The Climb – Page 2 – Trekking Upward

22. Day 2 – Through the Temple of Cairns – August 10

Our wakeup call came at 6:30 that first morning. It was barely dawn, quite cool outside and I didn’t want to budge from the cocoon of my sleeping bag. We had an hour to get dressed, freshen up, pack up our gear and go to breakfast. If unpacking our gear and laying out our sleeping bag and mat had been difficult, packing it all up was even more of a challenge. I struggled every morning trying to stuff my sleeping bag into it’s sack while sitting on the floor of our tent. There was limited room to sort through my belongings and find what I wanted to wear for the day. Getting dressed had to be accomplished in sequences of steps. I had to kneel to slide my long underwear down to my knees, then lay on my back or sit to get them off the rest of the way. The reverse was needed to put the bottom layers on. Of course, the top layers weren’t as difficult. The next step was to get everything back into the duffel bag. Ugh! Socks went on last and to get out of the tent, I had to take my shoes out of the plastic bags used to store them inside the tent, set them outside the opening and figure out how to get my feet in them with my body still inside the tent and then stand up. Jo decided after our first morning that we needed more than an hour to get this done and set her alarm to wake us up at least a half hour earlier than the wake up call each morning. The thoughtful crew would bring your coffee or tea in a cup to your tent opening every morning so if you needed that cup of brew to help you wake up you could count on having it delivered to your tent door.

But for me, it was off to the breakfast table in our mess tent to get my morning Hibiscus tea along with breakfast. Each day there would be two thermos pitchers on the table, one had hot water for hot tea in individual packs or powdered hot chocolate. The other pitcher had piping hot ginger tea. Then we were served a breakfast of pancakes, eggs cooked to resemble a large, flat pancake, a large pot of porridge which was thin oatmeal, fresh fruit, and various bread selections. I’m sure there was a meat selection as well, but I did not choose this option. Before we left the table, the cook staff would bring a snack for us to take along for the day’s climb. This was a box of mango juice, muffin, a package of dry biscuit cookies and a few pieces of hard candy. Next, you had a short time to use the porta john, fill your water bottles, brush your teeth, and assemble for the day’s journey.

While we were eating breakfast the crew would be taking camp down and packing it up. They would put our packed duffel bags on a tarp in the center of camp so they could pack up our tents. Each crew member had their assigned duty. There was the tent staff, cooking and food preparation staff, porta john staff, guard staff, and our guides. As the various aspects of the camp were ready, the porters/crew would begin taking it to the next campsite. The mess tent and porta johns which were two little, bright blue tents with a zip entry and housed a little porta potty, were the last to be packed up. Once we were ready to go our head guide would start us on our next leg for that day. As we would start our very slow pace, the porters and crew would pass us carrying very large packs often on both their backs and their heads.

Our destination on day two was to get to Shria Camp II. It wasn’t a very difficult hike for this day but to be honest, I lost all track of time, distance, and elevation gain. I just followed the leader and put one foot in front of the other until we got to the next camp. It seemed to be more of a gradual climb in a vast, desolate area where the vegetation was scrubby and dry. There were white and yellow flowers along the way adding some color and interest to the landscape. We made stops at times for water, trail breaks (emptying one’s bladder), and snack breaks. As we neared the camp, the porters and crew came down the trail to meet us and carry our daypacks the remainder of the way. Once we got to camp, the staff circled around and sang a welcome song where they named each one of us in the various verses. This was a ritual that occurred each time we got to camp. They always had a smile on their faces and took great measures to please and help us with anything that would make our journey lighter and easier. They would be ready to dust off our boots and pants, help us find the tent where our duffel bag had been placed, take our gaiters off or literally anything we wanted or needed. We were treated like royalty. The mess tent would always be set up and as soon as we had our tent settled, there would either be a hot meal or snacks ready for our consumption. On this day we arrived in camp early enough for a nice afternoon break, but after lunch, the head guide told us to gear up for a short walk up to a higher elevation. He wanted to see how we would do going to 13,000 ft. and this would help us acclimate to the higher elevation we would be encountering over the next few days. So off we went up the dry, stony, dusty trail to a place I called the Temple of Cairns. It was full of stone cairn towers obviously stacked by previous hikers. We rested at this destination for a while and then returned to camp for a snack of popcorn and peanuts before the main supper meal. Between the snack and supper, I decided to rinse out some socks, undies, and the very dusty leggings I had worn that day. It turned out to be a big mistake as most of the garments did not dry out for the remainder of the trek despite the very dry air. I think it was too cold to let the bulkier things get dry. I had counted on having the leggings to wear but had to make do with other lower body garments until the ascent to the top when I needed four layers, and our head guide sent my leggings to the cook tent to dry them by the stove so I could wear them on that final push to the summit.

