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It is one thing dreaming of doing something like climbing Kilimanjaro but if this adventure was going to happen we would need to know a lot more about the logistics, risks and all those practical issues that would have to be dealt with before committing to what, after all, would not be the cheapest vacation we had ever planned. Our research began with Gary spending days reading what felt like an entire library of internet material about this mountain that everyone knows but in reality probably knows very little about. Sure, it’s big, sits on the equator and has snow on the top but how does one get to climb it? How high is it anyway? Is it really as non-technical as those blurred recollections of the eighties suggest? What about the risks of living and moving at that altitude? And so on... After a few days the brain had crammed in detail of the mountain's physical characteristics and an overview of the various routes but detail was still seriously lacking on the benefits or otherwise of each route and much of the real information needed to make sound judgements on a venture like this. Undeterred by the sheer volume of material available on the web - useful and otherwise - the Googling continued and began bringing up references on blogs and discussion forums to this firm or that, or to organise a trek in this way or that. We also stumbled across a real “warts and all” blog that really made us sit up and think about the magnitude of what might eventually be. It's a long report but in a nutshell this chap and his wife attempted the mountain in August, as would we given our work commitments. He described graphically not only the beauty of the area and the exhilaration of the challenge but also those slightly less tasteful elements, describing his feelings of nausea and headache, the freezing temperatures and the agony he felt when his wife had to turn back with altitude sickness within touching distance of the summit. Especially moving is his description of being persuaded to continue without her, leaving him then to reach the summit without his life-buddy, with a hollow feeling of victory and a yearning to get back to his wife to ensure she was OK, some 1,300m below. Oh boy, do we really want to do this? The answer of course was “yes”, though that "yes" was tempered for a while with a series of "what if" doubts. Despite the doubts raised by that report and concluding from it that climbing Kilimanjaro would be the toughest thing we have ever done, whether in the mountains or elsewhere, we felt it was something we could pull off and our attention therefore turned to working out how to actually make it happen. The choice seemed to be between arranging everything directly with a Tanzanian firm, using the services of, in effect, a travel agency to do that part of the arranging and to do the rest ourselves or to simply latch onto a firm's standard trek or some sort of charity trek. The more we read the more it became apparent that irrespective of the organisation with or through whom one books it is a requirement to engage the services of local guides and porters. This is obviously good for the Tanzanian economy and the livelihoods of the local guides and porters but it did make us wonder how a UK or US "led" climb differs from one arranged directly with a Tanzanian company - apart that is from the price which at the very least has to cover western overheads and guides as well as the mandatory local guides etc.
From our perspective arranging everything directly with Africa seemed a step too far for a first attempt at an adventure like this and waiting until one arrives in the country to sort things out, as some people seem to do, seemed the stuff of nightmares. This left us with going either with a large UK-organised group or charity climb or finding some other way of arranging things. Of course, as soon as one begins talking about a venture like this someone, knows someone, who has a friend who did this a few years ago. What we began to hear via this grapevine was that a number of people who had been in what we would call large groups (10 to 12 western trekkers) had not made it to the top, not because of their own physical condition but because so many of their group had turned back that there were not enough guides to escort them to the top. This seemed the stuff of nightmares and we simply could not imagine reaching the crater rim or even higher only to be told to turn back even though we were feeling 100% fine. Put simply this would ruin what should be the adventure of a lifetime and made us think quite hard about what we want from this trip. It was at this point we read a report where the author combined a safari with the climb and used US firm Adventures Within Reach (AWR) to organise the African end. This enabled them to arrange a private adventure comprising just the two of them on the safari and just him on the mountain together with the obligatory Tanzanian guide and porters from a Tanzanian firm called EcoTours. His climbing team would have comprised about 6 people in total compared to 50 to 60 people for some of the larger groups where there might be 10 or 12 western climbers. This concept of a private group comprising only our family was quite appealing. Not only should it enable us to feel closer to the mountain, its environment and learning more from our guide but the thought of being in a large group that had to be up and organised to a particular timetable did not appeal. Also, in a large group, together with up to 10 complete strangers feelings of guilt can arise if one feels one is slower than the rest or feelings of frustration if everyone else appears too slow etc., not to mention the risk that we would not reach the summit due to the failings of our group members. And anyway a private little expedition comprising climb and safari seemed to push all of the right buttons in terms of what we wanted from this venture. We therefore decided to look in detail at how and with/through whom we could organise a private expedition.
Over the next few weeks by means of e-mail, the occasional Skype call and by studying AWR's comprehensive website we began putting meat on the bones of a possible itinerary as well as answering many of the questions of detail we had about the climb in particular but also what a sensible itinerary might look like for a "taster" safari given that we did not want to do a 7 or 8 day safari without the kids. One interesting topic of conversation was in relation to the toilets on the mountain. Anyone used to spending time in the great outdoors will know they are likely to be less than savoury but reports on various websites suggested that they are about as bad as it is possible to imagine and then some! Aside from the stench, with which one can come to terms, many of the reports suggest they are in desperate need of emptying or relocating. And, more importantly, given the lack of time many folk have when arriving at the little wooden shacks, whether as a result of adjusting to the local diet or to the altitude, they are far from hygienic places to frequent. However, for about $125 plus tips for an additional porter it is possible to carry a personal privy and thereby avoid potential complications and health issues. Everyone who has opted for this option has nothing but positive experiences to relate and while it may sound a little opulent to pay somebody to carry the personal portaloo half way into space, we decided it sounded like money well spent and asked for it to be added to the agenda. We'll write more on this in the post trek parts of this site... With the work done to enable us to finalise the African end our research turned to other areas like equipment, altitude and other issues described elsewhere on this site.
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