It was our honeymoon! Yes, I’m not kidding. We did it a month after the wedding, but it was that sweet trip. We got married in May, and in the beginning of July we left for Africa. We summited Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in the African continent. We didn’t shower for 8 days and slept in freezing cold every night. But if I could go back and have that kind of honeymoon, I’d do it again, and change nothing! The climb to Uhuru Peak was nothing like we’d ever done before, and nothing like we’ll ever do.
We took the Lemosho Route, the most beautiful route on Kilimanjaro (as the legend has it). It was a total of 8 days. We arrived 2 days before we were to start hiking. We were put up at the Stella Marris lodge in Moshi, where we were woken up by this pair of hornbills right outside our window:
We spent our day before the climb exploring the town of Moshi – a soup at The Coffee Shop and some great coffee at the Union Cafe. We came back to this breathtaking view of Kili:
It looked gorgeous and huge! I couldn’t believe what we were attempting. Were we insane? Well, even if we were, we weren’t the only ones. We had signed up to climb as part of a group. And other group members, ten more to be precise, were also there, enjoying this view with us.
We packed, and checked, and double checked our stuff the night before and in the morning, and head out to the Lemosho Gate. It was all becoming real. Our trek started through the beautiful rainforest. It wasn’t very steep – so far, so good. We camped at Mti Mkubwa (also known as The Big Forest) camp for the first night. This was exciting, thrilling even. The wind was crisp and it was slightly chilly under the tree cover. I could list all the camps and summarize our trek, but I think this video here, does a better job.
The dreaded Barranco Wall was the part we enjoyed the most. It was hard, physically hard, pushing yourself up against giant rocks, climbing a wall; but boy, was it adventurous! Mount Meru accompanied us for much of the hike, moving away, but always there, rising above the clouds to watch over us.
Summit night, where we start our ascent to Uhuru a little before midnight, was a sheer test of courage, patience, and mental strength, more than just a physically challenging task. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an uphill climb, harder than anything you’ve climbed so far on the mountain. But the demons you need to overcome are those in your head. You get time to nap during the day, and a little after dinner. But sleep eludes you when you need it the most. When we were trying to nap after dinner, it was extremely windy and very cold. The sun had set while we were still eating. We were camped at an incline, and the strong winds blew downward. I was cold to my bone, I didn’t catch a wink. I think that was my highest point of uncertainty; I imagined all worst case scenarios during the attempt to summit.
Once we were up and gearing up for the climb, my fear was replaced by a resolve – tonight’s gonna be a good night! We were here to do this, and we were going to. As we started to climb, the full moon was undergoing an eclipse. The first three hours were tough, but we climbed pole pole. It was steep, but I was awake and had perfect sense of time. It was sometime around 3:30 AM that I started to feel sleepy. My hard warmers were starting to go out, but I was too cold to fetch new ones from my bag. I only got more sleepy with time. I breathed fine, no headaches, but I was sleepy. We progressed, and we saw the light of dawn somewhere behind the Mawenzi Peak. The sky was shaded in hues of orange. The only drawback to this spectacular view was that looking ahead, I could now see how far we were still from the summit. All through the climb, we saw headlamps in a distance; now, I saw tiny people approaching from the Marangu route. We kept on. I looked at the head guide, who was leading us tonight, and his steadiness gave me courage to keep on.
The sun had now emerged above the horizon. We finally made it to Stella Point. I was ready to stop and rest, but the guides urged us to move on till we find a spot where we were shielded from the high winds. Once we reached that spot, I laid down immediately. All I wanted was a nap, but I was denied any ‘high-altitude napping’. We had some energy gel, and moved on to the highest point. Glaciers appeared next to us, and I could see the crater. We were on the rim of Africa’s tallest volcano. I saw the sign, perched in a corner, people posing around it. This was it! We’d made it. There are no words for what I felt – I was too sleepy to form words in my head. It was an emotion beyond words. We had all made it – Happy had tears in his eyes. The needles he felt piercing his head a few minutes ago – didn’t matter anymore. We carried the Indian Cricket team’s jersey – that was our thing – and we posed with it.
We weren’t supposed to stay at high altitude for too long. We started trekking back. The climb down was hard, full of scree. And with the sun overhead, it was now dry and loose. Each time we dug our heels in, we sank down the hill a little. Each of us had a guide or porter assigned to help with the climb down. Some porters/guides insisted on tugging the climber’s arm and rushing them down – giving them little to no control. They were fast – I saw them disappear one by one. Simon was my companion for the climb down, and Simon was cool. I was no more sleepy and he let me climb down at my own pace – which was very slow – chatting with me and exchanging tales about our lives and origins. I enjoyed the climb down. I met two others from our team shortly before camp, and the three of us were the last ones to roll in. Happy arrived about 30-45 minutes before me, and was already napping in the warmth of our tent. I took off the outer dusty layers and rolled into my sleeping back and instantly fell asleep. We were woken up 1.5 hours later for lunch. Post lunch – we headed down to our last camp on the mountain – back among the trees. There was a cheeriness in the air – fueled by excess oxygen. The next morning was even better, everyone was well rested and looking forward to that shower after 8 whole days since the last one. The climb down was strenuous. We made it down, and couldn’t believe it was over – no more climbing, no more sleeping in tents, no more waking up in the cold of the night to go pee.
We all met for dinner that night – the group for the one last time. And next morning, we headed out for our five day safari – starting at Lake Manyara National Park.