Climbing Kilimanjaro

We were thrilled to be selected as the beneficiary when Jolene and Marco Bertoldi decided to raise funds through their Kilimanjaro climb. The Cape couple chose Amathuba because:

'Personally, we find it astounding and shameful that in our modern times, people still live in shacks without basic facilities such as clean running water, electricity or sufficient shelter.'

'It is relatively easy for us to make a big difference in the lives of others,' Jolene writes on her blog, http://machame-route.blogspot.com .

The couple raised nearly R9 000 for Amathuba. We sincerely thank them, and all those who sponsored them – and were delighted to hear that they enjoyed a successful and safe trip to the summit.

Click here to sponsor Jolene and Marco.Anyone, anywhere in the world can raise funds for Amathuba on Do it 4 Charity . You do not have to be South African - you just need a passion for the work we do!

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We'd like to say that we are delighted to be able to help and offer a great big thanks again to all for your support!

If you would like to do something amazing for charity, please take a look at this website - it is unbelievably easy to set up!

Summit Night on Kilimanjaro

2009-03-06T04:06:00.000-08:00

According to the latest tweets the British Celebs have all made it to the summit camp. They are resting up for a few hours before the summit assault.

The night will begin like this: Day Five

And when they think the summit will never come and the night will never end... It Does!

The summit attempt is gruelling and as you go up, you use all your will and might to get there. Once you have finally made it, it's exhilarating. The views are truly awesome!

You only have a few minutes to admire the beauty and your achievement before heading back down.

From here you still have the longest and most testing day ahead of you. The rest of the day will look a little something like this: Day Six

Good Luck To All The Climbers!

To all their supporters, if you haven't yet - you still have time to help them reach their main goal which is supporting Red Nose Day. They have today already raised £1, 274, 267 for charity which is a phenomenal effort! Congrats to all and let's hope each one of them gets to stand on the Roof of Africa!

To see a condensed version of the Machame Route see: here

Barranco Wall

2009-03-05T02:31:00.001-08:00

According to their latest 'tweet' the celebs are making their way up Barranco Wall

To Quote:

Half way up Barranco Wall stopping for a rest and the new 900k plus total comes in - what a reception that gets!

31 minutes ago from txt

That would mean that they are definitely on the Machame Route and that they are facing this today:

http://machame-route.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-4-of-7.html

Good Luck to the team and if you haven't already, sponsor their climb for charity today!

@RedNoseClimb

2009-03-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you on Twitter you can follow all the latest news from the celebs on Kilimanjaro. This seems to be frequently updated by the Girls Aloud girls and Chris Moyles.

@RedNoseClimb

Take a look at the last couple of updates here to get an idea of how it's all going for them:

Everyone is walking hunched over, with heads bowed, taking the smallest steps they can. The altitude is taking a brutal toll.

15 minutes ago from txt

Chris: It wasn't.

19 minutes ago from txt

Chris: Im trudging here, counting steps to the top of a ridge. I hope to God the camp is on the other side.

21 minutes ago from txt

Painfully slow progress as we climb and climb. Team now strung out across half a mile and every single step hurts.

21 minutes ago from txt

A message from the team to Sun reporter Gordon Smart who couldnt climb because of a family tragedy - we're all thinking of u.

about 1 hour ago from txt

Inbetween gasps for air the talk has turned to comfort food. Roast dinners, burgers and sausage sarnies are being drooled over.

about 1 hour ago from txt

A message from the team to Sun reporter Gordon Smart who couldnt climb because of a family tragedy - we're all thinking of u.

about 1 hour ago from txt

The team have experienced upwards cloud today - cold, wet cloud gusting upwards into their faces.

about 2 hours ago from txt

As anyone who heard Chris on the radio this morning could no doubt tell, today is a cold hard slog.

about 2 hours ago from txt

hi -txt 'climb' to 88808 to keep that fantastic support going. anyone listening to chris M on Radio 1?

about 4 hours ago from web

Team just been told 677k total - put a spring in what is a pretty heavy collective step. Chris on Radio 1 now.

about 4 hours ago from txt

Sweet stop. Harribos, percy pigs, choc eclairs - anything for an energy boost.

about 5 hours ago from txt

Kimberley and Cheryl: Hi to all the Girls Aloud fans who are sending messages - the support and donations help loads, this is really hard!xx

about 6 hours ago from txt

A night of heavy rain will make these hard yards even harder. Gary's back holding up.

about 7 hours ago from txt

Air of trepidation around camp this morning. Five hour climb ahead that will take the team to 4600 meters and the very edge of the glaciers.

about 7 hours ago from txt

And a big thanks from me from all the messages of support - more tomorrow. Onwards and upwardsx

about 18 hours ago from txt

So apologies for any random reports from the mountain in the next few days.

about 18 hours ago from txt

So a huge thank you from every member of the team to everyone who has donated so far and to

those who will.

about 18 hours ago from txt

In short this is a huge challenge - and the thing that keeps the team putting on foot in front of the other is the money thats being raised.

about 18 hours ago from txt

And finally there's the fear of the unkown - will the next meter thd team climbs be the one that makes them succumb?

about 18 hours ago from txt

The celebs are on day 3 of their trek. Take a look here to see what they can expect to get through today: Day 3 on Kilimanjaro

Don't forget that this initiative is all for a very good cause.

See all the details at the Red Nose Day website: http://www.rednoseday.com/climb/sponsor

Celebrities Climbing Kilimanjaro

2009-03-03T01:17:00.000-08:00

Isn't it always the case - you do something BIG and then it seems just about everyone else is doing it too!

But when it's for charity it would be great if everyone could chip in. Either by doing the challenge yourself or by sponsoring those brave enough to attempt it.

So a number British celebs have joined forces and have taken on the challenge of Climbing Kili.

Included in the list of famous names are Radio One DJ Chris Moyles, Boyzone's Ronan Keating, pop star Alesha Dixon, and GMTV host Ben Shephard, 34.

The effort is to raise money for Comic Relief. They hope to raise £1m - some of which will be used to fight malaria and providing refuge for those in need, in Tanzania.

According to the Telegraph the group left at 6am local time, yesterday.

When we started our trip, we only managed to leave at 1pm with all the delays we faced. So we ended up walking in the heat of the late afternoon. I guess at least the celebs managed to start off with slightly cooler conditions. Although it seems that it was still a little to hot for Take That singer, Gary Barlow, who "collapsed in a heap" on his first day.

To get an idea of that they have in store for day 2, take a look at this link:

http://machame-route.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-2-of-7.html

The group have already raised more than £500,000. Other celebrities taking part include TV presenter Denise Van Outen, DJ Fearne Cotton and Girls Aloud Kimberley Walsh and Cheryl Cole .

If you would like to donate to the Red Nose Climb, you can find all the details about the climb and the climbers here:

http://www.rednoseday.com/climb/sponsor/the_team

What The Brochure Said

2009-02-28T23:57:00.000-08:00

I thought it might be a useful exercise to go back and add to my previous posts, instead of re-writing them. Having done the trip now, it's probably going to be better to show you:

What The Brochure Said vs What Really Happened...

So go back as far as the 4th of February 2009 where our adventure begins...

Homeward Bound

2009-02-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

After a very early breakfast, we'll leave Dar es Salaam at 07:25am for a flight to Johannesburg.

We'll have to kill a few hours in Jozi until our 16:25pm flight back to Cape Town.

After arriving in CT and transferring home, we'll finally be done travelling at 8-ish or so.

After another very long day of travelling, I think we'll leave the unpacking for a few days. Perhaps a hot shower then a cold beer and some delicious food will be called for?

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

We were collected at 5:30 so too early for breakfast. The airport, thankfully is just around the corner. By this point Marco and I were ready to be home. We were tired of lugging our gear with us from place to place.

We got to the airport with no Tanzanian shillings and to get a cup of coffee would have cost $1, with a minimum $5 spend on cards... so we waited till good old SAA served us in the air! (Have I mentioned yet the quality of coffee in Tanzania?? It's not that we're not willing to pay for coffee, but when it's really, really crap coffee - it just ain't worth it!)

We got to Jozi airport and headed straight for Mugg & Bean. We ordered the most delicious double cappuccinos and a range of items for breakfast! We pigged out and chilled out until about 4:30pm for our final flight to CT.

After a steers supper and a nice hot shower we were finally home SWEET home!!

And that... is what REALLY HAPPENED!

Ferry to Dar es Salaam

2009-02-18T18:00:00.000-08:00

After breakfast we spend another leisurely morning in Nungwe

In the afternoon we check out and transfer to Zanzibar harbour. From there we will join the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam.

We'll be staying at the Peacock Hotel again, so in familiar territory. We'll hopefully be able to explore on our last evening

in Tanzania.

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

We did have a very relaxing morning. We packed our things, checked out of the room. We mostly chilled on the beach and took in the last few sites until our taxi arrived.

After a mini-panic where I thought I had lost not only our ferry tickets but our passports as well, we eventually found them and got going.

After only a few minutes on the road we came across a very hectic accident. I won't go into details, but suffice to say, Pray to God that you don't end up in a road accident while out there. That pretty much shook me up for the rest of the trip - hence the complete lack of photos until we reached Dar again.

Also (to try and calm me down) Marco thought this would be the perfect time to teach me how to play chess. You know, on one of those teeny tiny magnetic boards. In a taxi doing about 100km's an hour in the pouring rain on very, very dodgy roads.

I lost that game!

(Nerves wrecked..) we eventually arrived at the harbour with plenty of time to spare.

On the brochure we were told we'd have to pay $30 departure tax, each, to leave Zanzibar. That must be an airline thing because we weren't asked for it (yippeee! & Score!!)

The ferry itself took about 2 1/2 hours. They did have air-con on the ferry but it was still unbelievably hot!

On arrival at Dar es Salaam, our trusty Leopard Tours rep met us and took us to the hotel. This would be the last night before heading home.

That night we decided to go to the hotel for dinner - we were both hungry after days of being ill and not eating much over the past few days.

We didn't realise until we were already seated that it was a buffet dinner. (Buffet included banana soup and goats meat.) (PS: banana is in EVERYTHING)

Anyway, aside from it being exorbitantly expensive (R1000 (US$100) for 2 bottles of (cheap) wine and a buffet dinner!) it was our last night and we were determined to have fun!

We had, after all just climbed Kilimanjaro!!

Exploring Nungwe & Stone Town in Zanzibar

2009-02-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

Because you can't scuba dive within 24 hours of flying, we've taken the day off from scuba diving.

Today we can properly explore Zanzibar - check out the famed Stone Town and get our own impression of Nungwe - there are mixed reviews online; although some beautiful photos!

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Wouldn't Luck Have It!! On the day that I am finally fit and well and we only have one full day left in Zanzibar, Marco gets sick! Something he ate the previous day gave him gippo-guts!! (It wasn't the pizza because I'd eaten it too and, thankfully, I was fine!!)

So we didn't make it out to Stone Town - which is a pity as everyone says it's a 'must' when going to Zanzibar. To be fair though - we weren't really all that keen on paying $60 to be taken 50kms up the road (that's the cost of a one way trip!)

So we mostly just relaxed at the trusted Nungwi Restaurant on the beach.

