Trip Reports

Kilimanjaro Lemosho Glades - 13 to 22 Aug '16

Written by Leader Harry McAulay, August 2016

The trip started off a bit disjointed. Instead of all meeting up in Amsterdam, Ailsa and Lorna joined us a bit later due to the re-scheduling of their flights when they checked in with KLM. None of this hampered the start, it just meant that they were more sleep deprived than the rest of us by the time we headed off for the mountain the next morning.

Right from the start, I could see that this was a group that was going to get on well; there was an easy humour and camaraderie between everyone and this held out for the entire trip.

In keeping with my mantra that each day is equal to a summit day, I ensured that every day we focussed on some aspect that would help all team members with the final big push to the top of the mountain.

The acclimatisation schedule on this route is fabulous and the group went from camp to camp with hardly any symptoms that could not be sorted out by the odd Ibuprofen. On summit day itself, at the top of the mountain, there was not one headache, or feeling of nausea or giddiness, which is not uncommon at these heights, especially if too few days are spent acclimatising on the way up.

Everything went like clockwork on the summit ascent. We left camp at 3 in the morning with five of the group back to camp by 12:45 pm and the rest back by 1 pm with every team member having reached the true summit.

The whole of our trip was blessed with excellent weather apart from a very cold wind that was with us on summit day. Once again, our support crew of local guides, cook, camp staff and porters provided a first-class service with Jeff-the-Chef coming up trumps every day. His final touch of providing Angela, who was a vegetarian, with chips and cheese on the final night was way beyond the call of duty; everyone else had the most delicious chicken and chips. To put it into context, Jeff-the-Chef had run out of cheese the day before, yet he summoned up a meal, just perfect after the hardships of the day, seemingly from thin air! What he must have done is run around the hillside until he’d manage to barter for cheese from another group.

The youngest in the group, Issa, deserves a special mention as he threw himself into learning Swahili. He took to his new language so well that, on the final descent, someone going up asked him if he was Tanzanian!

In summary - a great trip, great crew, and topped off as a great achievement by one and all. I will never forget the looks on my team’s faces at having topped Kilimanjaro. Well done Angela, John, Sumaira, Adam, Issa, Lauren, Ailsa and Lorna - I enjoyed every minute with you guys.

Harry McAulay, Expedition Leader « Previous report | Next report »

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