Day two began with our morning mountain ritual… Awoken at 6am, with a cup of Milo (the drink of Champions, as it says on the tin) from a far too chirpy porter, then to the mess tent for sloppy porridge, which became a staple throughout our time on the mountain. We took to the trail once again, legs feeling strong and no sign of symptoms of altitude sickness…
The terrain had now changed from rainforest to dusty moorland, and the campsite that evening was truly breathtaking. We camped in a valley just above cloud level, and all you could see around you was a thick carpet of fluffy clouds. There were literally hundreds of tents, as many groups flock to the same campsites each night, and there was a buzz of porters hurrying around preparing dinner for us ravenous climbers. Those of us, whose sleep was interrupted by the amount of water consumed that day, were greeted by the most ridiculously starry sky, and the brightest moon I have ever seen that illuminated the peak of the mountain that towered menacingly above.
Day one started with checking in at the gate to the Kilimanjaro National Park where we had to give our names and passport numbers and sorted out our kit that we would be taking up the mountain. We met the porters who would be carrying our bags and also our tents/food/mats and generally anything else that we would need for the next six days. The porters and guides were amazing during the whole climb. Whilst we toiled up the mountain one step at a time, moaning about the altitude and how far we had to walk, the porters would literally run by, carrying impossible amount on their heads and on their backs without even breaking sweat. Without them helping us there was no way we could have even got to the 1st camp!
Day one was a steady incline through rainforest. It was sweaty and hot but a good chance for people to get to know each other and get in the swing of things. As anyone who has climbed to altitude before will know, one of the key ways to beat altitude sickness is to drink an unnatural amount of water… We’re literally talking about eight litres of water a day – which I’m sure is great for keeping you hydrated, but does also mean that you are required to “water the plants” or as the porters called it “send an email” almost every half hour… This took a bit of getting used to, but the group adapted well and we reached our first camp at around 1600 hours at an altitude of 3000m. We ate dinner in the “mess tent”, a long tent big enough to fit all 30 of us in which was greatly appreciated! For any Harry Potter fans, it reminded us of the Weasly’s tent from the Quidditch World Cup…
Morale was high and we headed off to bed early in preparation for our next day’s hike which would take us to 3800m.
After a few more days relaxing in Uganda, and a surprisingly comfy 13 hour overnight bus ride to Niarobi, we started the final leg of our journey in Kenya, as we met the rest of our Kilimanjaro team at the airport. We also met our tour guide for the climb, a man called Herman in who we would trust our lives to, 5895m in the air! As responsible, experienced and trustworthy team leaders, we shepherded everyone onto our shuttle buses that would take us to Tanzania. So far so good, the team were in good spirits (if a little jetlagged), everyone was accounted for and the border crossinginto Tanzania was going to be easy as pie as we were experts, having negotiated many border crossings on our travels already… Not so… It was when we actually reached the Kenya-Tanzania border that we encountered our first hurdle of the trip, however it was not one of our innocent, fresh faced team members… our very own team leader Katie had managed to leave her passport in Nairobi!!
As panic began to set in, “The Hermanator” (as he had dubbed himself) stepped in to save the day. After a series of frenzied called and jabbering in Swahili to Nairobi the passport was on its way – his reaction instilled us with confidence as he was obviously well equipped to deal with crisis situations! And so as the day came to a close we made it safely to Moshi at the base of the Mountain, our home until the real challenge began.
The following day we headed out to School Project to see where the money our group had raised would be going to benefit the local children. Our group had raised over 70,000 pounds (a phenomenal sum) and the children welcomed us with singing and dancing before showing off their impressive school facilities that Loughborough Students had helped to provide. Then we took to the playing fields, and whilst typical Loughborough competitiveness was evident, both our Football team and netball team were beaten fairly convincingly by small African School children…
The night before the climb was spent relaxing at the hotel, packing up kit and chatting to another Loughborough group who had just descended that day. They had many horror stories of altitude sickness and blisters and reminisced with glee about how awful the climb had been and how they wouldn’t wish that on anyone… A little taken aback we headed to bed that night, looking forward to getting cracking the next day, but also apprehensive as to what the next 6 days would bring…
The following day our driver, Fred, picked us up and we embarked on the first leg of our mission. We were on road to Kampala to collect our tracking permits, before the 12 hour drive to the Bwindi ‘Impenetrable’ National Park in the Mountains in the South of Uganda! Moses from the UWA came out to the car to hand us our permits, however looked most unimpressed by our choice of vehicle…an ageing white, small Toyota.