We'd bought this cool game - which we've called Beads ('cause we can't remember the real name!) It has something to do with being entertaining but getting you nowhere. :)

We had walked around Nungwe a bit and were quite put off by the filth. The beaches are gorgeous, as is the water. But behind the beach side accommodation, in the town itself, it is pretty disgusting. Besides the excessive plastic pollution (all those water bottles go somewhere) you have to dodge the human excrement just on the ground all over the place.

Don't get me wrong, I am from Africa. I know what poverty looks like and I am appalled that people in Africa still still in this depth of poverty. But what we experienced here was less poverty and more apathy. The locals just didn't seem to care about their own living environments. To literally shit on your own door step says a lot.

And so, after being a bit grossed out, we decided to keep our eyes forward - towards to beautiful beaches and views and sunsets - which is what we paid very dear $'s to do.

And it really is so beautiful out there....

Scuba Diving in Zanzibar

2009-02-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

If I have any readers left by now, I'd be amazed... yes I am still talking about our wonderful, relaxing holiday in Zanzibar.

Today is the last day of scuba diving that we have prebooked. Another 2 boat dives either here off Zanzibar or off Pemba Island.

All the stories and photographs will be added in here when I get home - so don't forget to check back!

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Today we dived with East Africa Diving Company again. We arrived early and took a long boat ride out to Mnemba Atoll for 2 dives. The water is simply indescribable - clearer and warmer than any pool I've seen and this is the open ocean!

Both dives were spectacular. It was as if we were gliding through a huge tropical aquarium. Absolutely stunning, tonnes of tropical fish, coral and we even saw a turtle.

The trip back was gorgeous too. At one point we saw a school of dolphins and in our determination to go swimming with the dolphins we (nearly all of us!) managed a quick pic before bailing out of the boat and swam for our lives.

Of course the boat went one way and the dolphins the other way and we had to wait to be rescued! It was totally worth a try though! hee hee hee

When we got back, we wondered up and down the beach and finally found a little restaurant that wasn't too expensive and whose pizza's were wonderful.

After nearly 4 days of not eating, my appetite was back and we'd found a lovely place to chill for the rest of the day. If you do go out that way, look for the Nungwi Inn, Restaurant and Bar. Highly recommended and right on the beach with stunning views!! (They also do accommodation right on the beach which is probably worth checking out if you're heading this way)

Scuba Dive Pemba Island

2009-02-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today we have another 2 boat dives booked, although I'd really like to see whether we can get to Pemba Island for a dive instead.

For more info / images see here: http://www.swahilidivers.com/diving.htm

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Having still not eaten anything since my dinner on Thursday night I was feeling really weak and lethargic. None of the food in the restaurants was appealing to me and they were really expensive too! We'd seen a sign for a toasted cheese & tomato sandwich for $8 (that's about R80)

Yesterday while I was in the room, Marco went for lunch on his own. He ordered a beef fillet for $15 and was given an over cooked minute steak.

I guess we were just shocked at the cost of bad quality food available from most of the restaurants along the beaches. We eventually found a stall that sold some fruit. We bought mangoes, papaya, oranges and had that for breakfast in our room.

I won't go into detail about it but there is a fly problem too and with all the restaurants being outdoor ones it makes having meals a bit challenging. The locals seem to think its hysterical that we keep swatting the flies away off our food.

We didn't make it to Pemba Island (unfortunaltey) but we did manage to go for 2 local boat dives today with East Africa Diving. They were very organised throughout all the dives, had excellent quality gear to hire and I would highly recommend them.

The water is just superb! It's warm and it's so clear. The dives were both fairly easy which is great. The coral, tropical fish, star fish, turtles and rays all make these dives unforgettable!

After 2 gorgeous dives we headed back up the beach. We stopped off at Linga Linga for dinner. This awesome restaurant is right next to our room (although not part of the same complex) and offer accommodation in addition to their very cool restaurant.

Marco enjoyed his dinner - and mine. I still couldn't stomach anything (although their food was very good).

We enjoyed some cold Kilimanjaro beers and a gorgeous sunset. After dinner we just headed back to the room for some more blessed air-conditioning!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

And what better place to celebrate it than in Zanzibar? Last year we spent Valentines Day with Rex & Angelica in Kingston in the UK - movie and a dinner, I recall?

Well I have to say that Zanzibar beats Kingston (sorry guys - but it's true!)

Today (aside from *celebrating* Valentine's Day) we have 2 boat dives planned.

The scuba diving in Zanzibar is supposed to be spectacular. See for yourself:

http://www.zanzibar-diving.com/pics_underwater.html

http://www.scubashackzanzibar.com/photos.html

http://www.scuba-do-zanzibar.com/PhotoAlbum.htm

Hopefully by this stage I not only have my little waterproof camera with me, but I also have the right memory in it and batteries that work!

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Unfortunately I couldn't do much *celebrating* on Valentine's Day. Thankfully we got the water turned back on and thankfully the room was air-conditioned. I spent most of the day in our room recovering. I could not eat anything; the very sight and smell of food made my stomach turn - which meant that I was a really shitty date. Literally.

There were some other romantic couples who hired some of the Dhow boats for cruises. Very sweet, the boats were decorated with red & white balloons, some of which ended up floating past our room.

The tide changes were pretty huge - over night the water was right up to our balcony. In the pic below, the water would rise to about 1/2 up that coral rock. During the day is went to low tide - low enough to expose this beautiful beach.

The water itself is AMAZING. It's very warm and very salty. It is so clear that we could swim out really far and still be able to make out every grain of sand on the bottom and every little fish, star fish, sea urchin and other little sea creatures in the water.

Due to being sick I forfeited my 2 dives that I had booked for today. Because Marco was looking after me he forfeited his two dives as well. Sux for both of us. The dive company did lend us snorkeling kit instead and we went out in the afternoon when I started feeling a bit better.

The Day After

2009-02-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

This will be the BEST Friday the 13th Ever!

After breakfast, we transfer to Arusha airport for a 11:00am flight to Zanzibar.

We transfer to Amaan Bungalows to a gorgeous sea view room for the next 5 nights.

To quote their website:

"As we are on the north western point – we are able to view beautiful sunsets. As we are in Nungwi, the northern most part – we have wild tropical surroundings and pristine white beaches, and as we are on Zanzibar, we are surrounding by the unforgettable turquoise water of the Indian Ocean. A postcard picture for sure."

Um.. need I say more?

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Hee hee - how naive! Friday the 13th - IS Friday The Thirteenth.

I woke up feeling a little 'weird'. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but opted out of breakfast.

We had most of the day to relax - our flight was at 3:30, so our driver was to collect us at 1:30.

They (2 drivers) turned up at 10:30 (a little too early!) and kept asking to check my ticket, not entirely believing me that my flight was later in the afternoon (odd - because they were the ones who changed my flight from the 11:00am one to the later one - yup, good old Leopard Tours again...)

We wondered around the hotel, spent some time in the Internet cafe ($5 for one hour) and then had some coffee. Er for the coffee lovers.... this was great, they brought us a flask of hot water, 2 cups and a little plate with packet sugar, packet milk and oh yes.. packet instant coffee.... hmm not bad for a fancy hotel, hey? :(

Anyway we eventually headed out to the Arusha airport. By this point I was feeling decidedly worse - I didn't know what was wrong with me... I was just feeling WeIrD.

Then, about an hour before we took off I headed to the bathroom. This was first of many, many trips over the next 24 hours. I had picked up a stomach bug of some or other description.

Lucky me - I'm squirting out both ends and just about to take a 1 hour flight to Zanzibar... not good!

Oh, and just before we left, we were told by a Leopard Tours rep that our baggage wouldn't make it on the flight. We were to take out all essentials and take them as hand luggage. They said that when we get to Zanzibar we'd have to fill in a form which would have the airport deliver the luggage the following day.

Irk! To say the least - but there we are (for a second time in a week) unpacking our luggage and trying to fit the essentials into the limited hand-luggage.

So off we go...

I managed to sleep (or at least trick my body into thinking that I was sleeping) for the duration of the flight.

On arrival at Zanzibar (and it was very humid again!) I tried to find the 'guy' that I am supposed to fill the forms out with. He suggests we check to see whether or not the luggage actually made it. So back to the luggage retrieval area we go (there are no conveyor belts... only people throwing luggage around). And after 10 or 20 minutes - there was our luggage... all of it!

So why we were told it wasn't going to be on the plane is beyond me.

We make our way outside where we are supposed to meet another Leopard Tours rep (who was supposed to have our Ferry tickets for the following week) but he didn't bother turning up.

We were also supposed to meet the driver for Amaan Bungalows - who thankfully did turn up. We had a trolley with our luggage and as we were following the driver back to the car about 5 other locals followed us, all with a finger touching our luggage (which was still on the trolley!) all shouting out 'porter' 'porter'! They actually (all 5 of them) wanted a tip for following us and ensuring that our luggage didn't magically fall off the trolley. And then they had the audacity to get pissed when we didn't tip them!

Anyway we eventually made it to the sanctuary of the car which had the aircon on full blast, thankfully. I was feeling worse and worse as the day went by...

It took us a further hour and a half to get to Nungwi Village. Along the way we were stopped at no less than 5 military / police points. Some of them wanted to see the driver's permit, some were bribed, another demanded a lift in our taxi to the next military stop. All very odd...

On arrival at Amaan Bungalows, I was vaguely aware of my beautiful surroundings but I was just so ill that I went straight to bed.

I spent the next 18 hours between the bed and the bathroom... not pleasant At All.

Oh and just as a treat, they turned the water pump off so I ran out of water in the middle of the night... nothing to drink, no flushing, no cleaning... it was and I was really gross.

Day 7 of 7

2009-02-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 7/7

After a very good night's sleep, I imagine, and after a well deserved breakfast we will make the final descent to Mweka Park gate. This is an approximate 4 hours downhill walk.

This is where we will receive our summit certificates for making it to the top.

From here we will return Arusha for a celebratory dinner and overnight in our first real bed for a week.

Oh - and before dinner, there will be a lot of cleaning - it'll be our first bath / shower for over a week too (eeeuuww!)

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

We had dinner at around 5:30pm the previous day and went straight to sleep. It had been a long day and although the camp was pretty noisy late into the night, we managed to sleep soundly.

In the morning we woke up early and enjoyed our last breakfast together in the mess tent.

We packed up our gear, gave the tips we had brought with to our head guide.

**A word of advice: it would have been better to give each porter his own tip, however we didn't have the required change to do so, so left everything with our head guide who assured us that the tips would be split out accordingly.

We also gave away anything we thought they could use and we could do without. Our water bottles, my camp boots, Marco's thermal outer gloves, spare trail food, water purification tablets etc. The porters are very grateful for anything you can spare.

We started our final decent to Mweka Park gate. Arriving is a little surreal. After nearly a full week away from civilisation, we walk back into an area that is full of noise, trucks, cars, locals trying desperately to sell you curious, clean your shoes, just about anything to get money from you.

Below - this is me after 7 days of not bathing or showering and sumiting Kilimanjaro... Which is to say, filthy dirty... blagh!

We made our way over to the office to sign the book (for the final time - yipppeee!!) We collected our Gold Certificates and headed over to the now familiar Leopard Tours van.

