Here is proof we did it via copys of our certificates we got for getting to the top...
Here is my dads journal he wrote up from the trip to give you an idea of what he and I went through...
Kilimanjaro Journal
Introduction
When Jacob came back from the world downhill mountain-biking
championships in the Alps last August and said that he wanted to
climb Mont Blanc, having seen it at close quarters, off the top of
my head I said, “take me with you”. After a short pause, he said
“yes-why not?” Why not indeed? I was a nearly blind 57 year old
smoker who drank too much and was grumpy, frustrated and
bloody-minded to boot. Anyway I investigated online and found a
guide based in Chamonix called Mark Smeaton who had taken a
blind veteran called Don Planer up to the summit the previous
year. After several emails back and forth it became plain that
Mont Blanc was going to be too difficult and too uncertain for us.
I didn’t want to invest a lot of time and money in something like
this only to be thwarted by the weather. Then Jacob suggested
Kilimanjaro as an alternative and the project began to take shape.
I signed us up with a trekking company called Action Challenge
and contacted BRPS – The British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society,
both of whom were keen. Jacob set up a blogspot and a Just-
Giving page and got us on Stephen Fry’s Twitter page, and word
started to spread. By October there was no going back. I joined
the gym at our local college (school), gave up smoking and
started to take weekly walks on Dartmoor with Audrey and then
with Jacob.
Our aims were twofold – to raise awareness of and funds for
research into Retinitis Pigmentosa and to give me some kind of
focus in my life. Friends, relations and total strangers began to
donate, so that by Christmas we had raised nearly £3000. At
about this time we decided to be self-funding so that all of the
money raised would go to RP. This was also the time we had our
jabs for yellow fever and got our visas for Tanzania as well as our
Diamox (altitude sickness) and Larium (malaria). February 2011
soon crept up on us and then it was time to pack our gear and
go. Here is my log of what happened:-
Day 1 – Thursday 17th Feb.
We were driven into Plymouth to catch the bus for Heathrow by Audrey. With time to
spare Jacob bought a jumper at TKMax and I got a sun hat. We bought sandwiches
and water from Tesco metro, kissed goodbye and waited for the 12.10 bus. The bus
was very crowded with no spare seats, but we got to Heathrow at 5.10 and met the
others in our party at the departure gate. We also met Loman Fitzgerald our doctor.
There were some interesting characters in the group. After lots of security and
some hanging around and a final phone call to Audrey, we boarded and left on time
at 20.25. Had fish for dinner, then settled to snooze. Sat beside a disgruntled
German man who objected to Jacob’s photography. I hate airports which involve
lots of waiting and crowds of people moving around. Jacob spent time on his
laptop while I sat and did the crosswords.
Day 2 – Friday 18th Feb.
Arrived at Addis Ababa and had to hang around for 2-3 hours for next flight to
Kilimanjaro airport, which was much smaller and nicer than Addis. Security was
tight. Met Dominic Rudd – our team leader outside and were ferried to the hotel
outside Moshi at about 3.30. After a swim and shower we had a briefing on the
lawn with lots of questions and lots of midges, during which we were introduced to
Nelson, our chief guide, who had climbed Kili more than 100 times. Then we all sat
down to a welcome meal. I had developed the runs since London, which continued.
The hotel was poorly lit and like a warren and I fell down some steps after dinner
trying to find my way back to the room. We sorted our bags and left a lot of stuff at
the hotel (we had brought too much). We weighed the bags – 15 KG max for porters
and 7 KG for day sacks. Frogs / chicadas kept us awake and the room was too hot
with the window closed – so fitful sleep. Both of us were snoring. Started taking
Diamox.
Day 3 – Big Tree. Saturday 19th Feb. 2780M
Woken at 6am by Dom and after breakfast, took our bags to the lobby and
assembled. We were driven to Londorossi Gate, at first on good roads and then on
little more than tracks; Once you get out of the towns you begin to see just what
life must be like for the people who live here – pretty basic.
