The following retrospective blog series will cover my Tanzania adventure I undertook in September 2010, where I climbed to the roof of Africa.
Having been inspired by my Everest Base Camp trek, I embarked on a journey to Tanzania to climb the world’s tallest free standing mountain. The blog series will be based on my travel journal I wrote while summiting the roof of Africa; one of the ‘7 Peaks’. I will include images that I had taken along the way as per my usual blog format. I hope you enjoy reading about this adventure as much as I fondly reminisce a journey to a continent that has captured my imagination since childhood.
The Roof of the World
The Roof of Africa
After finishing my Himalayan adventure, I was eager to book another trip, to give me something I can look forward to; I truly had been bitten by the travelling bug. Having seen the tallest mountain in the world, it made me want to climb it, but back in 2009 the cost for a permit was £30,000. Silly money! The Everest group talked numerous times about the ‘7-Peak Challenge’, which is the tallest mountain on each…
Kili Day 1 – 10th to 12th September 2010
It had been a fairly stressful start to this adventure; I had opted to take the National Express coach to Heathrow, rather than the train like I had done for EBC. Due to traffic, I barely made the change at Milton Keynes. Luckily once I had arrived at the airport, everything went according to plan. As soon as I walked through the ‘departures’ door, I spotted a bloke with a rucksack. I went over to…
Kili Day 2 – 13th September 2010
I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked, but on the plus side I still hadn’t developed a headache. The clouds had disappeared lower down the mountain, and the African sun was pulling no punches; it was scorching! Kibo is now visible at last with the glacier crowning the peak, finally seeing where I am heading gave me extra energy to compensate for the lack of sleep. The trail up to midday…
Kili Day 3 – 14th September 2010
My sleep was so much better and my headache was only a flicker of what it was the day before, in fact I soon forgot about it as I began walking. The gradient wasn’t troubling, and I soon got myself into a rhythm. I spent most of the morning chatting to one of the party, Graham, he is a retired detective constable for Essex Constabulary. We swapped war stories passing the time until lunch. We…
Kili Day 4 – 15th September 2010
The clouds and mist had dispersed during the night and when I emerged from the tent, I realised we had camped at the base of the ‘Barranco Wall’. It was a nice surprise yet daunting to see that I had to climb this almost shear rock face. It did look menacing. I woke with a bit of wind, but this was alleviated with a stop to the long drop. After a bowl of porridge, we…
Kili Day 5 – 16th September 2010
My phone alarm woke me at 1130pm giving me time to get sorted for the midnight start (I took another of Tronel’s Imodium). It was pitch black, no light at all, and William was right, it was cold! -15 Celsius! I couldn’t wait to start moving to warm up. Other groups had already set off, noticeable by the line of torches, snaking up the mountain. Armed with only our headtorches we began our ascent. It…
Kili Day 6 – 17th September 2010
It was an early start and my appetite had returned however worrying I still hadn’t had a movement, those Imodium tablets are super effective! After breakfast we all had a group photograph with the porters and they performed a song for us. The group had all put in money for tips and shared them out to the porters and cooks. I then gave some extra dollars to Moses as a personal thank you. The porters…
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Stu's Camino 