The hopped in and together with Ali went to Moshi. On the way, we stopped and had lunch. The company paid for the food and we paid for the drinks (I say 'we'; actually Ali did - thanks for the beer dude!)

After that we dropped Ali at his fancy hotel in Moshi and then made the 1h30 min drive back to Arusha.

We drive right past the Outpost Lodge and get dropped off at the Arusha Resort (or some such place). This place (no offence to them) is an absolute dive. On arrival, I protested, saying that this isn't right. They show me my reservation and assure me, this is correct.

Of course it isn't! My 2 bags from Day One of our climb had been taken back to Outpost Lodge as that is where we were supposed to stay.

So, after 7 days of no bath, I am now stranded at a hotel with none of my clean clothes, non of my cleaning products (shampoos etc). I have been informed that Leopard Tours cancelled my reservation at Outpost Lodge and re booked me into this shitty hotel.

I'm dirty and tired and really, really not in the mood. So I get onto the phone to Leopard Tours. Many, many arguments and phone calls etc later I finally get LT to agree to move us. Myself and Marco as well as Andy & Deon, two other climbers who also got bumped down.

According to Arusha Resort, this happens ALL THE TIME...

It pisses me off because after all we had just been through, I now have to go to Outpost Lodge to collect my bags and then be transferred to another the hotel on the back of many phone calls and arguments.

We were (eventually) taken to the The Impala Hotel in Arusha. The hotel itself was very nice (and quite expensive, I think). Try as they might LT couldn't get us back into the Outpost Lodge so they had to fork out for something better in the end.

After much debate and messing around we eventually made it to a clean shower; there was soap, shavers, sponges, clean clothes!

You simply would not have recognised us between the time of arrival to dinner time. We met Deon and Andy in the hotel lobby for drinks and a celebratory dinner afterwards.

The rate, initially paid to our operator, Destination Africa Tours, included a celebratory dinner on the last night. Once we were moved over to this new hotel, LT decided it was expensive enough for accommodation only so did not want to pay for dinner. They told me that if they paid "it would come out of their pocket". Oh shame. This has ALREADY come out of my pocket!!

But, (diligently) there I was on the phone again disagreeing and insisting that dinner was included.

In the end we agreed that they would pay for dinner and we took care of the tips and drinks.

And so finally, we had a wonderful celebration - rehashing stories of the mountain and talking nonsense and drinking beer.

It turned out to be a Wonderful Evening!!

Day 6 of 7

2009-02-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 6/7

This is it!!

From our Operator:

Around midnight (your guide will judge the time that is optimal for you based on your pace thus far) quit camp for the assault via Stella Point (5752m) to the summit.

Tonight is very difficult - particularly the final 500m - and you’ll need to commit to fight for the summit.

You will inevitably feel like giving up and going to sleep. This is normal and can be overcome with perseverance. When resting please ensure you only stand or sit and do not lie down or close your eyes.

Please trust your guide; he is very adept at judging whether your condition will allow safe progress or whether you have succumbed to a potentially dangerous condition and to proceed will not be safe.

Nausea and headaches are normal and around a quarter of climbers will vomit at or near Stella Point. While very uncomfortable, these are not symptoms that are indicative of being at risk, per se. The onset of cerebral and pulmonary oedema are marked by distinctive early warning symptoms that your guide is capable of identifying.

Please maintain regular dialogue with him and frequently update him on how you are feeling. When you reach Stella Point you will sit and rest. At this point the body often thinks you have finished your uphill fight and will be trying to coerce you into giving up and turning around.

While you may genuinely believe that you have already exhausted your reserves in reaching this point, this is actually very unlikely to be so.

Remember that you are only 143 vertical metres short of the summit, the journey from here is much less steep, and you have plenty of time for further pauses. If you do feel the need to give up at Stella Point please proceed towards the summit for just two minutes before making your final decision.

In most cases this act of re-establishing momentum is enough to persuade the mind and body to co-operate with your intentions and you will ordinarily find hidden reserves for a final push, reserves that you were not aware you still had.

Almost there!

Keep your thoughts positive, as your thoughts become your words,

Keep your words positive, as your words become your actions,

Keep your actions positive; as your actions become your destiny you can do it!

On the summit your guide will advise how much time you can spend there in consideration of your condition, your timings, and the weather.

The brain does not function very intelligently at this altitude so please remember to take many photographs in all directions or you will probably regret not having done so at a later stage.

From the summit you will descend to Stella Point and from here your guide may opt to switch left onto the loose scree, a departure from the ridge up which you ascended.

On arrival at Barafu your tents will still be erected and ready for you to rest an hour or so before continuing the descent after some refreshments.

From Barafu you will usually descend to Mweka Camp (3090m) for overnight. If your guide judges that a shorter day will benefit you and preserve sore knees and ankles, he may decide to stop short at Millennium Camp (3820m) instead.

Distances on summit day

Barafu to Stella Point: 3.3km

Stella Point to Summit: 1.2km

Summit to Barafu: 4.5km

Barafu to Mweka Camp: 6.3km

Total = 15.3km

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Following on from my last post, we climbed up towards Stella Point, thinking it simply would never end. As with everything... eventually it did!

We reached Stella Point at around 6 am. We'd been hiking vertically for 6 1/2 hours in sub-zero temperatures with only about 10% of the oxygen I am used to breathing at sea-level.

When I got there, I promptly laid myself on the ground, hoping to stay there for a while and rest. Our guides had to have been the best guides on the mountain that night. At Stella Point they hauled out plastic cups and a flask and produced warm, sweet tea!

How awesome to be sitting at Stella Point, watching the sun come up with a cup of warm sweet tea!

We were only there for a few minutes. I was ready to go back down (been there... done that...!) but Marco said we had to keep going. Just start walking he said - just get moving... If I had any more energy, I may have thrown a tantrum because he obviously didn't understand just how tired I was feeling... (very selfish of me, I know!)

Anyway, he was right. We got up and kept going. Although the elevation from here was nothing like that last bit up to Stella Point, the exhaustion and lack of oxygen was really getting to me. I was now taking 5 steps forwards, break for 10 seconds, 5 steps forwards, break for 10... and so on.

I had to go slow, but no one was rushing me, so on and on we went. Those that had gone before and were on their way back down were wonderfully supportive: "You're nearly there" and "Not much further!"

We eventually make it to Uhuru Peak (5895m) at 07:10 am. When we eventually got there we were buoyed up with adrenalin! So happy to not be walking up-hill anymore was enough to make us both feel fantastic!!

Oh, we'd told Ali to go on ahead as I was taking an age to get there. He waited at the top for us and we celebrated the achievement together!

By now the sun was up and our surroundings were just incredible! One good thing about taking a bit longer to reach the top is being able to see all this. Some other hikers got up and down so quickly that they did it all in the dark.

We didn't spend too much time up here, by now Marco was starting to feel nauseous from the altitude, so we started making our way down again.

Now it was our turn to tell those behind us "Not much further now" "Keep going; it's worth it!"

This photo (above) is looking into the crater from the rim at Uhuru Peak.

Here you can see the glaciers meeting the clouds. One of the main reasons you summit overnight is that the ground is frozen on your way up making the ascent easier. With the sun up the ground starts to defrost and the fine sand is up in the air and makes your downhill journey fairly treacherous. With each step you slip-slide down and have to be careful not to fall on your ass... which happens frequently to everyone anyway.

What goes up, must come down. Although it took us 8 hours to reach the peak, it took us 3 1/2 hours to get back to Barafu base camp. It is very, very hot up here and by this point we were so tired that we couldn't even be bothered to take the very much needed sun cream out of our packs and put it on. We just wanted to get back, so burnt our hands (everything else was thankfully still covered up) for three hours while we painfully made our way back to the camp.

Please be warned about this stretch of the little adventure. At 10:00am we eventually made it back to camp. We were far too tired to be elated with our amazing achievement.

We were told that we had 1 hour to rest, get changed and pack our things. For safety reasons we had to continue our decent as soon as possible. We were still at 4600m and not out of the danger zone for AMS.

We took an hour and a half to rest up and get our things organised. We had a quick lunch and then we were on our way again. Our porters packed up our tents and quickly passed us as we made our way downhill.

Below - that's me and in the background that's where I had come from only 4 or 5 hours earlier.

With our relatively quick decent the terrain thankfully changed. In the end we decided that we weren't all to fond the alpine desert part. Hot and boring! (Remember by this point though that we're so exhausted we don't even have any enthusiasm left... that will come later again!)

So as tired as we were we, stumble into Millennium Camp. The boys were so happy to have arrived. Spoil-sport that I was I had to dampen their joy by informing them that this is a 'trick' camp and we won't be staying. They of course didn't believe me and went straight to our guide Rayson, who confirmed that this is a camp for hikers who do a different route or who are very late in coming down the mountain.

So, after a short break... we continued down what must, for me, be the worst part of this entire trip. For a further 3 hours went down a dried up river bed. This is no path. We're stepping down, on, over and around small rocks, big stones, some secure, others loose.

Every single step required attention. Every jolt sent pain up my knees and every foot forward felt my toes bashing the inside of my shoes. It hurt like hell and didn't seem to want to end.

The worst I think was just the expectation that was set. When we asked "how much further" (in the nicest way possible way, of course) we were told 40 minutes. After an hour we said... "so; how much further" and we were told an hour.

Either time keeping in East Africa is nonexistent or its in a whole new dimension that we haven't yet named.

In the end... we got there! At 4:00pm we stumbled into Mweke camp. Realising that we had been walking from 11:30pm the night before, with only one real break of 1h 30mins... It's not surprising that we had been a little moody!

For the last time, we came to our camp with the wonderful singing and celebrations of our guides and porters.

After taking our packs off and after a well deserved break at camp and with oxygen levels starting to rise again (we were now at 3090m, from this morning's 5895m!), we started smiling too. Finally we could look back on the day and the day's wonderful achievement.

WE MADE IT!!

Day 5 of 7

2009-02-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 5/7

We have opted for this highly recommended additional acclimatisation day at Barafu camp.

To quote:

"Acclimatization day at Barafu camp with additional acclimatization hikes up the assault path" (Assault path???)

Oi!

After that we will try to rest, have an early dinner and prepare for our summit attempt. The key here is to eat if we can and go to bed as early as possible and rest as much as possible.

We will be woken at around midnight for our all night trek to Uhuru Peak.

Send us lots of love and good luck for this night!

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

As mentioned in the previous post, we stopped at Karanga camp rather than going all the way through to Barafu. So instead of doing the hikes mentioned above, we hiked instead from Karanga to Barafu and stayed there for the day.

We got up at 7:30 again and left Karanga at 8:30. This was a fairly short hike seeing us reach the camp at 12:00.

We've entered Alpine Desert territory and being so high up the UV is very strong. This was a particularly hot day. Notice the extreme weather variations from one day to the next?

Because you don't know what you're going to get, you end up taking clothes for all occasions in your day packs, which the higher you go, the heavier they seem to get.

The campsite itself is very hot and very windy. Signing in at the campsite seemed challenging (I don't think my entries are at all legible)

The view from our tent and you can see Mawenzi, which is one of the 3 volcano peaks that make up Kilimanjaro. (The other two peaks consist of one we climb to the summit and the other is actually collapsed and is now the Shira Plateu)

The lack of oxygen here is really hectic. Moving from the tent to the toilet is exhausting. Taking my sleeping back out of my bag and getting it ready for sleeping seemed like an endless exhausting chore.