After supper Jo and I made our way to our tent and noted the clarity of the stars and once again saw that cloudy image we call the Milky Way. It was just as amazing the second night as the first night we saw it. I quickly fell asleep but was awake again in the night to go to the bathroom. I was taking Diamox to help prevent altitude sickness and acting like a diuretic is a common side effect. It was too cold to go to the porta john and so this had to be accomplished with some ingenuity in the tent or just outside the zipped opening in what we called the vestibule. Then I had trouble going back to sleep as the sounds of the breeze causing the tent to flap and other noises that I thought surely must be wild animals just outside our tent kept me awake for much of the night. At last, it was morning and time to pack up again and see what the day would bring.

21. The Beginning of the Trek – August 7

Three weeks ago today, on August 7, 2023, a group of individuals met in the town of Moshi, Tanzania. We were to be a group of nine, but one individual had flight delays so would join us the following day. We checked into the Panama Hotel which was not the one originally scheduled for our lodging. We were to have double rooms but now we were three to a room for the women and the two men who were there had a double. Alex who would join us the next day would get a single room. The triple room was crowded with three beds, our suitcases, our duffel bags and all our stuff that ended up scattered around the room. The shower did not have proper runoff, so the floor was very wet each time one of us showered. I shared a room with Jo Simmons and Kristen Gillan who had accompanied me on the game park safari just before this meetup in Moshi with the group. After freshening up, we went to the dining area to meet the rest of the team members over dinner and encountered a lovely, large rat along the pathway. He was harmless and seemed rather friendly.

Some of the group were already at a table and the others arrived shortly, to make a group of eight very tired, hungry, and anxious individuals about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. The extensive menu had lots of vegetarian items that sounded tasty, so I ordered a guacamole sandwich. Then we waited almost two and a half hours for our order to be served. I was tired and hungry, and the wait seemed an eternity. When it arrived at the table, I think I would have eaten just about anything. It was satisfying but seemed more like three slices of bread with guacamole between the slices. We were uncertain about drinking the table water, so we ordered bottled water. We filled our water bottles from the bottled water and I think by the time we checked out we used up the entire supply of bottled water they had at the restaurant. While we waited for the food to be served we had time to begin getting to know one another. There was Mark Kohus, 52, diagnosed with early onset PD, Jo Simmons, 47, whose dad has PD, Kristen Gillan, 46, whose mom is in the end stages of PD, Justin Fields, 38, with early onset PD and a deep brain stimulator, Laura Aldrich, 35, whose father passed away with PD, Connie Qian, 32, whose father has PD, and Betty Frances Thomason just 19 whose dad has PD. Alex DiLalla, 28, diagnosed a year ago just two weeks before his wedding with early onset PD, would hopefully join us the next day

The next morning, we met with the tour operator at breakfast, and he laid out our day ahead. After breakfast we were going to walk to town and do some market shopping. We ended up walking about six miles along dirt sidewalks and visited a small craft market where I purchased a few small souvenirs and then on to the big market in town. The sights in a market like this always fascinate me. There were stands of fresh fruit and vegetables, big bags of dried beans, rice, spices, flour, and other items. And of course, there were trinkets of bracelets, carved animals, earrings, paintings, and such that the vendors would beg us to buy from them. I made a few selections, but we didn’t spend much time here as it was time for lunch. I got to ride in a tuk tuk for a wild ride to our lunch venue. It was outdoors on the lawn at a very nice place. My eggplant sandwich was fabulous. Here also, Alex joined the group. Fortunately, we had a van take us back to the Panama Hotel where we were instructed to pack our duffel bag with the gear we were taking on the climb and meet in a conference room for orientation.

