Africa TOC

image 01Trailhead
The bottom of the Machame trail. 5600' above sea level.
image 02MachameGate
Machame Gate. The people standing around are either selling things (coats, walking sticks, etc) or looking to be hired as porters. the porters are limited to 20kg each (there's a scale to check) and they typically carry things on their heads.
image 03MeganReady
Megan ready to go. We carried all our own gear expect for our sleeping bags. Our packs are behind her.
image 04MarkReady
Mark ready to go. The brace on my wrist is because I broke it in a bicycle wreck in Virginia before we left.
image 05PorterGear
Our porters (Augustson, Alafa, and Paulo, and Micela. We also had a guide (Protus) and an assistant guide/porter (Matai).
image 06MeganInForest
Megan in the rain forest. The first day we hiked through the rain forest all day up to 10,100' ASL. Colobus monkeys live in it but we didn't see any.
image 07PortersResting
We took (too) frequent rest breaks as we ascended. The lower trail was well-maintained, but after the first day, the trail degraded to a narrow (often soggy) footpath.
image 08RainForest
A view into the dense forest.
image 09RainForestTrail
The trail up. It never really leveled off or descended at all for the entire hike up.
image 10RainForest2
Every afternoon, the clouds would roll in and we get either rain, sleet, or snow for a few hours.
image 11MeganHiking
Megan in the upper forest. The rain forest gave way to scrub bushes which eventually vanished as well.
image 12CampsiteBird
At Machame camp (day 1), the bushes were full of these white-eyed green birds. Machame camp is at 10,500' ASL. We spent New Year's Eve there with a great view of Kili to the east and Mt Meru to the west. About 25 other groups of people camped there as well that night.
image 13CampSiteBird2
Another green campsite bird.
image 14Kili
Kili at dusk from Machame camp.
image 15OurTents
Our tent at Machame campsite. We ended up spending many hours in our yellow tent. A typical day was hiking for 3-4 hours, having lunch, getting into the tent for a few hours when the it started to rain (or worse). By 6pm, the weather would clear and we'd emerge for supper and chatting with our guide and the other climbers. Then, once the sun set, it would get cold and we'd retreat into the tent until morning (9pm - 6am).
image 16MtMeru
Mt. Meru on the morning of the second day (1 Jan 2004).
image 17MtMeru
Mt. Meru on the morning of the second day (1 Jan 2004).
image 18KiliFromMachame
Kilimanjaro at dawn on 1-Jan-2004. We would be heading towards it for the next 2 days. We ascended the Western Breach route which goes up the left side of the mountain.
image 19Kili
Kili at dawn.
image 20Kili
Resting on the way up to the Shira Plateau.
image 21ARest
Our tent on the Shira Plateau. 12,500' ASL. We are definitely above treeline now. The Shira plateau rises up from the west side of Kili.
image 22TentOnShiraPlateau
Our tent at Shira (looking west away from Kili).
image 23CampsiteOnShiraPlateau
Some of the campsite on the Shira Plateau. We arrived around 1pm in a light rain. The rain picked up and continued until about 6pm. It was probably only 35-40 degrees at this point. and colder at night.
image 24MarkMegan
The rain let up in the evening and everyone came out for dinner and hot drinks for a few hours before sunset.
image 25SunsetOverShira
Another gorgeous African sunset. For some reason, most of the sunsets are full of orange and yellow color.
image 26Kili
Kili at dawn on day 3. We would hike towards this view all day long. This is looking almost due east.
image 27MtMeru
Mt Meru is behind us. It's "only" 15,000' ASL. By the end of today, we'll be that high as well.
image 28GraniteGardenOnShira
The walk up Shira was mostly through a garden of granite boulders and rocks. If you look closely, you can se the porters hiking towards us.
image 29KiliWithClouds
Our view of Kili was often obscured by the clouds that rolled in every day.
image 30MarkMeganProtusAtLavaTower
We paused for a picture in the fog. We're just over 14,500' ASL still heading for the Lava Tower.
image 31RileyEmily
Riley and Emily were also climbing (though they were doing the 7 day route around the south side of the mountain). They decided to go see the Lava Tower before heading back down to Barranco campsite. We would camp at the Lava Tower.
image 32TentAtLavaTower
Our tent at the Lava Tower. It was foggy here most of the time and it sleeted all afternoon. 14800' ASL.
image 33MistyLavaTower
We were at the Lava tower for hours before we actually got a good look at it. This isn't it yet.
image 34TentAtLavaTower
The clouds are starting to break up. We met brothers Pat and Mark here later in the day. Mark would turn around at Arrow Glacier, but Pat and his guide went with us up the Western Breach to the summit. All the other climbers went the other way (southern route).
image 35MistyLavaTower
The sun is starting to come out and we can see the Lava Tower. It's about 150 ft tall
image 36LavaTower
Finally, it clears. With the sun out, it doesn't seem so cold. In fact, you can get a sunburn quite quickly. The sun was only visible for 30-40 minutes and then the clouds and sleet and snow came back.
image 37ClearAtLavaTower
Auguston and Matai and our tent at the Lava Tower campsite.
image 38LavaTowerCampsite
I climbed the Lava Tower (halfway) and took a photo of the campsite. In the background is the dilapidated campsite outhouse.
image 39LavaTowerCampsite
Another view of our campsite as the clouds come rolling back in.
image 40ArrowGlacierCampsite
Day 4 was very short as we needed to acclimate. We left the Lava Tower at noon and arrived at Arrow Glacier at 1pm. We set up camp here for our summit attempt which would start at midnight. Arrow Glacier is 15,800' ASL. Here, it only snowed and did so frequently.
image 41MeganOnArrowGlacier
Arrow Glacier was interesting in that it was bitingly cold but when the sun did come out briefly, our tent heated up to the point that we had to get out of it. Here, Megan is getting ready for afternoon tea.
image 42SunsetAtArrowGlacier
Arrow Glacier campsite as the sun set.
image 43SummitOfKili
We climbed the Western Breach by the light of the almost full moon. We had awesome views of the clouds below and occasionally, we could see all the way down to the plains. Snowfiled in the BReach casued us to bracktrack twice (and lose the trail once), but we finally reached Uhuru (19,340' ASL) at 7:30am on January 4th, 2004. We crested the crater rim at Aasgard Point (18700' ASL). The wind across the crater must have been at least a steady 30mph. And the temperature wasn't much above 0 degrees. We hiked for another hour around the rim up Uhuru to the Roof of Africa. I took this picture at the summit and then my camera was frozen. It's just as well as my hands couldn't handle no gloves much longer anyway.
image 45BananaWine
After the summit, we hiked all the way down to 10,500' ASL at Mweka Camp. We spent the night there and hiked out the next morning. On the ride home, we stopped in a local bar and shared banana wine (more like really bad homemade beer).
image 46BananaWine
We sat around in the bar meeting all the locals and drinking 4-5 (large!) cups of banana wine.
image 47BarFolk
Everyone in the place wanted to be in the pictures.
image 48MeganCertificate
Protus signs and presents Megan with her certificate for reaching the summit.
image 49MarkCertificate
Protus signs and presents me with my certificate for reaching the summit.
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