We had an early dinner (at around 5pm) and were told to go to bed and try to sleep. They were waking us up at 11:00pm and we should be ready to go by 11:30pm.

We were advised to pack everything we'd need for the summit and to sleep in all our layers except the outer ones and to wear all our socks and have our shoes ready so that when the time came we didn't have to do much. That was good advise!

Marco and I were both exceptionally lucky in that we managed to get some sleep before we left. Most people, I believe did not - again I have to stress the importance of the ear plugs and the blow up mattresses - I really believe they made all the difference.

At 11:00 we were woken up. We had a nice hot cup of tea and then had to begin our accent.

With the one day old full moon we didn't need our headlights in the end. Again, weather wise, we were superbly fortunate to have perfect weather for the entire ascent. No cloud cover, no wind, no rain... the previous night, we'd heard, people made their summit attempt in a blizzard... so I guess you just never can tell!

It was awesome going up by moonlight. There were lots of people on the trail with head lights on, so whenever you looked up, you could make out the trail by following the lights of those ahead of us.

For me, the first portion went well. I was surprised when we stopped for a break and even more surprised to learn that we had been going for 2 1/2 hours. We were going Very Slowly, but steadily. We learnt very quickly, however, that every time we stopped the cold seeped in very quickly. So our breaks were few and far between.

The next break was at 4am. Also, when I say breaks, I'm not referring to all the little ones where I had to stop for a minute to catch my breath. I am referring to the official 3-4 minute breaks where we could take our packs off.

From here it started getting difficult for me. I felt I needed more breaks more often. My breaks became almost as rhythmical as my climbing... 15 steps up, 20 seconds to break, 15 steps up, 20 seconds to break.

I was beginning to feel tired and so would look up occasionally only to see the stupid head lights still just going up and up and up... Where The Hell IS Stella Point??

So by now, I'm cold, tired and there just isn't any end in sight. I say to Marco - Babe, I don't have any more legs to keep going... Don't worry they say; just another 40 mins to Stella Point.

Hmf. 40 mins. Those last 40 mins to Stella Point believe it or not were the steepest part of that climb!! Just when you think the elevation could not get any worse.... it does!

Actually to their credit, we had 3 guides for the 3 of us and they tried their best. They joked with us, talked to us, sang for us. They were superb - kept our spirits up and distracted us from the cold and pain that was seeming eternal.

Day 4 of 7

2009-02-09T02:31:00.000-08:00

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 4/7

After breakfast we will leave Barranco through the Karanga Valley for an 7-hour walk.

Trek from Barranco Camp to Barafu Camp (4681m) via the 257m high Breach Wall across the valley from Barranco.

We've been told that we should be aware that there are three rises and falls before reaching Karanga Camp where we have lunch at 4040m.

We depart from Karanga the route ascends 640m to Barafu. Distance from Barranco to Barafu is 9.4km.

They say that it is advantageous to have a mental image of today’s profile so we don’t get psyched-out by all the rise and fall:

OUCH!

We overnight at Barafu camp at an elevation of 4600m.

Tonight the Full Moon rises. Climbers are generally advised to try and plan their summit attempts to coincide with the Full Moon. Can you imagine being on the roof of Africa on a cloudless night with the light of the full moon shining on you?

We've actually planned our summit to fall 2 days after the full moon because we've been told that at this time we will still have the bright light from the full moon, but a couple of days later it rises later, which means it'll up and shining later in the night (early morning) when we need it most.

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

This particular day did not go as planned above. The route that we took was much better, I think.

We were woken up at 7:30. Later this morning as today was to be a short day for us. We took our time getting ready and eventually left at 9am.

The total hike today was only 4 1/2 hours. The first portion of the hike was going up Barranco Wall. This was very steep and required some 'climbing' and 'kiss the wall' manoeuvres to get up and around. It is very steep and if you are scared of heights this is the one part of the trip that could be quite testing for you.

Luckily none of us were, so we enjoyed it. This was an absolute highlight for me. The views were spectacular.

Unfortunately, however, my camera battery died and the manual charger I had brought along was not in my luggage - this charger never turned up, so I don't know where it went missing. I suspect somewhere around the time I had all my gear laid out on the ground at the start of our climb when I was repacking everything.

What I did have was my cheap point & shoot which had been brought along for our Zanzibar diving trip. It has an underwater casing and was (luckily) accidentally packed in. Although the pics from here weren't great, we're happy to just have some.

After we got over the wall, we hiked up and down valleys which seemed never ending. It was also very cold here. Very cold = around 0 Celsius - I think.

There were more strange plants that we came across:

On arrival at Karanga camp, we had lunch at about 2:30pm and then dinner was at 5:30pm. We could just chill out for the day, which was pretty awesome.

This particular camp is pretty steep and has mist and fog rolling in and out very quickly. We're advised not to wonder off as ppl have wondered right off, never to be seen again. Pretty scary thought, so we just hung out together with the other hikers and talked about the climb so far and what each of us was expecting for the next day.

The "Queen" as the guides referred the peak is very elusive - only showing parts of herself through the clouds every so often.

Day 3 of 7

2009-02-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 3/7

After breakfast we will trek from Shira Camp to Lava Tower (4600m).

Our climb on the moorlands eventually comes to an end and we follow a rocky path leads us towards Lava Tower.

We've been told that if the weather’s good (and if we have the energy) we can ask our guide to take us to the summit of the Lava Tower (4688m) where the views are supposed to be magnificent.

Lunch is normally taken at the foot of the tower.

The rule for acclimatising is to climb high, sleep low, so we'll descend and overnight at Barranco camp.

Distance from Shira to Lava Tower is 7.0km (4 hours). Distance from Lava Tower to Barranco camp is 3.7km. (Elevation is 3950m)

When we arrive at camp we can freshen up. We've been told that each couple will be supplied with a bowl of hot water for washing (Yippeeee) and enjoy dinner prepared by our cook with passion! Peanut butter sarmies & popcorn anyone?

This is reportedly one of the most difficult days - so wish us luck!

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

After another good night's sleep we were woken up at 6:45. After the usual breakfast and getting our gear organised we were ready to go by 8:15. You can see it's taken us an extra 30 mins today to get ready - between the cold and the thinning oxygen everything takes a bit longer to do.

The weather was fine we we got going and some of the views were amazing too. You can see again how the terrain and the flora have changed along the route.

From here to Lava Tower the weather turned and we walked in rain and hail for many hours.

It also started getting very cold. On the way to Lava tower Marco started experiencing some headaches and sense of humour failures. Ali throwing a snowball at his head didn't go down too well (even though we thought is was funny)

Ali was also dealing with migraines that seemed to come and go. I was very fortunate that I hadn't felt any problems as yet.

The walk from Shira camp to Lava tower took us 5 1/2 hours. Again we got to the lunch spot long after everyone else had left. So ours was another quick lunch before heading off again.

The weather was really bad and we couldn't even see the top of Lava Tower so there was no point in going up.

To be honest with the headache that Marco was having and as tired and cold and miserable as we were getting the best thing to do was to move on to Barranco camp.

In the photo below we walked all the way down through the first and second valley you can make out in the centre of the photo.

This portion took us another 2h15 and was all downhill.

Today we walked up to 4900m at Lava Tower and then almost back down to the same altitude as where we woke up: 3950m at Barranco camp.

Again, this is all to help with acclimatising. On the way down were saw lots of strange plants - this was a good distraction as the way up was mostly barren.

I started getting very pressing headache on the way to Barranco camp (which, even though we were at a much lower altitude than Lava Tower, is apparently normal.) I took 2 neurofen and that was the end of it. I was very fortunate not to have any further affects from altitude for the rest of the trip.

On our arrival our porters were singing and dancing again for us. This did help put a smile on our tired faces :)

We had arrived back at 4:30 in the afternoon and with no more hikes planned for the day, I took the opportunity to have my first "bath". This is to say that I cleaned from head to foot with LOTS disposable wipes. This was my first and last official bath of the trip. The rest was just a case of washing hands and face - where possible.

I got into clean clothes (I'd been wearing the same trousers for the past 3 days - I had only managed to change underwear, socks and t-shirts) so this was quite a treat. I started feeling much better and we walked around this absolutely AWESOME campsite.

The thinning oxygen was becoming very apparent. Marco and Ali both dashed from the mess tent to our tents to put gear that had been drying back in the tents when it started pouring with rain (again). They both came back exhausted as though they'd just done a 1km sprint!

Day 2 of 7

2009-02-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 2/7

Trek from Machame Camp to Shira Camp (3847m) on southern edge of Shira Plateau.

We'll get up early and after breakfast climb an hour or so to the top of the forest and then for 2 hours at a gentler gradient through the moorland zone.

It is normal to experience mild headaches on this day, which should be alleviated with paracetamol.

Those choosing to take Diamox should begin their course this morning with half a tablet (125mg) in the morning and the other half prior to supper in the evening.

After a short lunch and rest, we'll continue up a rocky ridge onto the Shira plateau and after a short hike we will reach the Shira campsite.

Distance hiked today is 5.2km - 6 Hours.

Enjoy dinner and overnight. (I wonder if Mr Delivery will make it up here and how long do you think they'll take?)

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

We had a good night's sleep although not everyone did. I highly recommend taking ear plugs- you will need them every night of the trip.

The other piece of kit that is pretty much essential is a compact thermal blow up mattress. Ours was very thin, but did the job perfectly. It doesn't take up too much room or weight and I don't think our trip would have been the same had we not taken this item.

We were woken up at 7am. Breakfast is at 7:30 and we begin day 2 of our hike at 8:00.

Breakfast, by the way is oats to start. There was also bread with any eggy thing on top and jam / peanut butter etc. Coffee was still on the menu at this altitude as well as the tea & cocoa.

The first portion of the hike (8:00 start to 12:30 for lunch) was surprisingly steep. We just kept going up and up and up.

Here you can see the porters and other climbers making their way up the very steep gradient

Here is Rayson, our guide at our lunch table. It took us 4 1/2 hours to get here so we were very grateful for the break and lunch.

After our 30 minute lunch break we hiked for a further 2 hours. The terrain changed again, it did flatten out a little. The weather also rolled in. It threatened to rain on us, but we were prepared with our rain gear, poncho's etc.

With the clouds in and most the hikers way ahead of us, it was eerily quiet and felt as though we had the mountain to ourselves.

Well, not entirely to ourselves - there was some debate over the possibility of zombies and vampires hiding in the cloud cover...

We finally reached Shira Camp at 2.10pm. I think we were the last ones to the camp (again!) but we were greeted with our porters singing 'Kilimanjaro' songs to us, which was really awesome!

Once we got in, unpacked and got to the mess tent for our snacks (popcorn & drinks) the rain and hail came down - we were lucky to just miss it.

We were given an hour or so to relax, during which time the weather cleared and we got another awesome glimpse of the peak.

We were quite happy that today would be a 'short' day. All that walking is exhausting and by Shira camp we were starting to feel the air thinning. Its a very strange sensation - everything you do just seems a lot more difficult to do. Walking from here to there leaves you feel a little tired.

Nevertheless, our guide thought it would be a great idea to go for a hike. Hmmm, what else are you going to do up there, I suppose?

