Tanzania: Kil a Man (Jaro)

September 12, 2018 / 2,712 Comments

“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.”
― Barry Finlay, Kilimanjaro and Beyond

African Arrival

Tanzania. Kilimanjaro. The Serengeti. Safari. I’ve come to Africa for all of these things.

After a long flight starting in Budapest, with a few hour stopover in Dubai, I also arrived tired, worn out on European touristing, ready for a new landscape, and (finally) a large group of friends to share it all with. I was getting fed up of traveling alone and self-entertaining. Bring on the massive travel group and pre-planned daily itineraries.

Over the course of the next two days, nine other eager world travelers arrived to meet me. We are a giant group of 10 adults ready to conquer mountains and gawk wide-eyed at elephants and giraffes. Most of the group I know from my not-so distant days of being an employed bank regulator with the OCC. Six out of ten of the group are current, or in my case former, co-workers.

Introductions

I would like to start with the most important aspect of this part of my trip. The group I’m traveling with! While the experience of climbing Kilimanjaro was memorable enough, the people I did it with made it amazingly unforgettable.

I’ll start locally with fellow DC-based, OCC world travelers Vinisha and Hiruy. Vinisha is about the sweetest person ever, and brought the fashion to Tanzania by showing up with her hair braided like Alicia Keys. I similarly marked the monumental occasion with a hair change by dying mine pink for the trip. Mine looked ok, but she won the hair model award. Hands down.

Hiruy is our faithful leader, and trip organizer. For once, I didn’t have to do any travel planning. Hiruy did all the research and booking, and periodically sent out emails with info and requests for money which I obligingly paid without complaint.

OCC Big Brother and Little Sister
Work that Hair

Next up is John, who I first met during my very first week on the job a whopping (I’m almost afraid to admit) 13 years ago in Chicago. Back then he was based in NYC, where the east coast version of himself was like a slick-haired alternate twin to his current ponytailed Hawaiian-shirt-wearing California self. John now resides in San Francisco, along with blue-grass-loving outdoorsman Patrick Last to round out the regulators, but not least, Joyce kept us all hip to millennial music trends along with representing Boston.

Somewhere underneath the layers of fleece is Joyce
John brought his fashion game
Patrick’s on top of the world

The six of us met in different ways and at different times through work or mutual connections. And now we’re all in Tanzania to show that bank regulators’ skills aren’t limited to killer spreadsheet making and writing factually poignant supervisory letters. We also travel the world and climb mountains.

That makes us sound more exciting, right?

Belinda adds one more count to the DC based government employees, though not the OCC contingency. She’s a multi-marathoner, a triathlete, and uses her spare time to manage running and tennis meet-ups. The running meet-up is how I first met her, and now she makes my travel lifestyle possible by meticulously managing my home’s airbnb listing while I’m away. This made her my roommate on this trip, and the future recipient of one of my kidneys if she ever needs one.

Tent Mates!

While I consider myself active and relatively physically fit, Belinda is a whole different category. By the end of this hike, she’ll put the rest of us to shame by treating the climb to 19,000 feet like she was going for a casual morning stroll. No big deal. Maybe she’ll try a different route next time. She also brings a certain amount of shit talking to the group dynamic. You could get mad at her for all of these things, but she’s not one to brag or complain, and even when she’s giving you crap for something you can’t help but feel her simultaneous encouragement.

The other three brave souls in our group willing to spend two weeks in Tanzania being outnumbered by federal employees are Patrick’s girlfriend Caitlin, Hiruy’s friend Paul from his college days, and Paul’s friend Ananda. I’d met Caitlin before on a prior adventure club trip to Lake Tahoe last year. She’s an active hiker, mountain climber, and brings a warm personality with the right amount of sass. Her and Patrick make a very likeable couple fit for the cover of some outdoorsy magazine.

