Rongai Route

Jambo means hello in Swahili. Isn't that a great word?

I am back in Nairobi after an incredible 12 days on safari. I had such a great time, I'm already trying to figure out how to convince all of you to join me next year :) But first I've got to tell you more about Kilimanjaro.

There are quite a few routes you can take, one of the most popular is the coca cola route, named that way because its so popular and very crowded, with huts you can sleep in and stuff you buy. That is the route we took down, it took us a day and a half to get down.

We took the Rongai Route, only tents and not many people. Going up the mountain we started at the national park gate (Nale moro village, 1950m), where we met our porters, assistant guides, cook and the head honcho, our guide Samuel, who has been climbing the mountain for 30 years! We climbed up 750 meters the first day 'poli poli.' That's one of the secrets. The guides tell us over and over and over and over...poli poli. Slowly, slowly. The slower the better, gives your body time to acclimitize. That and drinking 4-5 liters of water and that PMA (no dad, not PMS, PMA, positive mental attitude). We climb through farm land, mainly corn, on up through the forest to simba camp which is just about at the edge of the moorland zone. We camped at Simba Camp (2700m). Keep in mind that while we are carrying day packs with cameras, rain gear, warm clothes and water, the porters are basically running past us, or so it looks that way, they are so fast AND they have 20kg on their backs or heads! Unbelievable how fit these men and woman are. We walk into camp and to our utter amazement, the tents are up, the loo is up, the porters are just hanging out waiting for us and that's where it all began. We signed in, no turning back now.

I talked with our guide in training. Elli is a very nice guy. He told me that they go to school to be a guide, take a test and then spend 12 days on the mountain. They do everything to make us comfortable and successful, such great people here on the mountain. The food was amazing and we were off to bed early, yes even for me. Georgi and I shared a tent and around midnight we both were awaken to the strangest sounding animal. No, not really, it was just one of our new friends snoring. Don't worry, we totally got used to it, by the end I was wondering if I'd be able to sleep without hearing him snore (turns out it wasn't a problem).