I worked hard to get all my gear packed into my duffel bag and then headed over to the meeting. Most of the others were already in the room with all their contents out of their duffel bags and waiting for the head guide and tour operator to inspect our readiness for the climb. I was dismayed that I was going to have to take everything out and then try and get it back in the bag, but I didn’t have a choice. Fortunately, all my gear was approved, and the head guide recommended I could leave a few things behind. Then came the task of getting it all back in the duffel bag and carrying it back to the room. This was our first time meeting the hike leader, Abel Lauwo whose grandfather had led the first western mountaineer, Hans Meyer, to the peak of Kilimanjaro in 1889. Abel was a very experienced guide, and we would be his 1021^st expedition to the summit. I knew we were in very good hands with Abel. His expertise would keep us safe, and he would do everything possible to get our group of hikers to the top. He would know the pace we needed to go, the signs and symptoms of altitude sickness and what to do for it and advise us what to eat and drink to stay healthy on this trek.

I went to bed that night very excited that the next day, Wednesday, August 9, I would begin the expedition to the summit of the roof of Africa, the highest peak on the continent and the tallest free-standing volcano in the world at 19,341 feet. After breakfast we got our bags ready, put what we weren’t taking with us in storage, took some group pictures and loaded onto the bus. Along the way we passed a field with giraffes grazing and of course we had to stop and take pictures. Next stop was at a gas station where we used the restrooms, and I found a man selling bandanas that I had to have. Jo and I purchased nine of them so each member of our group could have one. The stop seemed to be taking a long time. The tour operator left us to go to a bank to get money to pay the entrance fee to Kilimanjaro National Park. There seemed to be an issue getting the cash out of the bank to pay these fees, so we continued without the tour operator to our destination. He must have worked out paying the fees as we were granted entrance to the park. It was here that we learned that our itinerary was being changed from 8 days and 7 nights to 7 days and 6 nights. This would mean that we would start the hike at about 10,000 ft. and climb to about 11,500 ft. bypassing the rainforest the first day instead of starting at about 7,500 ft. and going up to about 9,500 ft.

We arrived at the Londorosi Gate where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch consisting of hot soup and sandwiches. We loaded back on the bus and continued up the road bypassing the rain forest and arrived in the Shira Plateau with moorland vegetation. We had not been able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro yet as we were in a layer of clouds preventing us from seeing the peak that we would be climbing. As we rounded a curve in the road we cleared the cloud layer and there before us was the majesty of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was one of those ah ha moments where silence is the best response. When the bus stopped we eagerly disembarked ready to hit the trail. Of course, there was the obligatory group photo op and then we donned our daypacks and were ready to get going. Abel lifted my pack and asked what all I had in it as it seemed too heavy. He began taking items out of my pack and putting them into his pack and that was the routine every day for the rest of the trek. It was late in the afternoon and the mountain was glowing in the sunlight. The words pole, pole mean slowly, slowly and this was the slogan each day of the hike. Due to the altitude, one must go slowly so as not to tax the body in the thin air. I felt we were traveling at a snails pace and wanted to go just a little faster as I was afraid we would be hiking in the dark if we continued so slowly. The trail was not very difficult, but it was very, very dusty. Jo was in shorts and soon her legs were coated with a thick layer of dirt. We had to cross two small ravines with small streams to get to Shira Camp I and just as we arrived the sky was pink with a beautiful sunset.

Jo and I decided to tent together and set about unpacking our gear in the dark, in a very tiny space and without getting dirt everywhere. It was a taxing undertaking and one that I did not master the entire trek and by the end of the trip it was definitely the pebble in my shoe for the journey. Once settled we ventured to the mess tent for a delightful hot supper and conversation around the table. On our way back to our tent we were amazed at the brilliance of the stars and enjoyed a view of the Milky Way I had not seen in many years since pack backing in southern California in my twenties. We crawled into our sleeping bags and tried to sleep. I think I was awake by 3:00 a.m. with restlessness, excitement, and the sounds of camp. Thus was the beginning of the journey to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

19. I Did It- Made It to the Summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro – August 14

So I made it to the roof of Africa. It has been an amazing journey. I would not say it was fun as it was grueling, hard work in the sun, cold, wind, dust, and very desolate environment. But it was incredible!! It was exhilarating! It was unforgettable! I was only able to get there with much help from many people. But yet, I did it one step at a time up that mountain. Now I am sore, exhausted, drained, emotional and ready to head home. I plan to write more about my story in future entries but for now, I need a little rest.