On the 15th of September Ciara and I will begin our journey to Africa, our eyes fixed on the prize of summiting the continent's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro. But before we do, it might be an idea to find out what we're letting ourselves in for. I feel like I'm doing a primary school project! But here it is - the skinny on Kili!
First things first, exactly where is this mountain and how do we get there? Well the lovely people from Pat Falvey Irish and Worldwide tours are taking a group of about 15 people from all over Ireland to Mount Kilimanjaro National Park where our trek will begin. We'll head for Amsterdam first, and from there it's just a hop-skip-and-a-jump (or flight!) to the Kilimanjaro National Airport in Tanzania, Africa. We'll be staying in Moshi for one night, the town nearest to Kili and next morning we'll set off for the Machame Gate, as we’re taking the Machame route to the top.
(if all comes to all we can use this photo and photo shop ourselves in!)
The mountain itself is the highest mountain in Africa at 5895meters, and the highest freestanding mountain in the world (eek!). It’ll take us 7 days in total to get all the way up and all the way down again and we’ll summit on Day 6. The Machame Route doesn’t have any shelter, so we’ll be sleeping in tents for the duration of the trek (don’t worry, we’re both bringing ear-plugs in case we get sick of each other complaining!!!).
(We'll be going up using the orange one and down the pick route.)
We’ll have lots of help once we get on the mountain- not only do we have our own Irish guides coming with us, but we’ll also have local guides and shirpas to help us along. The local guides will keep us on the right route, while the shirpas will carry all the tents, cooking equipment and basically everything else we need up the mountain (go shirpas!!!). They’ll cook for us and more or less take care of us on the journey- and from what I’ve heard of them so far they’re generally legends!
There’s a lot of preparation to do before we go, all the obvious ones- visa, vaccinations, training, but there are other things that you mightn’t think of like the kit. Because the climate changes so drastically on the way up: desert at the bottom and ice-cap at the top, there’s lots of packing to be done. We’ve both had a crash course in outdoorsy wear over the past couple of months and I’m glad to report that we now both know what gaiters are (nothing to do with alligators!!!).
Before we get there though, there’s one last matter to deal with: our last fundraising event. We’re climbing Galteemore on Sunday the 28th of August and we’d love if you’d come along- tickets are on sale from all club committee members and also from me and Ciara. Give me a shout on 087 4135866 if you want to buy a ticket- and check out the details of the climb under the “Climb and Dine” tab.
Wish us luck!
Lisa
x