It’s like they’ve posed like this before

I met Paul and Ananda on arrival. Paul is a native Tanzanian who met Hiruy in college and now focuses his time on working as a nurse practitioner and raising two daughters. Ananda’s got a few boys at home of her own, and works in substance abuse. These two professional fields are useful additions to round out the group. In the unlikely (likely) event of personal injury or self-medication on this trip, a half dozen bank examiners are positively useless.

Together we are a group of 10 ready to hike Kilimanjaro.

As soon as everyone arrives to meet me.

Getting Started

There are several routes you can take up Kilimanjaro. Our group opted for the Machame route. The hike can be done in as little as six days, but we added a day to get it to a well-rounded week to give extra time for everyone to acclimate (or as I like to incorrectly say – acclimatize) to the altitude.

We planned on making it to the top, everyone, as one big group.

The day of reckoning finally approached and I have to say that the first day of the hike wasn’t anything too strenuous. It was an 11km hike, mostly uphill, but without the challenges we were yet to face with altitude. A warm up day. Everyone still looked fresh faced and bright eyed.

The first few days really weren’t that bad physically. We didn’t have to cover that much distance. Sometimes only 5-7 km in an entire day. This allowed a lot of free time for napping, card games, long dinners, and group banter. The slow pace is intentional to make sure everyone adjusts to the altitude and isn’t too physically worn out for summit day. It also helps create a false sense of confidence that you are in such prime physical shape that the entire hike will be…as our camp cook liked to say…..easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

As we continued to climb in altitude we witnessed some amazing changes in landscape. The first day was an uphill hike through jungley wilderness where we were spotting monkeys in trees. Over the next few days, the green canopy gave way to drier conditions, sparcer vegetation, and the occasional foggy mist that made me wonder if we were at the onset of a horror movie plot.

By the time we got to day 4 and 5, we were starting to camp at higher altitudes to adjust to the thinner air. We hiked up to 4,600 meters one day, then came back down to 3,900. The next day we climbed back up to set up camp before summit day. By now we were amid, and often above the cloud line. Other than making for great picture opportunities, I didn’t think much of this when I was up there. I was primarily focused on making the steady climb each day. Now, looking back at my pictures I can realize just how high we were at the time.

The Support

I can’t talk about this hike, and certainly not about summit day without first giving a few hundred shout outs to the crew of porters, cooks, and guides that got us there. It is no small operation to get 10 westerners with mostly desk jobs up a mountain. The crew to hiker ratio was 4 to 1. That’s right, it took almost FORTY people to get us up the mountain.

Three porters per person, including two people who’s sole job is to carry our toilets. Add to that six guides, and three cooks – two for us, and one for the rest of the crew. The sheer number of support people made me feel immense gratitude, and almost embarrassment at the luxuries we enjoyed. Whereas we were responsible for carrying only our day packs to camp each day, the porters carried their own supplies for the week, PLUS 40+lbs of luggage for each of us, PLUS our food, PLUS everyone’s camping tents and dining equipment.

They woke up before us. They stayed up late after us. They made our food, carried our clothes, picked up our mess, and ran ahead of us each day on the trail to set up the next camp. Hiking Kilimanjaro is an amazing physical accomplishment and life experience for anyone. But watching a porter literally run past you, wearing hand-me-down loafers, carrying his own backpack as well as your 40 lb duffel bag on his head…well, it has a way of moderating your sense of personal pride.

On top of it all, they were all incredibly friendly, helpful, patient, and cheerful while doing it. Major props. I could not do what they do. Not in a million years.

The porters, cooks and guides began each morning with a song, led by our outgoing and always smiling cook Lamek. On days when we were feeling tired or lazy, they brought the energy to keep us powering through each day.

In the mornings, Lamek brought us coffee or tea and water for ‘washy washy’. It was here that Belinda learned that she shares a name with a famous Tanzanian actress who frequently plays the role of the kings daughter. Thus her nickname ‘Princess’ for the rest of the trip was born. Lamek obviously had favorites, but they had a special connection that can’t be denied.

Lamek prepping our daily soup special
THe dining tent

Also, did I mention that she’s doing an amazing job managing my Airbnb. She’s the best. Go ahead. Keep calling her Princess when she gets home. She deserves it.

