As we were staying at the foot of Kilimanjaro it was natural to want to explore the biggest mountain in Africa. It had always had a mystical quality for me since I was a teenager, I had bought an album by Teardrop Explodes and it had a picture of the mountain on the cover.
I wanted to do the trek to the top, but our experiences from Peru and Wooksie’s quite serious issues with altitude sickness at Puno did make us cautious.
There are various options for trekking to the top, ranging from 5 to 10 days depending on your route. The one thing they all have in common is camping and altitude which isn’t Wooksie’s thing nowadays so we needed a different option.
Hanging out in Moshi we did notice that the mountain is always shrouded in mist. We only saw the peak once in the week we were around there so we were keen to get a better look.
One of the options is the one day trek on Killi. This is a very attractive option as you get the kudos of doing a trek on the famous mountain. It doesn’t come cheap mainly because of the need for the day pass into the park. There are some other 1 day treks that don’t technically enter the park and are a lot cheaper.
So we plumped for the official trek with a company called Killinge Adventures which we booked via Trip Advisor. They were very good but basically it was just the two of us with a guide to take us up the mountain.
The trek involves a 10km climb to the Mandara camp, this is about a 3rd of the way up Kilimanjaro. On the way up you don’t see much other than trees as the mountain is covered in forest, plenty of knackered looking trekkers making their way back down from the top though.
There are surprisingly few animals or birds. Apparently this is because it is a volcano but I was really amazed at the lack of wildlife, bearing in mind we are in the middle of safari world! We saw a couple of monkeys and the odd bird but that was about it, apparently it was much more interesting for people intrigued by odd vegetation.
So after a couple of hours climbing we get to the camp, full of anticipation for something exciting but in general it was a bit disappointing. There are a few huts you can stay in, it isn’t in a particularly good location for views so not sure why you want to stay here.
So we had lunch, went to look at the Maundi crater rim, which wasn’t particularly impressive partly due to the visibility but a dead crater is a dead crater !
I did take the opportunity to recruit our guide into the Plymouth Argyle supporters Green Army while we were on the crater and get some photos, so it was time well spent !
Exhausted with all the fun, we headed back down and to be honest, the walk down felt tougher than the walk up. The visibility isn’t great in the shade so the return trip carried some jeopardy with the rocky paths and we were glad to get back.
So in summary, it is a 22km round trip, we climbed just short of 900m and took 5 hours 38 mins so it was a good workout after sitting in the safari truck. We can say we’ve trekked on Kilimanjaro but apart from that is wasn’t a particularly exciting experience, and at £200 each, very expensive.
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