Regardless, we cracked on and all was well for the first 10 hours of our journey… and then we found out why it was called the impenetrable forest… The final 50km of our journey took us about 3 and half hours and it was no surprise Moses was worried about our choice of car. The road was a dirt track winding through the mountains, often with dislodged stones falling onto it, thick muddy patches that made our wheels spin, regular goats parading across our path and the occasional small river we were required to drive trough in order to get to our campsite. Fred did a great job of steering the car through the many obstacles and we were relieved to arrive in Buhoma our home for the night, in the pitch black after a slightly nerve wracking drive.
Buhoma is a small town in the middle of the rainforest which is a pretty incredible setting. The mountains tower all around you, each one with a carpet of thick trees and bushes as far as the eye can see. The tops of the mountains are shrouded in mist to add the atmosphere and the air is so humid and thick, it makes the whole place feel very close and intense. When we arrived the air was filled with the sound of crickets and various other jungle animals and birds crying into the night. It was incredibly atmospheric and intimidating place, however got a whole lot more so when after about 10 minutes of us being there the sky let out a huge crack of thunder and the heavens opened, soaking the town. Spears of lightening illuminated the scenery every few minutes whilst we huddled in our dorm bed under a metal roof listening to the rain pound! We were just imagining the family of mountain gorillas, sat in their jungle kingdom, beating their chests in the thunder and lightning King Kong style and couldn’t wait to go and track them the following day!
We awoke early and after breakfast and a briefing, we headed of to the mountains to track the rare primates. Our guide led the group, armed with a machete and a rifle first up the side of a mountain on a path, then we went off road and he literally had to cut our path as we went with his 12 inch long blade. We tramped and trailed our way through the dense undergrowth for around 3 hours until finally we stopped just outside of the Gorilla nest…
The family we were tracking was the Rushagura family, which consisted of 20 individual gorillas including one Silverback, 5 big lady gorillas and lots of young ones. The guide informed us that there are only around 670 mountain gorillas left in the world, and that half of them lived in the Impenetrable Forest. It really was such a privilege to be so close to these incredible endangered mammals. And then we caught our first glimpse…
A huge female Gorilla, and three young ones playing in the trees around her. They looked almost childlike, but VERY hairy and they were hilarious to watch! They were really heavy, and as the chased each other up trees the branches would often collapse and they would tumble back down and roll down the hill. We had to work hard to stifle our laughter and stay quiet, but the guide managed to get us around 3 meters from gorillas. It was literally like being a part of the family. We moved on to see the rest of the family, including a 2 month old baby and then finally the Silverback. He was ENORMOUS! Life as a Silverback sounds pretty great to be honest; they just monkey about all day, eat leaves and are surrounded by adoring women!
After our time was up, we trekked back to base camp to make our way home. The walk down was treacherously slippery but worth every minute to have seen such wonderful creature. We emerged from the jungle, exhausted but ecstatic…two Muzungu’s in the mist!
Following 5 dusty days on the road, our minds turned to something rarely done on our trip…showering! It is safe to say that hygiene and cleanliness has entirely gone out of the window. So with that in mind we rolled into Arusha, to the most pristine and clinical hostel we could find, Monjes Guesthouse. It had absolutely no character to the place at all, but it was fantastic to feel clean again. Unfortunately it took us only a few minutes to realize that where we thought we were getting sweet African tan, we were actually just caked in layers and layers of dust!
Despite being only around 20km from the base of Kilimanjaro, we had still actually never managed to catch a glimpse of our fate. Since we arrived in the area it had been constantly concealed by billowing clouds, making us nervous as we still had no idea of the scale of the mountain we are yet to face. The next morning we were on the plane from Arusha Airport to Entebbe in Uganda, and finally, a short while into our flight, the top of the mountain emerged from the clouds…it really is a sight to behold!
We touched down, grabbed our bags and headed to Jinja; the infamous adrenaline capital of East Africa where we were planning to stay for a week or so. This plan however was short lived as Ewan persisted that when in Uganda we MUST track gorillas in the mountains! And so the mission began…
Tracking Gorillas is no easy task, even before the gorillas are involved. You need to have a permit and bare in mind when reading this that permits are generally booked about 2 years in advance and the chances of securing them at such late notice was slim at best! Barely minutes after arriving at the Explorers backpackers in Jinja, we had Reception on the phone to the Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) enquiring about any permit cancellations that fall during our small window of opportunity. Moses at the UWA had just received 2 permits for the 30th August (perfect!), but that we needed to get money on the table at his office in Kampala – around 70kms away, before he parted with the goods. We agreed and began packing to leave. 5 minutes later the phone rang again, it was Moses to say that someone else had paid him the money…the game was cut throat! We were gutted, but not yet defeated…
So we made the rash decision to jump on the bus to Kampala, travel the 70km, and arrive at his office to see if we could get anywhere in person. After tracking down the right bus, a feat in itself, we headed off to Kampala. We both jumped nervously as Ewan’s mobile rang. It was Moses again, to tell us there were 2 permits to track gorillas available for the 28th August, meaning we would be leaving the following day! Our spirits were higher but we still had a long way to go. We leapt off the Bus at the central station in Kampala, and jumped on a boda-boda (small scooter) to get across to the other side of town. The city is crazy, with no road markings or traffic lights, and thousands of vans, cars, cows, boda-bodas, pedestrians and bicycles all fighting for space on the same road. The ride was the most terrifying few moments of our lives! We made it to the office in the nick of time, with shaky legs and out of breath but the permits were ours! Next stop GORILLAS!
