Kilimanjaro, Rongai Route, Day 7

Leaving Horombo hut

Horombo Hut to Marangu gate - and we are almost done!  Up earlier this morning as we have a 6 hour hike ahead of us, we are still quite tired from the previous day so 6 hours seems to take a looooong time. The vegetation has changed and most of the hike is in the rain forest which is really pretty except that is raining luckily not all the time. The path is nice and wide and so three of us can walk together and we have some good chats about future, work etc. Finally we arrive at Marangu gate, our final destination!!! We have completed our trek. Liston runs up and gives me a hug and drinks for us all. We have a packed lunch and all the porters are there to greet us, so lovely.

In the rain forest getting drenched :)

Dad sporting his lovely gaitors!

  

Clemence, Dad, Sue & Chris

Having a tea break on our way to Marangu camp

Kilimanjaro, Rongai route, Day 6 - SUMMIT NIGHT!

Our porter Liston woke us up at 11.30pm - had a cuppa tea, dressed in as much as I could get on and starting walking at 12.15am!

This is what I had on:

• Underwear
• Normal pair of stockings
• Black long leggings
• Knitted tights
• Thermal pants
• Thermal top
• Brown Kway paints
• Normal vest
• tshirt
• fleece
• Jacket with additional fleece inside
• 2 pairs of thick socks
• Gloves
• Beanie
• Balaclava

I was warmish most of the time except when we stopped for longer than 5 mins! Nobody can really prepare you for this night but somehow it passes by in a blink of an eye!  Its dark and you can only really see as far as your headlamp shines. Leaving Kibo hut you follow a zig zag path straight up the side of the mountain to Gilman's peak. When you are walking you are focusing on your breathing and the person in front of you, the path is loose stone but not bad. I looked up every now and then to see peoples head lamps way up above me which indicated how far we still had to go. I think if you saw what was ahead you probably wouldn't do it, so it maybe a good thing that you do it in the dark. It took us 4.10hrs of constant up hill slog to get to Gilman's but its a huge milestone. Interestingly enough lot's of people only make it this far. Its quite tough but perseverance and pole pole makes all the difference. Once you have had a 5 minute break you are off heading for Uhuru peak, the highest point in Africa!!! This is another 2 hours of slogging but not that steep just a constant climb and the higher you go the thinner the air! I felt a little queasy as we neared the top but just slowed down to accommodate this.

Last push up to Uhuru peak about 6am with sunrise

Glaciers close to Uhuru peak

At the top and its freezing!

AND WE HAVE MADE IT!!! 7.10am on the 7th October 2011 - 07.07.11
Chris Bramhall, Freddy, Sue Bramhall, Paul Bramhall, Clemence

The top is busy with loads of people wanting to have the very photograph you see above, so you have a couple of minutes to take a pic, stand around and admire the scenery with many glaciers and then you start your decent. Its very cold at the top so you don't want to hang around too long.

What a feeling!

And so the decent, it took us 1.5hours from Uhuru peak back down to Gilman's and then from Gilman's to Kibo camp another 2hours. You feel so exhilarated that time just flies and obviously the lower you go the more air you can gulp!

We arrived back at Kibo starving and knackered! We got a great welcome from the porters and then we had a meal as we were starving! We then lay down for an hour's rest and back up again to proceed to the next camp - Horombo!

Having broken camp at Kibo we are now heading for Horombo camp, another 3-4hours walking, sigh. The day is long but so worth it! Arriving at Hirombo camp we were so exhausted, we had basically been going since mid night. Eat and early to bed.