We spent an hour or two at the gate signing in, arranging pack, watching monkeys
(columbus), drinking water and filling bottles before being driven up the Lomosho
track in two land cruisers. Very boggy from lots of rain last week so we eventually
had to start walking. After a short while I was put behind Nelson to set a slow pace
and we soon established a rhythm as we plodded up through the rain forest. It was
very hot work and I was soon dripping with sweat. We had been told that we should
never overtake the leader (Nelson) and that if we wanted to stop (i.e. toilet) we had
to tell someone. We gradually gained height after several toilet/water stops and a
pile of elephant poo. The track was steep, wet and boggy but we arrived at Big Tree
around 4 pm and settled in. Got to know the “long drop”, had tea, filled water and
had a briefing for tomorrow; then an early night – a routine that was to become
familiar over the next week. Our first night under canvas went well enough, though
we both snored (Jacob’s throat is getting better gradually but he’s still bunged up).
Met an American father and son doing the same trek on an individual basis.
Day 4 – Shira 2. Sunday 20th Feb. 3505M
Woke at 7am and trekking by 8am. Forest soon gave way to open ground – lots of
up and down, deep valleys riven by streams. Made our way up the elephant’s back
ridge and onto the Shira plateau. Could almost have been Dartmoor with the rolling
mists and hills, Isolated boulders and vegetation. Still very hot though an
improvised sweatband helped. Stopped at Shira 1 for a packed lunch and to fill
water bottles. Drinking three litres a day now but finding it harder to eat. On across
plain to Shira 2 where we camped. A very long day, which took it’s toll. Starting to
feel nausea when eating and still got the runs – not good.
Day 5 - Barranco. Monday 21st Feb. 3972M
Trekked uphill steadily until we reached the Lava tower at4500M – as high as we
will reach before the summit day. Breathing was more difficult and I still could not
eat much as we sat and ate a packed lunch. As we ate the mist rolled in obscuring
the bright sunshine. We had our first, clear views of the summit and stayed for half
an hour to acclimatize , indulging in a little impromptu dancing and singing with
the porters. Walked down to Barrannco camp. The day’s walk seemed much longer
than we had been led to expect and tempers became a little frayed towards the end
(especially mine). After a briefing about the wall tomorrow, tea and an injection
from Loman for my nausea we took an early night. Much colder at this altitude – Ice
coated the inside of the flysheet.
I am finding the walking increasingly difficult and need frequent rests to recover my
breath.
Day 6 - Karanga. Tuesday 22nd Feb. 4002M
Dom has split the group into two smaller units. The main party go ahead with
Nelson, while the slower ones (Kooji, Richard, Jacob, myself, Dom and Valerian)
follow behind. We were up at 6am to avoid the coming crowds on the wall and after
being taped to Dom with two porters to help, we set off. I really quite enjoyed the
wall, whose reputation was not really justified by the reality. It was certainly no
more difficult than many of the scrambles I had done in Scotland and the Lakes. I
had to concentrate on the moves / handholds etc. but needed no direct help from
anybody. After two hours we were there and sat relaxing, enjoying the views from
the top. After group photos we continued trekking up and down valleys, working
our way around the mountain from west to east.
We reached Karanga for a late lunch. While most of the party went on a short
acclimatization walk, I rested and conserved strength in our tent. Still eating
nothing but porridge and soup-any solids just come straight back up.
Day 7 - Barafu. Wednesday 23rd Feb. 4600M
Woken at 7am and began the uphill trek to Barafu, the last camp before the summit.
Walking well despite a diet of porridge and soup. Met a bloke whose parents lived in
Tavistock and who knew Lawrence Harris and had heard of us. After a final steep
section we were there. I rested while the rest of the group walked the first part of
tomorrow’s route to help acclimatize – I would have to do it soon enough. We had
an early tea and after a briefing on the summit challenge ahead we settled down to
a few uneasy hours of sleep. Woken at 11pm for the final leg.
Day 8 - Summit. Thursday 24th Feb. 5895M
After a hurried coffee we started up the mountain by headtorch. I was taped to
Jacob and had two porters behind to help. It was surreal seeing the line of lights
stretching ahead as far as the eye could see (and behind). At around 3 or 4 I began
to fall further behind, taking more frequent rests. Breathing was becoming more
and more difficult. Slowly I gained height, but at around daybreak (5.30) I was
examined by Loman who got me to count backwards from 100 in 3’s. My vision was
going, I felt lightheaded and my speech was slurred. He left it up to me whether I
continued or not, but having come so far I wasn’t going back now. Somehow (I’ll
never know how) I managed to struggle up the last slope and suddenly found
myself at Stella point with Valerian and Davey.
