great view of the final journey before we reached that crater top. It was New Year’s Eve, but after dinner, about 20:00, it was peach black outside, and we needed to rest, so the entrance to 2019 was “celebrated” in a tent at 4315 meters.

Kibo Hut camp

Kibo hut camp is the last camp before climbing up to the crater of Kilimanjaro. We had a long flat alpine desert to cross. We arrived early in the afternoon, and now we had to take it easy. We were up at 4720 meters; some felt it in their body. I was ok but worried that my blood pressure was a bit high. We went to bed early since we had to start the last hike at midnight.

The battle to reach Africa’s highest peak

It isn’t easy to describe the top night. We started, all with our headlights. One thousand more meters to climb, and we had to walk very slowly. We could not see how far it was in a zigzag track upward. Finally, after five hours, we reached the crater edge, and it started to get light. At this point, we still had about two hours more to reach Uhuru Peak. Relatively flat along the crater edge but in the snow. Two men in our group, younger than me, stopped here and returned to the camp. I was exhausted, and two more hours seemed unbearable, but it was my dream to reach the very top, so I carried on. But I was exhausted, and the thin air did not help.

In the group picture, I was unconcentrated, so you can only see my hat, but I managed to get a picture on my own. The whole experience on the top was quite stressful. So many groups wanted to take pictures. The guide was also a bit stressed, and being so tired, the memories from the top are a bit blurred. It was around minus 10 degrees Celcius on the top.

The way down

After having reached our goal, we were down at camp by lunch. Then we started our return. Now we hiked the Marango (Coca-cola) route. On this route, you can rent huts on the way up and down. We stopped for one night on the way. After another night in a hotel, we flew to Kenya and went on a safari. That will be another blog.

Kilimanjaro had been an experience for life. It was exhausting, but it was worth every effort. I do recommend it, but I will not do it again.