The point, of course, is to 'walk high, sleep low'. Its all part of acclimatising. So we hiked for an hour and spent some time on top of a rock - it did have stunning views which made up for it.

After the hike we were allowed to have the rest of the day off. Which meant just moseying around the camp site. Getting to know some fellow hikers and of course having dinner. It was lights out (sun down) by 8pm, so we got an 'early night'.

So, to recap; today we hiked from Machame Camp to Shira Camp (3847m). In total this took us about 5 1/2 hours. We then hiked in the afternoon for a further 1-2 hours.

On the Diamox front, we were feeling fine so they recommended that we don't take anything until we needed to. Diamox is of course a diuretic and so we didn't want to have to deal with those affects until we really had to.

Speaking of which... Toilets: They have long-drops at each camp. If you need to go en-route, you have to find a place off the path that is acceptable to you. As the days go by you become much less fussy about where you go and how much privacy you need.

The long-drops themselves are little wooden boxes (no doors) that have a hole in the ground and two wooden foot places on either side of the hole. You have to stand on there and then squat.

Very unfortunately, a lot of people don't seem to have the ability to aim well (perhaps it's the altitude!) and they frequently miss. Making our toilet going experience really, really awful.

I won't go into detail about the smell, but I will say, take something to cover your mouth and nose and if you have something like Vick's or tiger balm - use it.

For the most part, I waited until we left camp to go - the idea of nearly vomiting while squatting was too much to bear.

Day 1 of 7

2009-02-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today is the BIG DAY: we start our Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 1/7

At 8:00m we meet our guide in the Outpost lodge reception were depart to Machame Gate to register.

The journey is around 1 hour 20 minutes.

Trek from Machame Gate (1828m) to Machame Camp (3020m). The distance is 10.8km, over 1200m of elevation gain. Today can be quite tiring, particularly the final two hours.

THAT’S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

In the morning, we woke up, met our guide again and 2 other climbers who only arrived this morning (flight issues). They still had to collect their rented gear and have their briefing.

The delay was good for us as we were trying desperately to get an update on the missing bag. We were taken to the Leopard Tours head office office in Arusha were they kindly called Dar airport and confirmed that the bag had been forwarded to Kilimanjaro Airport.

As it happened, they had a representative at Kilimanjaro Airport to collect Ali, another climber, who happened to be in our group. Ali was also only arriving on day one of the climb as his flight from Nairobi the previous day had been cancelled and he'd been left stranded at the airport for most of the night. (So its not just the luggage that gets left behind!)

They managed to round up the missing climber and the missing luggage and would meet us en-route.

We went back to the lodge and waited for our lift to Machame Gate.

We eventually met up with Ali & the luggage. As the drive through to the gate was about an hour and a half, they were not going to let me go back to the lodge to pack. This meant that when we got to the gate, I had to unpack and repack all my gear.

The reason for this was

1) the bags have a 15kg weight limit on them as the porters cant carry more than that.

2) in addition to the Kilimanjaro kit all our Zanzibar luggage had been stuffed in there too.

So there we are at the gate; we're a good few hours later than everyone else and we have all our belongings strewn across the ground.

I have to admit at this point I was getting a little stressed. We were taking stuff out and repacking so quickly that we didn't really know what was where. In the end we gave the driver 2 bags to take back to the lodge for us, to store for the week.

** To add at this point - we eventually found out that our toothbrushes didn't make it to the right bag - Thank Goodness for Ali, who was sooo organised that he even had 2 spare brushes & some toothpaste which he gave us, for the rest of the trip! Thanks AL!

Some 'points to remember' as posted at Machame Gate

We collected our rental gear (sleeping bags and walking poles) and went to the office to sign in.

After getting organised and then waiting around for ages, we finally got going at 1pm.

A short way into our hike, through the rain forest region we had lunch. The set up a little camping table and fold out chairs. We had a waiter who brought us food, fruit, drinks. Very civilised :)

Because our particular group was so slow to get going, everyone else on the trial had already eaten and left by the time we got there, so ours was a quick stop and back on the 'road' again.

This, by the way, turned out to be the theme for the rest of the trip - we were always lagging behind. The good thing about that is that we were rarely told to go "pole pole" (Swahili for slowly, slowly) - we were doing that anyway.

The first part of the trail is very beautiful. We're walking through rain forest. We were lucky with our weather - we didn't actually get any rain through the rain forest although this is pretty common.

After many hours of walking the terrain begins to change. The rain forest starts to thin out and we follow the trail ever-upwards towards our first camp.

On arrival at our camp at 6:30 pm (we'd hiked for 5 1/2 hours) we had to go up to the 'office' to sign in. We have to sign in at every camp. The signing in is a 2-page spread of name, address, passport number, occupation, favourite colour, highest bubble bubble score, etc. (Ok, not the last two, but after a few days it gets a bit tedious filling in all the same useless info)

After the official paper work was completed, were greeted in the mess tent with snacks which consisted of popcorn & tea / coffee / cocoa.

After snacks we unpacked our gear in our tents, got our sleeping bags ready. And were sent back to the mess tent for dinner.

Dinner consisted of cream of cucumber soup to start. Followed by potatoes, a meat slice and a tomato. ("Meat slice" is the best description I can give you.)

Today we trekked from Machame Gate (1828m) to Machame Camp (3020m). The distance covered was 10.8km, over 1200m of elevation gain and this took us 5 1/2 hours to complete.

When we reached Machame Camp we were greeted with a glimpse of the peak, which after all those hours of hiking, was a very beautiful sight indeed!

Arusha

2009-02-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today we leave the Peacock hotel in Dar es Salaam and head to Arusha airport. From there we transfer to Outpost Lodge in Arusha.

We'll have most of the day to relax, check out the town, maby even meet a Maasai warrior or two if we're lucky.

At 18:30pm we're meeting up with other climbers for briefing at the lodge, where we'll be staying the night.

THAT’S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Leopard Tours collected us at 7am for our 9am flight - the day begins with more waiting at airports.

This particular airport is pretty basic as you can see from the pics. After 2 hours at this airport we knew every inch of it!

Below is the departure lounge:

The flight went from Dar to Zanzibar to Arusha. The plane was Teeny Tiny, below you can see 2 of the passengers plus the pilot. I think there were only 10 passengers in total. It was pretty cramped but got us there in one piece.

On the way to Zanzibar we passed over a few smaller islands - below is one of them - it looked really idyllic and a perfect teaser for things to come!

Leaving a couple of passengers in Zanzibar we headed out to Arusha. After about 45 mins of flying we could see the top of Kilimanjaro above the clouds. It was a very intimidating sight, knowing that in less that a week we would be up there...

The total flying time was about 2 hours and we got Arusha at around 11:00.

There we were once again met by a Leopard Tours representative who took us through to Outpost Lodge, via a cultural village - a tourist trap where they have lots of tanzanite to sell you -> they know you are fresh off then plane and still have some $'s left in your wallet.

From there we were taken to Outpost Lodge where we could finally relax for the day. It was much less humid than Dar. They had a lovely 'coffee lounge' area outside that we chilled out at for the rest of the day.

Towards sunset the mozzies came out and although we (luckily) did have our anti-malarial pills, we didn't have any anti-mosquito creams or patches as they were all packed into the missing bag.

A few bites later and we finally had our briefing (we met our Kili operator and guide at 8pm (we'd waited since 6pm as requested...).

We'd mentioned the whole missing luggage thing to them and they were confident that we could sort something out and we were told to just wait till the morning to get an update.

Marco still had constant stomach problems all day. Towards the end of the day they were becoming less severe, but they were still there.

We eventually went to bed at 10pm, not knowing whether or not we'd be climbing Kilimanjaro in the morning. Lots of prayers and positive thinking was how we ended the day.

And so it begins

2009-02-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

Fly from Cape Town 6:45am to Johannesburg 8:45am

Fly from Johannesburg 14:55pm to Dar es Salaam 19:25pm

Transfer from Dar es Salaam airport to Peacock Hotel

Overnight at the Peacock Hotel

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

The night before we left we sent our cat to the cattery, packed the last of our gear and headed out to my dad's house. He lives much closer to the airport and we had an early start - we had to be there by 5am so we were up at around 4 am.

The flight from Cape Town to Joburg wasn't too bad - we did have 2 men sitting behind us who chatted non-stop for the entire flight (more than even Joy & I could manage!) and I gathered from the conversation that they had just met... They had business in common - but sheesh... 2 hours of jibber jabber!

Upon arrival at O.R. Tambo International Airport Marco's stomach bug that he'd already had for nearly a week at this point starting giving him trouble again. The man was wallowing in agony, doubled over in pain (you know how boys are when they get sick!!)

** Just to add a note in at this point - it emerged much later that he's taken all six Imodium a few days prior - which may account for the pain he was currently feeling!

We were lucky to find a company that stores your luggage while you wait at the airport as we had a good few hours to kill and walking around with a trolly full of gear was just a little too much to bear.

We also managed to find a pharmacy and bought all sorts of natural 'fix your gut' type meds and prayed that Marco would be fine in 2 days time when we actually begin the climb.

After spending a delightful (!) 6 hours at Jozi airport, we finally headed off to Dar es Salaam. The flight was little over 3 hours long and nearly empty so we each had 3 seats to stretch out on and relax.

On arrival at Dar we were surprised at how hot (humid) it was. It was nearly 8pm and we could not stand the heat.

Hot and bothered, we headed out to the luggage collection area and realised after not too long that my luggage had not arrived.

We spoke to some guy, who seems to be permanently set up there to give you forms to complete when your luggage does not turn up. From his broken English we gathered that this 'happens all the time'. Especially on SAA and KLM flights. Great.

He says they just don't bother putting all the luggage on - they just send it on the next flight which is 24 hours later. In fact while we were there completing forms and cursing SAA another couple who had arrived the previous day were there collecting their belated luggage.

The problem of course that we had was the very next morning we were flying out to Arusha and could therefore not be there to collect the luggage 24 hours later.

We arranged for them to send the luggage (when it arrived the following night) to Kilimanjaro Airport in the hopes that we would be able to intercept it in time for our climb. This particular bag had all my Kili kit and included some other essentials such as our anti-mosquito creams and patches, which we'd need in the coming days...

We left the airport with the rest of our kit that did manage to turn up and were collected by Leopard Tours, the ground organisers for the trip, who took us directly to the Peacock Hotel.

We checked in and pretty much went to bed as we were tired and we were being collected again at 7am for our flight to Arusha.

doit4charity & Amathuba

2009-02-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

THANK YOU

We're furiously packing duffel bags and checking gear lists and ensuring that we have everything we need and have done everything we're supposed to do before we leave in less than 2 days.

Exciting times! One of the most exciting things on our list by far has been our charity drive. In a relatively short space of time our wonderful friends, family and colleagues have dipped deep into their pockets and together we have already put together an astounding R6,848.90!

doit4charity has been so impressed by our collective performance that they have us on the homepage of their website as "Fundraiser of the month". See here:

http://www.doit4charity.org.za/star.htm

In addition, I received an email from doit4charity today, who forwarded an email that they received from Amathuba directly:

Hi Jolene

I just received this message from the people at Amathuba. They wanted to post it on your blog, but were not sure how to go about it.

