Igor at sunset near the Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun, Mexico on November 11th.

Monday, February 1, 2021

Ready for Kilimanjaro!

By the time most of you read this we will be well into our first day of hiking the highest mountain in Africa!

I am drinking a nice Kilimanjaro beer this evening as I write this. It will be the last one I have for a week! 

I want to tell you a little bit about the mountain and the route we are taking...

Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest free standing mountain in the world. The top of it, at Uhuru Peak, is 5,895 meters (19,340 feet) in altitude.

There are 7 established routes to the top of the mountain. We will be taking the Machame route. This route can be done in 6 days or 7 days. We are doing the 7 day route to give us a higher chance of success to get to the top. In fact, they say that this route has an 85% success rate. We think our odds are even better than that, given that we have acclimatized a little bit by doing the Mt. Meru climb just a few days ago.

Here is a map of the various routes.

Here is a map of the route we have chosen.

And here is the detailed day by day summary.

There are no huts on the route we have chosen. So we will be sleeping in a tent. There are also no flushable toilets. So, we are keeping our expectations low! The toilet facilities will not be pleasant. Many people actually pay for a porter to carry a portable chemical toilet and privacy tent up the mountain for them. While this would be a much more pleasant experience, we cannot justify paying someone to carry a toilet up a mountain for our comfort and convenience! But, we figure that the number of trekkers is down this year, so maybe the facilities won't be so bad. Nonetheless, we're expecting them to be bad.

We're feeling confident, but we won't continue if we're having problems. That is, the one who is having problems won't continue. We've decided that if one of us is still good to go, that person should continue. As we've been told many times, Kilimanjaro is unpredictable, so who knows what is going to happen.

Apparently there are pockets of cellular access along some of the route, so once again, we will be posting when we can to both our MeWe page and our Instagram page if you want to follow along there. Otherwise, we will see you back here on the blog in a week or so. 

Wish us luck!

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22 comments:

  1. I’ll be waiting with baited breath and praying for a successful trek to the summit and back to ground level! I hope the toilet facilities won’t be too bad. I hope the weather cooperates and you will have clear sunny days and not too cold or rainy nights. I hope you conquer the symptoms of altitude sickness. Good luck on summiting on your birthday Kevin! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You’re definitely on top of the world on that day!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Lynnette for your good wishes!

      We are back from our hike and Kevin will soon start working on our blog posts from our trek, including all the details of the toilet facilities, the weather and the altitude and it's affects on us. Stayed tuned!

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  2. Good luck you 2! See you later! Rawn Stone

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Rawn! The new posts will be coming soon. :-)

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  3. Good luck! Hope you enjoy this strenous adventure! And come back safe and sound!

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    1. Thank you for the good wishes!

      Kevin will start posting about our trek shortly, so you won't have to wait long to read about the details.

      Delete
  4. Good Luck on this challenging climb. Wishing you both a Safe and Enjoyable trip to the top. Just take it easy to give your bodies time to adjust to an even higher Altitude.

    It's about time.

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    1. Thank you very much Rick and Kathy!

      This route that we will be taking over seven days has been well planned to help you acclimatise to the higher elevations by making you hike high but sleep low and two camps are close to the same altitude but with a section in between them that takes you up higher where you spend an hour or two before hiking down lower again to sleep so hopefully that will be a big help with acclimatising our bodies before heading higher to the base camp.

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  5. I will sure miss your daily report. I am so excited for you and I hope you have good weather. Take care .

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    1. Now that we are back you will have lots of posts to read. Kevin is working on the first one right now. :-)

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  6. Good luck to you both completing the trek. Stay safe and just enjoy the experience!

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    1. Thank you very much for the good wishes on a successful hike.

      Kevin is working on the first post right now, so stay tuned to read about all the details.

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  7. Good luck for completion. Can’t believe this day has arrived. I will miss you for a week and will be thinking of you. Go well. Go high.

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    1. We can't believe that the day had finally arrived too! It is definitely going to be quite the adventure.

      Thank you for your good wishes for our trek! Kevin is working on our first post right now so you will soon be able to read all about the details of our experience up on Kilimanjaro.

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  8. Best wishes-- I hope the toilet facilites are in one spot- not scattered. I hope those several days you stay about the same altitude (If I understood the chart) are not high up and downs. You start really low and go really high-compared to CO where you start about 8-9 and go to 14. This is incredible--luxuriate in the moment if you can!!! as they say slow, slow, slow.

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    1. Thank you very much for the best wishes for our trek!

      Kevin will be writing all about our hike and the toilet facilities in our blog posts, so you will be able to see what we had to deal with.

      You did read the chart correctly, there are two camps that are very close in altitude but with a very high point in between them where we spend an hour or two at lunch time to help us acclimatise before coming back down for sleeping, this is to help prepare you for sleeping at a high altitude at the base camp before summitting. Yes, we do start off pretty low at 5,718 feet (1,743 m), especially when you consider that Uhuru Peak is at 19,341 ft (5,895 m). Pole pole (slowly, slowly) are words that we will never forget!

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  9. My gosh just the thought gives me palpitations!! Have LOVED your pictures and commentary!

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    1. Just wait until you read our posts of our trek, if you think just reading this post gave you palpitations, lol!

      We are sure you are going to enjoy the pictures and posts of this hike once Kevin starts working on them. The first one should be up shortly.

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  10. Long ago I remember my mother digging a hole where we could squat over the hole to do our business then cover it with dirt...like cats do. But looking at the open trail at higher elevation, there isn't much privacy. But when you got to go, you got to go. Yes, definitely have to be physically fit to do the trail. Good luck to both.

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    1. Luckily we didn't have to go and dig a hole to do our business on this trail but we have been on a trek in the past where we have had to do that.

      Thank you for the good wishes, we will need them! :-)

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  11. Replies
    1. Thank you, I think we are going to need it!

      Delete

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