Our Kili trek in September 2011 was amazing! This is a photo of us camping above the clouds. You couldn't ask for a better view than that.
Kili was the first of the seven summits and remains one of our favorites. The entire trek was beautiful with varied and interesting climate zones. We had trained well so we had no issues physically which made it that much more enjoyable. The pole pole pace was difficult to deal with at first (it was significantly slower than the pace at which we had trained), but we got over it after a while and accepted the fact that we weren't in charge of setting the pace. We had dozens of porters, a cook, an assistant cook and various other support people. Between breakfast, lunch, tea time and dinner, we were exceedingly well fed. They served everything from chicken to pasta to soup and more. The funny thing is we didn't know how easy we had it on this trek until we climbed Aconcagua.
Every morning we heard a gentle “Good Morning" from one of the porters to wake us up. They delivered hot tea or coffee to our tent so we could have it while we got dressed. Prior to entering the meal tent, one of the porters had a makeshift sink with a bar of soap for us to wash our hands. Breakfast usually consisted of hot foods. However, I quickly learned that I was not a fan of porridge. Luckily they always had other options. When preparing to leave camp each morning, we had to ensure everything was packed in our duffels so it was ready for the porters. We always left camp before the porters, but then somewhere along the trail they would go blazing past us with our large duffels on top of their heads like it was nothing. Upon reaching camp, our tents would already be set up for us with our duffels inside. I'm convinced we had the best porters. They were always smiling and gave us high-fives and hugs when we reached camp. We had great weather overall. Throughout the night as you are laying in your tent, you can hear the steady “zip-zip" sound of people going in and out of their tents to pee. One thing I liked to do was go outside in the middle of the night and just look up at the stars. It usually wasn't too cold which made it really nice. Often I would see others doing the same.
Our summit day was not easy as there was quite a bit of scree on the trail leading up to Stella Point. Once we reached Stella Point it was smooth sailing from there to the summit. We had a beautiful, sunny day and spent a long time taking pictures on the summit. You will notice in all of our summit photos we are either wearing or holding the same hat. Brian's best friend, Ernie, owns a bar/restaurant in Morgantown, WV called the Varsity Club. It has become tradition to bring our hats to the top of each summit. After enjoying our summit success, we headed down into the crater to sleep overnight. You could see where the glaciers had melted away and K2 told us it was disappearing very quickly. It was a very cold night and we awoke early in the morning to start our descent. It took us two days to complete our trek down. We had a celebration luncheon at the bottom and were presented with our Kili summit certificates. We got through the always awkward tipping ritual. There were a multitude of vendors trying to sell us all kinds of souvenirs – T-shirts, arrows, etc. After it was all over, they drove us back into town to begin the next part of our trip.
We made the most of our trip to Tanzania by going on a four-day safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We opted to go on the “luxury" safari and I can tell you that it was worth it. The places we stayed were absolutely beautiful…just like something out of a movie. We were able to check the big five (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo) off our list.
For anyone considering making the Kili trek, my advice is don't think…just do it!
