August 2019 - Kilimanjaro
The second half of our hike up Kilimanjaro (first half is here). Most of it was through a volcanic alpine tundra. There was very little wildlife, and most of the time there was a surreal quiet. The day before summit, we hiked up to the base camp at about 14,000 feet, went to bed in the early evening and got up at midnight for our attempt on the summit. We hiked all night, and when the sun rose the crater rim was in sight but it was still a lot of painful, hard uphill at altitude to get there. We were so relieved to reach the crater rim. From there it was another hour to hike around the crater, still uphill but not quite as steep, to reach the actual summit. It took us 9 hours to get from base camp to summit, and we were totally exhausted. The feeling of reaching the summit was absolutely incredible. We were very fortunate to have clear skies and great weather too! The way down was a lot faster, but still really painful for me because I got a nasty bout of altitude sickness that kicked in. We made it back to base camp, rested for two hours, and then continued to hike down another 4,000 feet of elevation. By the time we reached our final camp for the night we'd been hiking for 17 hours that day and had been running on empty for many hours. But we made it! The following day we got off the mountain and ate the best Indian food I've ever had.
The second half of our hike up Kilimanjaro (first half is here). Most of it was through a volcanic alpine tundra. There was very little wildlife, and most of the time there was a surreal quiet. The day before summit, we hiked up to the base camp at about 14,000 feet, went to bed in the early evening and got up at midnight for our attempt on the summit. We hiked all night, and when the sun rose the crater rim was in sight but it was still a lot of painful, hard uphill at altitude to get there. We were so relieved to reach the crater rim. From there it was another hour to hike around the crater, still uphill but not quite as steep, to reach the actual summit. It took us 9 hours to get from base camp to summit, and we were totally exhausted. The feeling of reaching the summit was absolutely incredible. We were very fortunate to have clear skies and great weather too! The way down was a lot faster, but still really painful for me because I got a nasty bout of altitude sickness that kicked in. We made it back to base camp, rested for two hours, and then continued to hike down another 4,000 feet of elevation. By the time we reached our final camp for the night we'd been hiking for 17 hours that day and had been running on empty for many hours. But we made it! The following day we got off the mountain and ate the best Indian food I've ever had.
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| The Milky Way! The best I've ever seen it | The shadow of the mountain, ever looming | |
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| The lights of Moshi far below | Heading across the alpine tundra towards base camp | |
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| With great difficulty, we reached base camp, at 15,300 feet | ||
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| The sun rose while we were partway up to the crater. We were disheartened to see how much further we still had! | Our first view of the summit crater | |
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| More of the crater | The base of the mountain visible, about 14,000 feet below | Our tent is circled in red. Waaaay down there. |
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| A chunk of glacier | More glacier | Mt. Meru in the distance. It is an impressive 14,000 feet, but looks short from 5000 feet higher. |
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| The hike up the crater rim | The last significant uphill stretch | |
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| Along the crater rim, near the top of the continent | At the summit! | |
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| Survived to the top! | Us and the guides | Looking down into the crater from the summit |
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| Looking down from the crater rim at the steep, loose trail down | We arrived back at base camp, took a short rest, and then right as it was time to leave it started hailing. Great timing! | An accumulation of hail looking like snow |
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| After 15 hours of hiking, we reached our camp for the night. We were terribly exhausted. | Lower altitudes brought more wildlife, this a Kilimanjaro White-eye (endemic to the mountain) | |
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| The final leg down the mountain | One last tree skunk (colubus) | |
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| And we made it! | The glorious first meal after the hike | |
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| Fantastically bad English on a water bottle. "We do a hard, SO YOU ALWAYS HAVE waterIn the temperature, make YOU more at ease Tue use of our PRODUCTS." | "Chilly" banana chips, with chili flakes on them. | Variable Sunbird |
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| Speckled Mousebird | Common Bulbul | Red-headed Weaver |
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| Baglafecht Weaver (Reichenow subspecies) | Cape Robin-Chat | Streaky Seedeater |
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| Boarding a jumbo jet from the tarmac, to head home! |