Kilimanjaro – the roof of Africa

Posted on 7 August 2009

Camping on a mountain where it’s hot during the day and freezing at night, bathing with 1L of water that’s been warmed up a bit, drinking boiled water from rivers and springs, walking 3-6 hours a day (on summit day it’s a 10 hour walk in total).

After 7 days on Kilimanjaro

Pole Pole is the motto..it means “slowly slowly” the slower the better and that’s a fact! Living in the same clothes and reusing smelly socks, worrying about acclimatization hitting you because you are trekking and camping as high as four and a half kilometers above sea level. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD!

We pedalled across Southern Africa on mountain bikes not just to climb Kilimanjaro but to make it to the summit and we did and it was just breathtaking! Our 69 km Manchame trek of Kili was mind blowing. Day one was spent learning about Pole Pole which really means slowly slowly and boy they say what they mean. Its all you hear on your way to the top as you put one foot in front of the other at a snails pace. “Hakuna Matata”, a line used by a warthog and a mongoose in the Lion King movie, is not just some strange made up word; it actually means “no worries”. So with these two phrases we made it to the top of Africa. Days two to five involved scrambling up long ridges and dropping down and of course climbing out of valleys that once flowed with lava, walking across moorland and alpine deserts. Our campsites were on flat plateaus and narrow ridges high above the clouds and the clearest skies one could imagine. We scrambled to the top of a free standing boulder called Lava Tower and at 4600m above sea level, our team of five all dropped to the ground and did a couple of push ups.

At 11:30pm on the night of the 31 July 2009 our guide called Baba a 25yr old local Tanzanian and his assistant Thomas, a 56 year young maths teacher from Canada called Clive aka Vince, Caroline one of the sachet squadron members from Malawi, who by now had become a close friend to us and of course Jono and I set out in the middle of the night for a six hour Pole Pole to the summit of Kilimanjaro. On the morning on the 1 August 2009 at 6:03am we were all blessed to summit Kilimanjaro (Uhuru Peak 5896m asl) safely and watched as the first rays on sunshine crossed over the horizon and lit up our surroundings of massive ice glaciers and artic like conditions. It’s the most amazing feeling and mind blowing experience knowing that you at the highest point in Africa, exactly halfway for Pedal2Peak. After 30min with our heads way above the clouds we started descent back to earth and it was much quicker than up I tell you. It’s about a hour or two of running down hill with nothing but lose, shale sliding you from under your feet. Once you back down to 4600m asl you have a well-deserved break and a nap before starting a three hour walk down hill to Mweka camp 3100m asl. Well the next day it’s all pretty much down hill to the park gate with Jono giving the porters a run for their money down to the bottom, once there, it’s all over quite fast and before you know it you’re out of the park and on your way back to civilization, hot showers, cars, people and buildings.

Once back at Moshi we met with the local press and our Vodacom contact Emanuel and had an interview for the “African”, a local paper in Moshi. After all the Q & A at about 7pm that night we finally got a chance to have a hot shower and a bit of a clean up after seven days on Kili. A couple of days’ rest and now it’s time for us to turn our bikes south and start our 6000km cycle back home and I know it’s going to be a new adventure on its own.

Please don’t forget to visit our website on www.pedal2peak.co.za to see how you can donate to the NSRI.

The Rand Merchant Bank of South Africa is donating R1 to the NSRI for every km Jono and I complete on tour and when we get home safely that’s R24 000 they donating, so please pass on our website to anyone and everyone and let’s get some more donations in for the NSRI. Please remember to reference “pedal2peak” for any donations made to the NSRI.

Keep up to date with our group on Facebook which is a open group and can be joined without invite. Loads of amazing pictures of the tour so far and lots of other information.

And thank you once again to family and friends for their support over the last 6000km. We are missing you all and should be home for Christmas South Africa here we come but first let’s see what Zambia’s like.

Jono and Marc






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