Trip Reports

Kilimanjaro - Umbwe Route 4 to 16 Feb '08

The southern aspect of Kilimanjaro, looking directly at the Western Breach. Shot from Meru

Written by Leader Paul Westwood, February 2008

Team members congregated at Amsterdam airport having flown from regional airports in the UK. Identifying Jagged Globe clients was a bit of a challenge as there were a few people waiting at the departure gate who looked like mountaineers. Fortunately two of the team were friends and three had met at the pre expedition meeting in North Wales and this helped.

The flight to Kilimanjaro airport was for the main part uneventful, however one passenger decided to make a bit of a spectacle of himself and the relevant authorities were waiting at the airport to take him away for a bit of a friendly chat! Quite entertaining.

Alan hadn’t got his visa in advance so a potentially long wait at the airport was in store. However, and I’m still not sure why, an official singled us out from the waiting crowds and fast tracked us through the system whilst the remaining applicants looked on in amazement. Happy to take whatever lucky breaks come our way we continued through immigration, found our contact (Named Help) from Keys Hotel, boarded the two vehicles waiting for us and enjoyed the journey to the hotel. Having checked in to our rooms we met back in the bar for a briefing, PAC training, beer and snacks before heading of to bed.

Off for Mt Meru the following morning we met up with Thomas and Moses, our guides, and the rest of the Keys expedition team. Bags, kit and food weighed to establish the porter numbers we headed off into the park with Gideon, our (armed) Park Ranger, at about 1pm. Everyone was surprised to see the range and quantity of wildlife we saw within minutes of entering the park. Two hours later we stopped for lunch and to shade from the sun. Lunch over and so was the sunshine, the heavens opened and we walked the remainder of the day to Miriakamba Hut in rain and hail. Popcorn and drinks raised our spirits and a hearty dinner later in the day saw us off to bed much happier.

A steady walking pace the following day saw us reach Saddle Hut in 3.5 hours and we followed up in the afternoon with a 45-minute ascent of Little Meru. Kilimanjaro was partially obstructed by clouds but Rhino Point and the path up Meru were quite clear. Quite a lot of snow on Meru during the evening had prevented the previous night's ascent teams from setting out until daylight. We wondered what conditions we might face later this evening/early morning.

The answer was unfortunately rain, but it didn’t prevent us setting off at 2pm with headtorch beams bouncing back off the rain/snow. We reached Rhino Point in good time. unfortunately Dave R was unwell and was forced to return to the hut accompanied by Moses. After 6 hours everyone summited and the clouds parted momentarily before closing and continuing the intermittent snowfall we had experienced for the whole journey. We saw many different views of the crater as we descended back to Saddle Hut to reunite with Dave. Later we continued down hundreds of steps to Miriakamba Hut were we would spend the night. Dave still wasn’t well so a course of antibiotics and a rescue vehicle saw him, accompanied by his friend Richard, transported straight back to Keys Hotel.

The next day, after distributing tips to porters, the remainder of the team continued down the lower slopes, visiting a waterfall on the way and a closer look at some of the wildlife, before returning to the park ranger station where certificates were presented and goodbyes said to Gideon. It was a bumpy ride back to the main road then back to Keys Hotel where we met Simon Lowe after his recee trip to the Western Breach route up Kilimanjaro. I went to check the Jagged Globe tents for our Kilimanjaro trip and to have a trial erection of the new dinning shelter with Keys’ camp crew. When I returned, the team and Simon were in the bar with Simon fielding questions about itinerary and dossier queries. Simon lost a bet involving champagne for the team – wonder when that will materialise? Dinner, sorting kit for the next morning and bed – no peace for the wicked!

Next morning, our new team of porters, dishwashers, waiter boys, camp crew and cooks was assembled and we headed off. There was a slight delay at the Umbwe Gate as our guides hadn’t got a permit for us to enter the park. Someone was despatched immediately to the adjacent gate to rectify this omission. Once it arrived we did the book filling and bag weighing and eventually started walking. It was a fairly relentless slog uphill for 5 hours before we arrived at Forest Cave campsite, the team's first experience of tent camping on this trip. The ’interesting’ animal noises during the night brought lots of speculation as to their source. The consensus was that it would probably have been monkeys.

The next morning, following breakfast, we were surprised to see Thomas and Moses with a pulse/oxygen monitor and stethoscope. Fortunately everyone was interested to see how they were coping and it was never an issue. Deemed fit to continue we carried on upwards along a ridge line which was taken with ease by all the team members, but must have been quite a challenge for the porters with large and/or cumbersome loads. Forest gave way to moorland and eventually the barren high mountain landscape was the norm. Baranco campsite was busy by comparison to Forest Caves. It was a beautiful clear sky in the evening, a shame we had only rudimentary knowledge of star systems as they were all so incredibly bright.

The impressive Baranco Wall was overcome and in next to no time we were setting up camp at Karanga. Unfortunately the rain had also joined us once more.

Karanga to Barafu was a short day too. An opportunity to gain maximum altitude acclimatisation. Just 2.5 hours to reach our destination. As much food and drink were taken in to help with the following days exertion.

A minute past midnight and we were off walking again. Yet again a fine mist of rain/snow accompanied us on the first stage. Thomas maintained a good steady pace unlike some other groups who were later seen with members being unwell by the side of the path. Seven hours of continuous uphill saw us at the summit of Uhuru Peak having had only a brief pause at Stella Point. Alan struggled on the final part of the ascent but all the team including guides and high altitude porters were together on the summit. A great team effort. The normal descent is hard but this team wanted even harder and due to circumstances (mainly very heavy rain/hail) they decided to walk the whole way down to the gate in one go! A mammoth effort, rewarded by beer and a comfy bed back at Keys Hotel.

Thomas took everyone for a tour of Moshi the following day where souvenirs were purchased. That evening at dinner we were treated to champagne, compliments of Simon. A man of his word.

Our departure day seemed very long and everyone was pleased once our homeward journey had started. We said our goodbyes in Amsterdam and flew our separate ways.« Previous report | Next report »

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