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In February this year we decided to climb Mount
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ount Kilimanjaro is the the
highest mountain in Africa with a
Climbing
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level and is the fourth highest of the world’s
- Day 5
top seven summits (wikipedia.org). The most
important decisions we had to make were the
route to climb and our tour operator, as there
are six possible routes to ascend and all trips
on Kilimanjaro must be undertaken with a
registered Tanzanian crew.
We chose the eight-day Lemosho route as
the longer duration provides more time
for acclimatisation to high altitudes which
improves one’s chances of summiting. We
selected climbingkilimanjaro.com as our
tour operator, a South African company with
Tanzanian subsidiary, Hidden Valley Safaris,
which provides the local support for the
Kilimanjaro climbs.

Our training for Kilimanjaro included local day
hikes at Hennops, Suikerbos, Klipriviersberg,
Melville Koppies and Westcliff stairs, gym
workouts and walks around the estate. We
had to stock up on some gear and did weekly
shopping at outdoor stores using the gear
packing list provided by our operator. Packing
was stressful as we were concerned we might
leave out something important and we had a

weight limit of 15kg for each person’s duffel
Departing from
bag.
Karanga Camp -
Day 6 morning
Before we knew it, early on 14 June we were
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We arrived in the afternoon and our operator
drove us to Ameg Lodge in Moshi where we
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sumptuous buffet dinner and our last night’s
sleep in luxury before our exciting journey.
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weighed and loaded onto our vehicle for our
three-hour drive to Londorosi Gate. After
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water bottles and eating our packed lunch, we
embarked on a short drive to our start point.
We commenced our trek through the forest in
cool, comfortable weather, walking ‘pole pole’
(‘slowly slowly’ in Swahili). Initially, we were
reminded constantly to walk ‘pole pole’ as
this gives one’s body time to acclimatise and
preserve energy, but as the days progressed,
and with increased altitude, slow walking
became the norm without any encouragement.

Kyalami Estates • CONNECT • Issue 3 • 2019
11