Summit day

No sugarcoating. Summit day is a rough day. It’s a long day. We all made it. I’m proud of us. I’m proud of myself . I’m so glad I did it, and am even happier that I got to share it with this crazy amazing group. I have zero intention of ever doing it again.

Once and done.

Summit day started with a 1am wake up call, a light breakfast, and a 2am starting hike time. Yes that’s an early time to start hiking. Better to start in the pitch black dark where you can’t see too far ahead of you and get scared of what’s to come.

We started hiking at 4,600 meters and spent the next 7-8 hours climbing up to 5,900 meters, or 19,000 feet. That’s a lot of ascent in a short amount of time. Also, FYI, it’s really damn high. The air is thin and everyone’s body reacts to that differently.

It was slow moving. The Swahili term is “Pole Pole”. The guides made us stop every 40 minutes or so to remind us all to drink water, and check in on health conditions. After a few hours they started carrying our day packs for us. Did I mention these people are freaking amazing? I’d love to say I made it all the way to the top carrying my own pack, like the stubborn fool that I am. BUT HELLS NO. Just before sunrise, our guide Amrit didn’t even wait for me to ask. He saw me struggling and just took my day pack away. For the next hour after this moment, I hiked in sweet un-weighted relief. I felt like I could hike that mountain TWICE.

And then we kept going higher and this foolish feeling went away. I was but a weak human and this mountain was trying to kill me.

Delirium is the only thing keeping me smiling
Break Time

We tried our best to stay together as a group, but the guides knew more than we did about the best way to climb into outerspace. If someone fell back, it was better that the rest of the group kept going rather than stop and wait while continuing to breath the thin air. We put our trust and our lives in our guides and they made sure we all got to the top safely, and at our own pace.

Several of us started feeling dizzy. Others felt nauseous. Patrick puked on the way up, and like a determined idiodic soldier (weren’t we all at this point??), he picked himself up and kept on going. We passed people crying. People being carried down the mountain. A handful of us made it to the summit first, and waited a few minutes for the rest of the group to arrive. One by one, everyone made it to the top. We were nine strong and just waiting for one more. Our fearless leader and trip planner, Hiruy.

Hiruy started feeling sick just before we reached Stella Point, about an hour before the final summit. Per instructions, he slowed his pace and stayed behind with David. The nine of us waited patiently at the top while Hiruy tirelessly kept moving his way up with the help and encouragement of David.

And in the end, all 10 of us summited Kilimanjaro.

Hiruy probably just faked it so he could arrive to a cheering crowd of friends at the top, like an Olympic athlete crossing the finish line to claim a gold medal.

Whatever. He made all of this possible. He deserved it.

We took about 1,000 pictures, a few minutes of needed rest, and got the hell out of there. You don’t stay to hang out at 19,000 feet. You get down as fast as you can before your body freaks out on you.

Coming Down

The way down is (almost) as tough as the way up for some. We took a shorter, steeper route down the mountain, through thick sands of dust. It was like skiing downhill in dirt. I’m not even ashamed to admit, I pretty much raced ahead of the group here. With the worst part done, I just wanted to get the hell down as fast as I could.

Once we all made it back down to the campsite for the night, we took time for a short break and lunch and then had to hit the trail again. The day was not over. We still had to hike another 2-3 hours to the next campsite for the day. I told you it was a long day.

By the time we got back to the campsite that night, everyone was tired, sore, dusty, but pretty amazed and satisfied with ourselves. We actually did it. It took an entire village of people to help us, but we all submitted Kilimanjaro.

We took a different and shorter route back down the mountain, meaning we only had one day left. The last day was the longest distance, but was entirely downhill and went much faster than the ascending days in altitude.

By the time we reached the bottom, everyone was happy, tired, and ready for a shower. It had been over a week since we’d had this luxury. Another pitfall of climbing mountains.

But we did it. We all finished. Congrats to us. Infinite thanks to the porters and guides that got us there.