Dear Jolene and Marco

Thank you very much for choosing Amathuba for your fund-raising. We really appreciate your support. It makes such a difference.

Wishing you all the very best for your climb!

Suzy and Zuma

Amathuba

As far as I know, the money you are raising will go towards the next build which they are planning right now. Will keep you posted on progress.

Also, wanted to add my best wishes to theirs for your climb. Have a friend who did it last year and it was awesome!

Kind regards,

Sheila McCallum

http://www.doit4charity.org.za

P O Box 321 Kloof 3640

Tel. 0 31 764-5123

Cel. 082 7848090

I want to take this opportunity to once again thank all of you have had a hand in making this happen!

If you would still like to contribute, you can still do so - we only summit on the 12th of Feb, so you still have time to make your donation:

http://www.doit4charity.org.za/fundraisingpage.php?userId=TWpBPQ==

2 more sleeps....!

Amathuba

2009-01-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

Oh my Goodness!!! You guys are AMAZING!!

You have donated R2,120 to Amathuba so far - we have incentive for ourselves when times get tough at the top and all together you have given so much to those who have so little.

THANK YOU

For those of you who still wish to donate to this VERY worthy cause, here is the link:

http://www.doit4charity.org.za/fundraisingpage.php?userId=TWpBPQ==

Once again - thanks so much for your support!

Chapman's Peak: quickly

2009-01-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

We're nearing our leave date (almost a week to go!!) and we're a little tired from all the hard work put in already. Plus Marco has a split toe which is gross and also not healing so well with all the Mauy Thai and hiking we've been doing.

So... we've decided to tone it down a little. We took a bit of a break over the weekend (mostly shopped for last minute Kili kit and also went to the Prime Circle concert at Kirstenbosch on Sunday - They are AWESOME live, if ever you get the opportunity to see them!)

Anyway, it basically means that today's walk (fully loaded back pack included) was along Chapman's Peak again. This time we stayed on the road and walked there and ran part-way back (against a gale force wind, mind you!).

It was only 50 mins long - but enough for now to keep the legs in motion!

We only managed a short walk mostly due to the fact that Chapman's Peak is still closed! It's been closed since Jun '08 with no signs of re-opening yet... More information on that here.

We saw a bakkie drive through there twice while we were walking and the roads seemed perfectly OK to us, the rock catching 'nets' all still in tact (and actually with little -> no rocks in them.)

Annoying for motorists really - and a little for pedestrians as the route is much shorter now that they have closed it off completely! Argh!

Fundraising for Amathuba

2009-01-25T02:48:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE To Sponsor Our Climb And Make A Difference In A Strangers Life

Kili, the largest free standing moutain in the world, is 5891.8m at it's highest point. This is higher than Everest Base Camp, which is at 5360m.

Professionals will take up to 2 weeks to reach Everest Base Camp due to acclimatisation, but we're doing it in just 6 days; which will make it

very challenging.

And so it is that we need your help. Not only for added incentive, but to make the most of this summit attempt we've decided that we'd like to do it 4 charity.

We've chosen a South African charity called Amathuba. Please take a look at their website here:

http://www.amathuba.co.za/

They are all about building homes and creating opportunities for those much, much less fortunate than ourselves.

Personally, we find it astounding and shameful that in our modern times people still live in shacks without basic facilities such as clean running water, electricity or sufficient shelter. It is relatively easy for us to make a big difference in the lives of others.

From their website:

“What if something you did today made that dream come true for a desperate family? Could you spare R500 [approx. £35 or US$50] to pay for a hundred concrete blocks? Or R325 for five bags of cement? Even R100 buys a length of roof sheeting, and R200 is enough for a door frame.”

Anything you can spare can collectively make a big difference.

Please click on this link for details on how to sponsor this life-changing event:

http://www.doit4charity.org.za/fundraisingpage.php?userId=TWpBPQ==

It’ll certainly give us the kick up to the summit we’ll need when times get tough near the top.

Thanks so much!

Jolene & Marco

Flukes Outdoor Restaurant

2009-01-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

OK, so it's Friday afternoon - the sun is still warm in the sky - it's been a long day - hell; it's been a LONG week...

So when I said - hey guys... lets NOT walk (again - groan!) let's go for some tasty, tasty beer... who was going to say "No!"?

Precisely!! So we headed off to Flukes new outdoor restaurant - which is to say their fancy new braai area with gorgeous sea views; where you turn up, order drinks, order food - eat, be merry and go home - no mess, no fuss!!

And what a location! The service & food is worth raving about too! (Thanks Jess!)

We certainly keep going back and if you're in the area, I highly recommend this as something a little different and a lot of fun.

Schedules Posts

2009-01-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

I have scheduled posts for the entire time we are away.

If you check in, I'll have a day by day itinerary to let you know where along our adventure we are, so that you don't need to wait till we get back to find out.

Each post will be elaborated on & photos will be included when we get back, so stay tuned!

Kilimanjaro - The Facts

2009-01-22T17:22:00.000-08:00

Location

Tanzania, East Africa: Kilimanjaro lies 330km (205 miles) (3 degrees) south of the equator. Kilimanjaro lies within the 756-square-kilometer Kilimanjaro National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Size

Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa and the world’s highest free-standing mountain, rising 4, 600m (15,100 feet) from the base to summit.

Elevation

5,895 meters (19,340 feet) Uhuru peak is the highest summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

7 Summits

4th Highest of the sought after 7 Summits

Kilimanjaro is made up of 3 volcanoes

Shira 3,962 meters (13,000 feet) – the first volcano to become extinct

Mawenzi 5,149 meters (16,896 feet) – the second volcano of the three to become extinct. Mawenzi is Hans Meyer Point, which can only be reached by mountaineers.

Kibo 5,895 meters (19,340 feet) - Kibo remains active as a dormant active volcano -t he last major eruption was 360,000 years ago, while the most recent activity was only 200 years ago. Apparently there a strong smell of sulphur that still comes from the inner ash pit (I’ll let you know if this is true!)

After reaching a height thought to be 5900 meters during its last major eruption, Kibo has been eroded by glaciers, rivers and landslides to its present height of 5895m.

Glaciers

Recently scientists discovered that Kibo is losing glaciers due to global warming and could perhaps be completely gone in less than 20 years.

Ecosystems

Kilimanjaro boasts virtually every major ecosystem in earth: rain forest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and glaciers. (I’ll update the blog with photos to show you all 5)

Routes

Marangu Route (Coca-Cola Route)

Machame Route (Whiskey Route)

Rongai Route

Lemosho Route

Mweka Route (usually used only to descend)

First Ascent

October 5, 1889 by Hans Meyer, geographer (Germany), Yoanas Kinyala Lauwo (Tanzania), and Ludwig Purtscheller, mountain climber (Austria)

Fastest Ascent

The fastest verified ascent time was by Italian Bruno Brunod in 2001. He climbed Uhuru Peak from Marangu Gate in 5 hours, 38 minutes, and 40 seconds.

The fastest round-trip time was by local guide Simon Mtuy who ran up and down on December 26, 2004 in 8 hours and 27 minutes – and we’re taking 7 days to do it!

Technical climbing skills & training

Climbing Kilimanjaro is comparatively easy and requires no technical climbing or experience. You do have to be “trekking fit” and a regime of 2 months intensive training is recommended.

Acclimatisation

The biggest challenge is at high altitude and your ability to acclimatise. It is highly recommended to take an extra day on the mountain to achieve this.

Most people who are unsuccessful in their attempts to summit are failing not due to fitness but in fact due to altitude sickness.

Guides & Porters

It is mandatory to climb with a licensed guide and have porters carry your equipment. This sustains the local tourism economy and in my post in costs, I have mentioned the $150 compulsory tip per guide (currently recommended).

Origin of the name Kilimanjaro

This is still disputed – so no one really knows. Some people believe the name comes from the Kiswahili name, Kilima meaning mountain.

Fish Hoek, over Elsie's Peak to Welcome Glen

2009-01-21T23:59:00.001-08:00

Today marks the 2 week count down to our epic adventure... on the 4th of Feb we fly to Tanzania and make our way to Kilimanjaro - the climb starts on the 6th (Friday)

So of course I had a mild panic attack - one of those "What the hell are we doing???" moments. "Are we ready???" Marco seems to think so - but my internal monologue voice is screaming: WE NEED MORE TIME!!

With that in mind (literally!) when Marco decided to do the Fish Hoek (the bottom of 2nd Avenue) up the mountain, over Elsie's Peak and to Welcome Glen, I thought: Uh-oh! This one looked pretty tough when we did the reverse the other day - but what the hell, we need to get fit!

We pushed it pretty hard and managed to do the entire trip in 1h30 (which is a whole 20 mins quicker than just 3 days ago!) And this was supposed to be the more difficult one. I think we're just so damn tired of hiking now that the pace has picked up considerably. You know the logic: push harder, but walk for less time!

I have to say, even though my back pack weighs quite a lot, hauling it around with me all over the place I've become so used to it, I barely notice it's there anymore. I must be getting fit!

PS: The photo is taken on Elsie's Peak overlooking Simon's Town. The yachts you can see in the Bay are there for the weekly Wednesday keel boat regattas held by the False Bay Yacht Club

Gym vs Mauy Thai

2009-01-21T02:02:00.000-08:00

Training today consisted of going to the gym. Hardly exciting, I know, but I have to add that at gym (as opposed to the cruel world of Mauy Thai) they allow you to skip with imaginary ropes. This means no embarrassing Face-Plants. Just skip, skip, skip!

On that note, though, Marco did go to Mauy Thai and almost had his jaw broken. He came back with all sort of other aches and pains too...

When I said - "whatever you do, don't hurt yourself before Kili"... he probably on hear the middle bit of that sentence.

Boys, eh?

The Expense

2009-01-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

So - What does it cost to Climb Kilimajaro?

A small fortune to some - an effing large sum to the rest of us! There is a balance in life between earning, saving, investing, building nest eggs and LIVING.

So on this occassion we've decided to do the latter, and we're trying REALLY hard not to pay too much attention to the ever increasing cost.

I'm not going to publish a list of actual prices as they will vary quite a lot and will end up being misleading. What I am going to do is list everything that we've bought and paid for, as it's the EXTRA's that add up!

Everything below is multiplied by 2:

Rate Of Exchange

Everything is quoted in USD and is therefore subjected to fluctuations. In recent times the $ has litterally been all over the place playing havoc with our invoices, deposits and final payments

ROE is currently at R10.23 = $1 but for an update, I'd reccommend you check here

Gym membership

To get fit!

Cattery

Someone's got to look after & feed Gizmo for 16 days

Plus food

Visas

Tanzania visa

Flights

Cape Town -> JHB -> Tanzania -> Zanzibar

Zanzibar -> Tanzania -> JHB -> Cape Town

(These flights are included in The Package, below, the others are additional cost items)

Expect the UNEXPECTED

In our case after flights were confirmed, Air Tanzania were grounded which has resulted in a rather large itinerary adjustment, which has incurred further transport costs in Tanzania.

