One week ago, Courtney and I climbed 3000 meters to the first base camp of Kilimanjaro. Since the climb, internet has been sketchy and supposedly out all across Tanzania (welcome to life on the World Race), so today I’m finally able to update you on the climb!!
We left the house around 9AM, and drove to Moshi to pick up lunch for the climb. Then, we drove about an hour towards Kilimanjaro National Park. We arrived after an hour and signed into the climb log. I kept thinking to myself, “This is really happening!” We started to ascend the mountain around noon.
The first base camp was located at 2720 meters. It took about two and a half hours to make it up there. We were not yet above tree level, and most of the climb reminded me of climbing in Colorado or walking through the rainforest in Puerto Rico. It wasn’t too steep of a climb, and the path was easy to stick to because of the logs on the sides of the path and the steps along the way.
We went with a tour guide named John. He goes to our church and has brought other racers up the the summit. He’s actually summitted Kilimanjaro 178 times. As we were climbing with him, I had a Swahili worship song stuck in my head, so I would sing the little of it that I knew, and he would pick up the rest. We ended up singing almost half the climb up.
Once we made it to the first base camp, we rested for a while; then John told us we were going to climb up to the crater. At over 2700 meters, I was getting chilly! It was nice to be moving again. On the way to the crater, we saw some of the strangest monkeys I have ever seen in my life. Past the base camp, we were in a whole new terrain. The trees weren’t as plentiful, and the landscape wasn’t as green. It looked almost snow-covered, but it wasn’t nearly cold enough. After looking at the crater, we went to a look-out point where we could see all of Moshi and the Kenya-Tanzania border.
When the clouds aren’t covering Kilimanjaro, that’s the place where we were supposed to have a great view of the top. Sadly, the clouds were in full force, so we weren’t able to see the top. After waiting for a while we started the trek back down.
At this point, we were fighting the clock to make it back to the gate before 6PM, because if we got there later, we would be stuck in the park for another night. As we raced down, I could feel how sore my legs really were just from a one day climb. We made it to the gate at 6:05, and they were gracious enough to let us out even though we were late.
It was a beautiful climb, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have climb Kilimanjaro. Thanks again to everyone who made it possible! We recorded a video along the way. Feel free to check it out below! Five days until we leave Africa for Europe… onto month 10!!!!
So, yeah. I climbed Kilimanjaro… no big deal….