My personal highlight was on the second night when we camped in the Serengeti. We had driven far that day and had seen a multitude of animals, including a large pride of lions relaxing in the afternoon sun. As the day was drawing to a close we pulled up to our campsite where we would be sleeping that night. If ever you could describe somewhere as “the middle of no where” this was it. There was nothing to be seen for miles around but dry yellow grass with the occasional rock and tree and protruding from the ground. The campsite consisted of one “toilet” (hole in the ground), a flat patch where you could pitch your tent and a few tables at which you could eat. Aside from that there was no electricity, no bar and certainly no fences that stopped the animals wandering in… Once the sun had set, the stars came out in force and illuminated the tents that were huddled together in the middle of the clearing. We said our goodnights and went to bed, only to be awoken prematurely by a strange snuffling sound right near our tent. It sounded like it could have been a warthog or something similar, but we didn’t dare to poke our heads out to check. A little while later we could distinctly hear the deep growling of something larger, and more cat like... We froze in our tent, imagining lions walking by and investigating these funny new canvas bushes on the landscape. They passed without incident, but all through the night we heard various other unfamiliar noises and sounds. It reminded us we weren’t looking at animals in a zoo, but were actually incredibly fortunate to be guests in their home and sleep alongside them.
Monkey Business
In Tarangerie National Park, we stopped at a beautiful picnic site to eat our packed lunch. The site was surrounded on one side by trees and the other by a cliff that led down into a river where thirsty animals congregated to drink in the hot sun. Our guide Selma led us a free table at the corner and told us to sit down. He then proceeded to pick up some stones and hurl them at a nearby tree which was housing a number of hungry baboons, watching us take out our lunches. They scattered as soon as they saw him pick up the stones and when he returned he told us it was necessary to do this as we needed to “show them who was boss”, otherwise they would steal our lunch. He went on to tell us that baboons could tell the difference between African people and white people (called “Mzungus”). He said because the guides threw stones, they didn’t dare steal their lunch, but the Mzungu were easy targets and regularly had their lunch nicked. Sure enough, after a while a group of about 15 Americans Mzungus sat at a table right beside the wooded area of the picnic site. They were happily chatting away, taking photos and comparing packed lunches with each other, unawares of the imminent danger… Suddenly and without warning, two enormous male baboons with bared teeth and claws out, leaped from a nearby tree and bounded onto the table, landing right in the middle of the group! Mayhem ensued. Ladies were screaming, men were panicking, chairs were knocked over and children were running everywhere! All the while the baboons were howling and leaping around the table, grabbing as many lunch boxes as they could before the guides caught on and started hurling stones at them. Within seconds the baboons had jumped back onto the tree with their swag in hand and sat satisfied looking down on all the chaos, casually eating out of their packed lunch boxes as if their mothers had made them up for them that morning! If there is a moral to this story it is always throw stones at baboons before you eat your lunch, even if you live in a glass house!
Casualty on the Serengeti
This story isn’t funny, but just a big stroke of luck that we feel is worth writing about. On our Safari car, there was the two of us, a Brazilian and two English girls who were both doctors in Surrey. On our way to the Ngorogoro Crater, we saw in the distance some people on the road, breaking Safari rule number one: never leave your car. The reason for this heinous rule break soon became apparent. As we approached, we could see that their car had somehow flipped over, all the way off the road and lay on its side with its windows smashed, the doors and frame dented and bent and one of its tires burst. Two girls were sitting on the road, head in hands and a fair bit of blood on their faces. They were being tended to by the other passengers whilst the driver was looking shaken and conversing with someone on the phone. As soon as we pulled up beside them, the girls leaped out and ran over the casualties proclaiming “Everyone stay calm, we are doctors”. One of the girls Elaine, doing a good imitation of Mary Poppins, somehow produced a fully stocked medi-bag from her small rucksack and proceeded to clean their wounds and patch them up. Thankfully, after about 20 minutes of attention, the girls were as good as new and were able to get in our car so we could take them to the rangers office, where they would then get properly checked over. That night, the doctors were famous amongst the other Safari goers as the news had spread and we made sure that everyone (us included) bought them enough drinks as a reward for their heroism!
