Trip Reports

Kilimanjaro - Lemosho Glades - 17 to 26 Sep'16

Kilimanjaro - Lemosho Glades, September 2016 team

Written by Leader Ed Chard, September 2016

£There£s a group of Colobus monkeys in the trees£. It£s not the normal thing you hear on a mountaineering trip, but this was anything but normal £ this was Africa and we were off to climb to its highest point. Folks had travelled from the UK and Ireland the day before and were raring to go. Sorting bags and equipment whilst watching the wildlife was just day one. We had five thousand metres to climb through lush monkey-filled forest, open scrubby moorland and high volcanic rocky mountainside.

£When you see the monkey £ it will always rain two hours later£ this was the first piece of advice that Lyimo, our head guide, had shared. Our new friend hadn£t said much to that point so we looked at the clear open sky and back to him with some scepticism. Two hours and two minutes later we were putting on our waterproofs and thinking how these fellas know their stuff!

The first camp in the forest was reached just before the paths had become small rivers. £Big Tree Camp£ is well-named with fifty metre poplar and African Pine. Lyimo £The Monkey Whisperer£ was soon on hand with more wildlife news. Blue Monkey was known to be in the forest and one of them was friendly to trekkers. Sure enough, out of the gloom came a monkey the size of a two year old with a taste for ground nuts. We kept a respectful distance whilst those with the knowledge issued monkey dinner.

By day two we were getting to know each other and starting clocking up the metres of ascent and the kilometres of travel. Jungle gave way to open moorland and our first views of Kibo (Kilimanjaro plateau). Lunch of roast chicken legs and sandwiches kept us going and by late afternoon we were at our open plateau campsite. Red dust made its first appearance and decided to inhabit most things and places!

Day three and four were all about gaining height for acclimatisation. We got some incredible views from £The Cathedral£ on the Shira Plateau and our first time over 4,500m at £The Lava Tower£. The group started to meet other trekkers converging from other routes and a real sense of community started to build. We had daily visits from various folks all seeing how we were acclimatising and sharing stories from other adventures.

Day five started with, what became for some, the best bit of the trip; the £Barranco Wall£. From a climbers' perspective, the route isn£t difficult; but from a hillwalkers' perspective, it's a formidable challenge. Three hundred metres of rock paths, steps and simple scrambling gets the heart racing. You would have to try hard to fall off but all the same it feels real. There were some £relief hugs£ at the top before heading on to our next camp at Karanga, before summit day.

Summit day should really be called summit night. Eleven hours after getting into camp we were getting up to millet porridge, darkness and minus seven centigrade. We started off up short sections of rock slabs and a gravel path, our headtorches picking out the odd other person as we gained gradual height. After around 5 hours of walking and resting we were aware of the night sky becoming lighter. After another hour the African dawn was in full flow. Bright red and orange skylines started to pick out cliff shapes and snow patches. The sun rose up like a waking ball of fire and warmed our chilled faces immediately. We were just short of the crater rim and it gave us the impetus to push on. Cresting the crater rim and getting to the plateau of Kibo was incredible. Breathless and elated we all marvelled at the volcanic moonscape with what remains of Africa£s last surviving glaciers. We had made it. A short walk to Uhuru Peak - the highest point on the crater rim and the true summit of Kilimanjaro - was the cherry on top.

Ed Chard, Expedition Leader

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