Day 1

Finally headed towards the mountain today. Though only a one hour ride to the Machame gate (1600 metres) we had to wait approximately 90 minutes before we actually started walking.

It's a relatively gentle uphill hike through rain forests with no major up hills but with a heavy bag and the higher altitude it wasn't difficult - difficult but it wasn't a walk in the park either.  We end up walking over 5 hours for our 10k including a 1 hour "luxurious" lunch. Obviously we had the best table and setup.

Got to the Machame campsite at five(ish) and got some water in a bowl to wash up (aka shower). Afterwards, we went and took some lovely sunset photos of Kili and had dinner which included yummy soup and beef pasta. The beef was as tough as my shoe but I was glad to notice that I wasn't the only one that put it aside. :)

Early night. I'm in my cosy sleeping bag writing this and it only 8:45pm. There's a 6:30am wake up call... Btw it's cold. About 10 degrees and we are only at 2800 metres. Will only get colder...

Day 2

So much for the 6:30am wake up call. Woken up by the Taliban brothers (ie Sunil and Sonu as we now call them) at 6am. Guess I had it lucky as some others were woken at 5:30am by their wife "fluffing" (as he calls it) looking for the NDS. Yes that's right. NDS. On a mountain.

Anyway spent the night restfully but had an annoying problem of sliding down the tent. Much like a caterpillar crawling back up the slope - at least 10 times. Apparently I had it easy, as when everyone else slid they end up squishing the one they shared the tent with (I had the tent to myself).

We ended up starting at 8:30am on a short (6k) but tough(ish) nothing but up hike. We ended up arriving at the Shira campsite (3750 metres) at 1pm. Yes a blistering pace of sligtly over 1 km per hour. :)

Time for lunch.

After lunch we played a few card games waiting for our guides to take us on a 1 hour excursion to see one of the highest plateaus in the world.

For dinner the leek soup was loved by everyone but the main dish had too much rice. It was then pretty much lights out for everyone (it's 8:45pm now). Oh, I spent a few minutes taking photos of the beautiful night sky for hitting the sack.

Sleeping right next to the mess tent where so of the porters sleep. Hope I get some quiet.

Yawn.

Day 3

Our guides and porters managed to find a flat spot last night so didn't spend the night worming my way up the tent. Though probably due to the cold (seemed like around zero) and altitude (3750m) I kept on waking up throughout the night.

Today we started at 9am with what the guides call a slight up hill hike. They conveniently forgot to mention the slight up hill was for 4 hours straight. Up 850 metres and back down 700 metres. You know the standard hiking creed of walk high and sleep low (see next paragraph to see what I mean).

The terrain was much different today. Where yesterday started off in the rain forest and ended in bushland, today was very volcanic like. Lots of lava rocks everywhere. Funny that, we passed though what the guides called the lava towers. Hmmm... saw one big rock which presumably was it. Oh that was at 4600 metres.

After that it was down, down and down to the Barranco Hut camp at 3900 metres. And wow what a difference the terrain was. Green, waterfalls, weird cactus(ish) plants, etc.

After arriving at the campsite at 4:30pm I wasn't feeling too good - slight headache and wanted to vomit. After a few card games in the freezing cold mess tent dinner finally arrived. Feeling much better now after hot soup and neo-citron.

Anyway, another long day tomorrow, though it's only meant to get worse. The two Taliban brothers don't look well. Sunil seems to have a splitting headache. Everyone else seems fine though everyone seems to like to use the altitude as an excuse for some dumb things. :)

Hope to sleep well tonight.

Day 4

Started with what can be considered rock climbing, ok may be not that bad but quiet steep (the guides called it scrambling). Even the porters needed to use all fours. :P

From there it was down, flat, down some more (quite slippery), and up for lunch at Karanga camp. From there it was up, up and more up to Barafu campsite. All up it was an 8 hour day for us.

Tonight we are at 4600 metres but have to get up at 11:30pm... in two and a half figgin hours. Anyway keeping this short to get some shut eye. We were meant to have an early dinner but the gas cooker broke.

I've never worn so much clothes to bed.

Day 5

Got up at 11:30pm on freezing but very clear night. At 4600 metres we can see Moshi and Arusha oh and the mountain. :)

... a little later...

Wow what a tough hike. Never had such a difficult hike in my life. The altitude, the sleep depravation, the freezing cold (felt way below zero), the nothing but up. A few of us actually fell asleep walking - including the guide :). I think I mastered walking and sleeping at the same time.

We started an hour later then we wanted to and ended up splitting into two groups. In the end not everyone made it to the top. Though most made it to Stella point at 5745 metres.

The ascent took around 6 to 7 hours but the descent was a blistering 2.5 to 3 hours of running down scree. For those that have never tried it, imagine skiing for 3 hours straight. Very tiring.

Once we got back to the Barafu campsite we managed to squeeze in a 90 minute nap before lunch. Lunch for me was two bites from a piece of bread and hot tea. A few skipped it together.

Then it was a further 3 hour hike to Mweka campsite (3100 metres). Though the clouds (and sheet) and eventually under them.

So let me summarize... we hiked 8 hours, slept less than 3 hours, hiked 10 hours, slept 1.5 hours, then hiked another 3 hours. Should be tired but I'm not. It's 11:30pm and I'm still up.

Day 6

Slept late but woke up early to the Taliban brothers talking at 6am. Ended up packing and then joining them only to find out that they were no where near ready.

After a quick breakfast, group photo with everyone including the guides and porters we got treated to a lively group song (which we have no idea what it was about).

The hike to the Mweka gate was a relatively short three hours though and down the rain forest. It was quite surreal as the mist had come in too.

Our hike had officially finished. :)