Accommodation

1 night prior to the climb (we've requested this)

The Package

9 day Standard package includes 1 night's accommodation after the climb:

Machame - 7 Day route (we've taken an extra day for acclimatisation)

Porters Tips

These are complusory and I believe you're looking at around $150 per climber, to be paid in cash after the climb

Gear - Bought

Clothes:

3 Main Layers = thermals, fleeces, outershell
Shorts, longs, t-shirts
Hiking, innner & summit socks
Scarf & Hat / balaclava

Other:

Clear goggles for summit attempt
Polarised PLASTIC sunglasses (you dont want them freezing to your face!) The temperature ranges between 30+ to -20 so you have to cater for all conditions
Boots = Waterproof, gortex (we went for Salomons)
Inflatable thermal mattress (small luxury, but with insomnia setting in on the mountain, we'd like as much assistance with getting some rest as possible!)
Backpacks (day packs 30- 40 ltrs for first aid kit, food, cameras, water etc)
Duffel bags (for the gear out porters will carry - no more than 15kg in total)
Comprehensive (and appropriate) first aid kit including Diamox for altitude, water purification tables, insect repelent (mosquitoes) etc
Wide-brimmed sun hat & sun block
Head lamp + spare batteries
Insulated water bottles
Hikers towel (space & weight is at a premium so the focus is on small & light)
Ear plugs
Various snacks & energy drinks for all 7 days

Gear - Rented

Gaiters

Sleeping bag

Trekking poles

Vaccinations

Yellow Fever

Menangitus

Heptitus A

Anti-Malaria tablets

Medical & Travel Insurance

Compulsory extra charge for climbing Kili

Scuba diving in Zanzibar (we need something to look forward to!)

1 Week accommodation

6 x dives included

Spending Money

Who knows?

Welcome Glen to Fish Hoek, via Elsies Peak

2009-01-18T06:04:00.000-08:00

This walk took us just under 2 hours to complete. We walked from Welcome Glen over to Glencairn Heights. From the top we headed into the mountain to Elsies Peak.

From there we followed the Ravine Steps path down into Fish Hoek. Nipped down between steep stairs all the way down to the valley, where I had earlier left my car.

This was quite a nice hike - next time around Marco wants to do the reverse; start in FH and end in Welcome Glen. It seems as though that will be way steeper (I seem to recall a lot of downhill on this one!).

After the hike we got some Indian take aways from the new restaurant that has opened on Fish Hoek main road (Bihara). Let me just say that their food is divine!

When we got home, we realised that they'd forgot to add the rice to our take-away. Exhausted and hungry after our hike I called them up and within 15 mins they had driven out to our house with not only the missing rice, but included some veggie rolls as a bonus - thanks for the effort! Great food and great service!

Noordhoek Outlook

2009-01-17T06:04:00.000-08:00

This is the second time we walked the Noordhoek Outlook trail in Silvermine, just off Ou Kaapse Weg. We parked near the reservoir and we took the trail just to the left of the bridge on the other side of the reservoir. This trail leads up and around with views extending over Fish Hoek, Simon's Town, Noordhoek, Hout Bay and then back towards the Southern Suburbs.

This is a lovely long walk (9.3 kms) without the detours - the detours are well worth checking out too.

It's consistently steep uphill for most the walk and then a very steep downhill at the end. Some crazy cyclists cycle in the opposite direction; UP the very steep hill... like I said: crazy cyclists.

The first time we hiked this (our first hike in many years!) it took us 3 hours with lots of breaks we weren't carrying anything other than our water.

We came back this time and managed to walk it in 2 hours without any breaks and with loaded backpacks.

It wasn't the scenic version, but we're in training now.

It's great to see how our fitness has improved over the past few months. All this hiking must be doing us some good!

Chapmans Peak

2009-01-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

On Friday after work we decided to take a walk along the still closed Chapman's Peak (when will it open?). We parked on the Noorhoek side and headed towards Hout Bay.

Originally we were just going to walk along the road; go as far as we could before it got too dark and then make our way back.

There were quite a number of other people walking, taking their dogs for walks, running and cycling along the road. Seems like the locals are making the most of the road being clear of traffic.

A few km's on we spotted a path leading up the mountain. We headed up (carefully, because of the gale force winds!)

The path winds up pretty steeply and then follows above Chapman's Peak towards Hout Bay.

As you can imagine the evening views were stunning. The walk itself was varied going from paths with only slight inclines to having to clamber over boulders to make our way up and down.

We followed the path for about an hour before the Friday evening need for beer kicked in.

Usually descending is much quicker, but in this instance it took us as long to get back to the car as it did to get up to the top. It might have been the strong winds and the battering my knees were taking on the decent that slowed us down. Next time, given more daylight we'd like to follow it all the way to Hout Bay.

Lecture Marco

2009-01-14T03:27:00.000-08:00

Let's all give Marco a

REALLY LOOONG LECTURE.

Not about how smoking Kills (which it bloody well does!) but how DUMB ASS it is to START smoking again just before you attempt to Climb Kilimanjaro!

Comments welcome!

Image borrowed from here

Mauy Thai

2009-01-13T06:05:00.000-08:00

For the days that we are not hiking we (and by "we" I mean "Marco" as I only made it to one lesson!) are going to Muay Thai. Give the old heart some exercise too.

By now nearly everyone has heard about it. You know its that hard-core marshal arts type thing, right?

Jeez-louise! Is it?

To begin with, we were expected to skip. With a Rope. Laugh if you must, but when was the last time you skipped. With a Rope? I face-planted once or twice, which is not a good way to start the class.

The instructor is young and has all the energy in the world. If we're not skipping, we're running on the spot, if we're not doing that, we're doing push ups or crunchies or a number of other weird things that I can't even name.

My favourite, of course, was the long and low-legged lunges across the gym with some sweaty co-prisoner on your back. Yuck! & Eina!

There was some punching - which can be fun unless you are the exception to the general rule like I am. (Left & right sit on opposite sides for me, so I was mostly punching the air)

And in any case - a very good friend of mine did Mauy Thai once - not only did he continually come home battered and bruised, but I recall going to one of their competitions and they have to wear silly shorts and I recall some weird plinky-plonky tunes being played at the start of every fight... Nope, this just ain't my idea of a grand time.

Very good exercise if you don't mind getting the shit kicked out of you.

But I'm a GIRL and I bruise easily.... (I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere?)

So I'll be off to the gym instead. Some weight training or swimming will do me fine, thanks!

Solole Game Reserve

2009-01-12T12:21:00.000-08:00

After work we walked from Welcome Glen through the Glencairn stable and up to the top of Black Hill (aka Glencairn Express way for the newbs)

From there we took the path popular with horse riders (mind the horse-sh*t all over the trail!).

This winds around through the old Solole Game Reserve.

Along the way we saw a huge variety of flora. In all the colours and shapes you can imagine! We also came across a tortoise, a few porcupine quills, some really weird looking spiders and bugs (we cleverly stayed away from those!)

Again (I'm saying this with each post, aren't I?) the views from this angle were outstanding.

The path winds around and eventually joins up on itself and we can easily make our way back onto Black Hill.

From there we simply retraced our steps back to Welcome Glen.

This one took us 2.5hours to complete.

Lion's Head

2009-01-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

We did an awesome hike up to the top of Lion's Head in Cape Town this Sunday.

We hiked up for the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean, overlooking Camps Bay and the famous 12 Apostles.

After sun down we scooted over to the other side of Lion's Head for the Moon Rise. A gorgeous Big Orange Full Moon rose up over the Northern Suburbs lighting up the city bowl.

It was incredible! Unfortunately my point-and-shoot just wouldn't come to the party, so no pic's I'm afraid. But I can say that it was better than you could imagine it to be.

We hiked down at night with the moon to light the way on one side and our handy (heady?) headlamps on the other side!

I have blogged the FULL STORY with some additional pictures here:

http://travelblog.portfoliocollection.com/Blog/Sunset-from-Lions-Head

Welcome Glen to Elsies Peak & back

2009-01-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

First day back at work after a nice Christmas & New Year's break. It wasn't too bad returning to work, actually. What with school holidays still on, it seems most of Cape Town has taken another week or so off work!

Slaap-Stad!

We're not sleeping, though - today we walked from Welcome Glen to Glencairn Heights. From there to the top of Elsie's Peak & back home again. This trip took us in 2hrs and we're estimating our route was around 7km long. Not bad for an 'after work' hike.

Glencairn, Red Hill, Da Gama Park

2009-01-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

This is the most gruelling walk we've done in the last few days. We walked from Welcome Glen, past Glencairn, towards Simon's Town, Up Red Hill (3kms up!) over to Da Gama Park and then back to Welcome Glen.

It took us 3 hours to complete 13.5km's. What made this a really tough walk was not only the pace and elevation, but the fact that it was all on the road. We didn't realise until now that hiking in the mountains and on soft sand offer up a lot more absorption with each step than the road does.

After 13.5 km's when we got home our feet were really, really tired. Ice-cold baths for 4 hot feet and some time out before using them again was called for.

Let me also add that we've been walking with loaded backpacks. We've tried to carry nearly everything we would need to take up with us, so that includes water (2-3 liters), food, first aid kits, spare clothes (socks, rain proofs, hats, beanies etc), cameras, maps, torches and whatever else we can think of.

It makes a huge difference lugging all that extra weight around with you - especially if you're not used to it. It gives you a valuable opportunity to get used to the weight of your pack - it allows you to experiment with adjusting your straps, packing your items in an optimal manner.

Even figuring out which socks will work and which are simply going to take up too much room in your boots is something you want to figure out before you're 1/2 way up Kili!

The Waterfall on Ou Kaapse Weg

2009-01-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

Dassieskasteel Traverse in Silvermine on Ou Kaapse Weg.

We took the little detour to the waterfall, but alas, there was only a water-trickly. Still very beautiful with views overlooking the Noordhoek / Kommetjie side.

The route then circles around to the top of Ou Kaaps where you can overlook the Southern Suburbs and Constantia areas. The path follows around just above the Ou Kaaps road and then swings back to the car park.

The short hike took us 2 hours to complete and is about 6 km's long. (Although we kept the pace up quite a lot and according to this very informative website, it can take 5 hours to complete)

There is also an option to veer off and walk towards Muizenberg / Bouyes Drive. But on this occasion we were too hungry for steak and Peroni's at Flukes Restaurant to add on another few hours' hike, so we cut it short and headed out for some relaxing!

We will have to back back and do that one at some point!

The routes are very well marked in all directions so no worries about getting lost here. Also the 180 degree views all the way around allow you to judge where you are.

Elephants Eye

2009-01-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

Day 2 sees us trekking up to Elephant's Eye cave from Tokai forest. This is a 7.6km round trip and is very vertical - straight up and straight down. This one took us 3 hours to complete.

Most of the hike is through the forest itself which at least gives some shade in the midday heat (yes, we hiked in the middle of the day -> mad dogs and Englishman, what now?)

As you reach the top of the forest, you get some stunning views across the South Peninsula the Southern Suburbs and the Cape Flats. It's here that you realise just how far you've come!

After that you haul your tired ass the rest of the way to the cave, which is nice and cool (a glorious relief!)

It is also the perfect place to stopover for a bite to eat (remember to bring something!!) before heading all the way back down again!

Olifantsbos in Cape Point

2009-01-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!

And while almost everyone else is carefully nursing a hangover, we're already out and about training in all seriousness.

