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kilimanjaro - the story
This is the day by day story of our climb of Kilimanjaro
by the Machame
Route (you can read more about this route on wikipedia) which takes a total of seven days.
climb profile
The climb climb profile of the Machame route (the
way up) is shown above (click on the thumbnail for a larger image
- taken from the a map supplied by www.climbing-map.com).
View the climb
profile (with Snowdon as a comparison).
The descent is via a more direct route straight
down via High
Camp (aka Millennium Camp) to overnight at Mweka Camp and then the
following day to Mweka Gate. The descent from Uhuru Peak to
Mweka Camp is a 2,805m (~9,200ft = 1.75 vertical miles).
day by day story
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Date
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Itinerary
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| Sun
4th July 2010
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We
arrive
at Kilimanjaro International Airport in Tanzania. Team
shirts "de rigueur". Kevin modelling the team shirt. Close up.
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| Mon
5th July
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Safety
briefing, kit check and there was supposed to be an
"acclimatisation hike
to 1,900m (6,233ft) on Mount Meru" which turned
out to be more of a lunch followed by a gentle stroll
in the vague vicinity of Mount Meru! More .......
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Tues 6th July
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Climb
day 1: Start at Machame Gate. Walk through the natural rain forest to Machame camp at 3,000m
(9,845 ft). More .......
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Wed 7th July
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Climb day 2: Leave rain forest behind and walk upwards
through the cloud layer to emerge into the sunlight.
Keep going through scrubby low
bush to reach the alpine flora and fauna
of the open plateau of Shira Camp at 3,840m (12,598
ft). More .......
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Thurs 8th July
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Climb day 3: Walk up to the Lava towers at 4,630m
(15,190ft) before descending to Baranco camp at 3,900m
(12,795ft). A long day with walking time around 8 hours.
More .......
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Fri 9th July
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Climb day 4: Walk/scramble up the Baranco wall (aka
Breakfast Wall) and
then continue into the Karanga Valley to Karanga camp
for lunch. Karanga camp is 4,040m (13,250 ft). Optional
afternoon additional acclimatisation walk to about
4,300m in the afternoon
(14,100ft) but we stayed at Karanga camp
overnight. More .......
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Sat 10th July
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Climb day 5: Skirt around the south side of the mountain
through alpine desert and moraine fields for about 5
- 6 hours to Barafu camp at 4,600m (15,091ft) for lunch.
Spent the afternoon checking out the kit, had an eraly
supper, rest and then at 11:00pm left for
the summit. More .......
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Sun 11th July
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Climb day 6: Already an hour into the climb at midnight,
initially to Stella Point and then onto Uhuru Peak at 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) for
5:45am. Then back down to Barafu camp for lunch and
then ever downwards to Mweka
camp at 3,340m (10,958ft). A very, very tough day. More .......
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Mon 12th July
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Climb day 7: A gentle 3.5 hour walk down to Mweka
Gate, a 'Champagne' lunch and back to the bliss of hot
water at the hotel for a well earnt drink or several!
It's over. More .......
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Each day of the climb we 'tweeted' via kilitweets.
The account is no longer used (it was for the trip only) so we don't
know how long it will stay live for. I've included images of the
daily tweets so their record is not lost. You can read the pre-trip
tweets here and here.
Our tour organiser in Tanzania was Bush2Beach.
We booked our own airfares and they handled everyhting in Tanzania.
We have no hesitation in recommending them.
All photographs were taken by and are the copyright of either
Kevin Bounds, David & Kha Koon Cornwell, Charles Eickhoff or
Lyn McFarlane.
Paged updated 1st August 2010.
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