The next few posts will cover some of the hikes we're going to do in preparation for Kilimanjaro.

This trek was along Olifantsbos in the Cape Point Nature Reserve.

We spent the first 2/3 of the hike walking along the beach in our hiking boots. In the mid-summer heat and on really soft beach sand; that was really hard work!

The beaches are stunning - hardly anyone there. We walked very far down, but you don't have to go far before coming across a number of shipwrecks right on the beach.

There is even a whale bone that has long ago washed up on the beach.

The circular route eventually takes you up along the cliff tops and then back to the car park. In total it took us around 3 hours to walk and we estimated this to be a 6km route.

Walking on the soft sand in big boots is very challenging, but really good exercise!

The great thing about hiking in and around the Western Cape is that we are spoilt for choice and the views are just unbelievable!

Unexpected over-night in Suicide Gorge

2008-12-21T06:01:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, 21 December a small group of us (6 in total) decided to go Kloofing in Suicide Gorge (Grabbow, Western Cape).

Cape Nature, who we booked through gave us very thorough instructions on what to do, what to take, what to expect. We glanced over the lists and thought, "hey, it'll be fine!" and off we went.

One particular thing they mentioned was:

"First time hikers for the kloofing routes must be guided by an experienced kloofer."

Of course none of us had been before, but we all knew someone who had and despite the odd story here and there of people getting suck, the whole day seemed to be about who would have the biggest balls to jump off Suicide Gorge.

For those of you who don't know: Kloofing involves following a trail for a few hours hike into the mountains. You eventually come to a little river which waterfalls into a little pool.

The idea is that you jump into the pool and make your way down river to the next one. From there the jumps get increasingly bigger - a lot of them (for the chickens!) you can get around without jumping.

HOWEVER, the last jump is a MUST DO. Its slippery and very high - reports vary and its hard to judge when you're jumping (it always seems so much higher!) But I think you're looking in the region on 15 meters. (Corrections welcome!)

If you have any issues with heights, this is probably not the place you want to learn to over come them.

Our day out started with taking a 2 hour detour (missing the turn off for Suicide Gorge completely) This set back in time didn't really register. We were just happy to find the correct trail and off we went.

The hike itself is beautiful and we had a wonderful time making our way down to the gorge. Finding the water pools was a relief (it seemed to take forever to get there.) The water is a dark brown colour but perfectly clean and safe and warm (we went in December).

Our second delay (sorry Robs!) was on our last jump, where all but one of us had made the final jump into the pool. We had one person who froze in fear of the height and it took all of our positive thoughts and positive reinforcements and all the bravery in the world for our last jumper to make it down.

By that time, we decided to do a time check - it was 7pm and only then did we realise we still had hours worth of hiking ahead of us.

At this point our unreliable maps were soaking (after a day's worth of kloofing not many waterproof bags were still waterproof!) We weren't sure what to do next. There were no path ways, no signs, no nothing. We were trapped in a ravine with no inkling of where to go.

This is where we all remember the advice: "First time hikers for the kloofing routes must be guided by an experienced kloofer." Oops!

And this is also where we start cussing the accuracy of their maps and lack of sign-boards...

Going down river was no option as we couldn't see the next pool and to slide down at speed to land on who knows what, was absolutely out. With no path, we decided to bundubash up the ravine through the bush. We moved up, past the last pool and down to the river again.

Let me just say - this was hectic. We're talking an almost vertical climb up a ravine through sharp pointy bushes to hold onto, slippery sand underfoot. We found routes, decided they were not safe. Backtracked to find the other option even less safe and coming back to the one we'd abandoned and just pushed on through. We were getting tired and moody, a little scared and its a miracle not one of us got hurt!

At this point the light was starting to wane. There was still no sign of a real path and we began thinking that getting home was probably not going to be an option.

Nevertheless - optimistic as we were, we hiked up and down the riverbed for another hour. Disputing routes and directions to go in, splitting up in the hopes of finding the way out.

With about 10 mins of light left, we found the 'escape route'. With no torches and no idea of where we were going, we decided to use the rest of the light to collect wood and set up camp on the pebble riverbed for the night.

PS: No cellphone reception at the bottom of the ravine!

Anyway - we were very lucky, we found enough wood to last the night (thanks guys for collecting the second batch in complete darkness). We had lighters to make fire. My brother had bought rope which we used as a clothes line over the fire to dry out our wet towels and clothes (which would be desperately needed later in the night). My dear hubby collected leaves and small branches and stuffed them in my back pack to make a 'mattress / thermal layer' to lie on.

We had enough snacks to keep us going and first aid kits which helped for aches and pains all around.

As mentioned before the water was perfectly safe, so we were lucky to be able to drink directly from the river (and I can tell you that no one got sick from it later on)

We still had bin bags (which could have been put to better use actually keeping our stuff dry) but the spare bags doubled up as sleeping bags for some. (Even for the one who had a space blanket and forgot about it!)

We settled in for a night of very uncomfortable rest. Aside from the sound of baboons nearby and the glow of (wild cats?) eyes from across the river, we were entirely safe. The only other noise was my snoring from blocked sinuses inhaling buckets full of smoke from our little fire (sorry guys!)

The morning was cold and we waiting an hour into sun-up before heading up the ravine and off to the comfort of food, coffee and all things clean and soft!

About 2 hours into our hike we came across an angel in the form of John & his 4X4. Bless him, he'd waited for us late into the night and again first thing in the morning worrying about what may have happened to this little group of intrepid hikers. Thanks to John our hike back to our cars was cut in 1/2.

This meant that we could get to the nearby farm restaurant for a scrumptious breakfast in no time.

And not a moment too soon!!

There are so many survival techniques we learnt and talked about from this little experience that it's made us a lot more careful about going out. I've blogged a hikers guide for tourists to Cape Town based on a lot of what I learnt here.

More importantly for Marco & I, from a Kili perspective, we're paying very careful attention to what we'd need in order to keep safe on the mountain in the event we are injured or separated from our group. Lots to think about...

Trekkers Guide to Kilimanjaro

2008-12-20T22:52:00.000-08:00

One of the most valuable resources I have come across in planning our Kili trip is a little book called:

Kilimanjaro - A Complete Trekker's Guide, by Alexander Stewart

ISBN: 978-1-85284-413-4

If you Google "ISBN: 9781852844134" you'll find enough information on the book and where you can buy it.

The information in here is extensive, interesting and its small enough to take up Kili with us when we go (it has detailed descriptions on routes, which may be valuable should we get lost or separated from our group)

Choosing an operator

2008-12-19T06:01:00.000-08:00

Choosing your operator is probably the most important thing to do. It is also one of the most difficult things to do.

The basic requirements are fairly obvious from picking a reputable company with good experience, good references, good kit and very importantly excellent ethics when it comes to employing porters and guides.

You are quite literally putting your life in their hands.

Then there is the cost to be considered. I trawled through tonnes of information online and found it quite difficult to make a choice.

I had to repeatedly ask for quotes, compare them in price, understand what those prices included. Judging suppliers by their response time and willingness to answer stupid questions over and over again.

In the end the choice was a tough one, but for me the company that came up tops was Destination Africa Tours. You can view their website at:

http://www.climbingkilimanjaro.com/

I'm particularly impressed with their personal experience in climbing Kili. Their knowledge and advice has been invaluable. I've received a 72 page document designed to answer every question imaginable (and more!) regarding this adventure.

It covers everything from routes, gear, nutrition, detailed exercise programmes, vaccinations, information on acute mountain sickness, altitude sickness, visa requirements, insurance - THE LOT.

They (we) have had a tough time trying to secure this adventure, what with the dollar all over the place in the past few months and then with Air Tanzania being grounded in mid-December.

Nikki has been marvelous with arranging alternatives, advising on kit to rent versus kit to buy.

We're not quite there yet, but so far I have nothing but compliments for Nikki & the team at DAT.

Choosing a route up Kilimanjaro

2008-12-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

There are a number of routes to the top of Kibo. Each has its upside and its downside (seriously, no pun intended - ag!)

We decided on the Machame Route. The reason for this came down to 3 main things:

It's a longer route (good for acclimatisation and therefore a great chance of success)
It goes through 5 different eco-systems
It's less popular than the Marangu Route (aka Coca-Cola Route)

What may be helpful for you to decide is giving you a very brief breakdown of the different routes:

MARANGU ROUTE (Coca-cola Route)

Length = 5 days

Grade = Moderate / Hard

Ascent = 65km

UMBWE ROUTE

Length = 5 days

Grade = Hard

Ascent = 44km

MACHAME ROUTE (Whiskey Route)

Length = 6 days (we've added on a day for extra acclimatisation)

Grade = Hard

Ascent = 61km

LEMOSHO ROUTE

Length = days

Grade = Moderate / Hard

Ascent = 72km

SHIRA ROUTE

Length = 6 days

Grade = Moderate / Hard

Ascent = 67km

RONGAI ROUTE

Length = 6 Days

Grade = Moderate/ Hard

Ascent = 54km

Deciding on a route will come down to fitness levels, personal preference, cost, available time.

The best thing to do is to research as much as possible. Also ask your operator to give you the main differences between them, describe your (intended) fitness levels and seek their advice.

Kilimanjaro, one of the Seven Summits

2008-12-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

According to Wikipedia, "The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents.

Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first postulated as such in the 1980s by Richard Bass"

At this point in time, we have no ambition to summit all 7, but just out of curiosity and for further information, these are the 7 Summits Facts:

In order of height:

Asia

Everest (Sagarmatha or Chomolungma)

8848m or 29029ft

South America

Aconcagua

6962m or 22841ft

North America

Mount McKinley (Denali)

6194m or 20320ft

Africa

Kilimanjaro (Kibo Summit)

5895m or 19341ft

Europe

Elbrus

5642m or 18510ft

Antarctica (claimed by Chile)

Vinson Massif

4892m or 16050ft

Australia-New Guinea

Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya)

4884m or 16024ft

Australia

Kosciuszko

2228m or 7310ft

I just wanted to add a little snippet (also from the aforementioned wiki-page) titled: Criticism of the Seven Summits challenge

"... who argue that it tempts the ambitious but inexperienced into paying large sums to professional guides who promise the "seven", and that the guides are therefore pressured to press on toward summits even to the detriment of their clients' safety"

This has been apparent in our experience, particularly at the level of buying kit - where the shop assistant hears " we're climbing Kili" (or, actually they hear "$$$$$$") and instead of relying on getting good advice you have to be careful to weed out the knowledgeable from the greedy.

Why Climb Kilimanjaro?

2008-12-15T17:55:00.000-08:00

What makes you decide to do something like

Climb Kilimanjaro?

Perhaps you're on your way to completing the famous

7 summits?

Perhaps you're a keen mountaineer or hiker who has always wanted to face this challenge.

Or perhaps you were invited to a Facebook group called:

"Things I want to do before I die, join the amazing adventure.."

Well that's why I decided to do it. Marco had to tag along -> you know: for better or for worse...

And so on a whim, I've been Googling my little heart out. Seeking websites, blogs anything to find out what I have let myself into!

So this is my blog on our little journey. I'll share what I've found and hopefully it'll inspire you to do something amazing in your life.

What one person can do, another can do - it's just a matter of knowledge and the desire to do so.

We'll let you know what its like at the top!