Jacob had already gone on ahead to Uhuru and Valerian now went on to join him,
while Davey and I sat against a rock and surveyed the stunning scenery before us.
We could see the crater rim stretching round to Uhuru with its glaciers and a sea of
cloud below stretching to the horizon.
With -15c and 50 mile an hour winds we didn’t hang around for long and were soon
making our way down at 7.30 through the loose scree (no longer frozen). We were
soon joined by Colin, another porter who told me that he had been responsible for
tent no 5 (ours) all week. He never stopped talking! The descent was very tiring but
after frequent rest stops we made it back to Barafu, where I collapsed in the tent at
about 11.30. It was amazing to see just how far we had walked that morning by
torchlight and it was a wonderful feeling to think that I had been up there,
especially when I had come so close to giving up. Cudgie was the only one in our
party of 14 not to have made it – he had to stop soon after starting with knee
trouble – he was gutted. After a quick lunch we set off down to Millennium camp
both to lose height and save walking tomorrow. By the time we got there the
porters had packed everything at Barafu, overtaken us and re-erected it all at
Millennium – incredible.
The walking was getting harder though – I had definitely pushed myself to the limit
this time. Loman came and listened to my chest after dinner and put me on
antibiotics. At least the bowels are less loose now and I was able to have some soup
and a little chicken – and keep it down. After dinner we gave the porters their tips
and gifts of equipment and followed it with speeches, singing and dancing. Slept
well once I’d stopped coughing.
Day 9 - Mweka Gate. Friday 25th Feb.
Packed up for the last time and breakfasted – there was bacon – smoked
streaky – where had that come from? – amazing! Then set off down track to
Mweka camp (2 hours) then Mweka Gate. The track was rough, steep and
rocky and later consisted of thousands of steps – very hard on the thighs
and knees. I was tired before I had started and it became very painful. The
temperature increased dramatically as we lost height and re-entered the rain
forest. I began to drop further and further back with Jacob. Dom and Loman
took up rear guard and phoned ahead for a land-cruiser to meet us at the
bottom of the steps where the road began, which we made around 1pm.
Signed off at the gate, pestered by locals trying to sell us souvenirs and then
were driven to Ashanti HQ in Moshi for lunch, most of which I couldn’t eat,
but had a nice cold beer which reminded me of the Alec Guiness film “ice
cold in Alex” – just how I felt at the time.
Then onto the hotel in Moshi, a hot shower and a lie down. Caught up with
some of the news coming out of Libya which we had known nothing about.
Had a beer and wrote up this journal. At 7pm we all went to The Glacier Club
in our glad rags. Had a good chat to Abel the man who had co-ordinated
everything from Moshi and with Loman and Dom.
Everyone congratulated me on making the summit, because they had
obviously not expected me to. To be honest I’d had some doubts myself but
it felt really good. I was still not eating much and could do no justice to a
splendid bar-B – Q. Dancing followed into the night but both Jacob and I
were knackered and just wanted to get back to bed. Nelson drove us back
around 10pm.
Day 10 - Moshi Airport. Saturday 26th Feb.
We packed our bags for the last time, incorporating what we had left behind
at the hotel at the start and throwing out anything which was obsolete. Many
of us had left items with the porters for their use (I remember Nelson telling
us that everything he had worn or used on the trek had been donated by
someone, including a rather fetching pair of red ray-bans), so that the bags
seemed lighter now. We took them to the hotel lobby and set off en-masse
into Moshi for 2 hours to look at some markets and get some lunch, which I
finally managed to eat. Moshi was what Jacob called total ghetto – a sort of
organized chaos and as soon as we left the land cruiser we were surrounded
by street sellers. All the houses of worth, including the markets had heavy
security and ring-fencing, guard dogs etc. Most of the population however,
were living a harsh existence on the breadline. You could see why being a
porter was regarded as being such a big deal – it was one of the few jobs
available and paid relatively well. All the guides had started as porters for 2
years and progressed, with further training, from there.
We had to be back at the hotel for 12 so that we could make the airport at
12.30 for our flight back to Addis Ababa. There we had a 5 hour wait for our
flight to Heathrow, which we reached about 7.30am on Sunday 27th. The bus
from Heathrow to Plymouth was fine though we felt the drop in temperature
and I couldn’t stop coughing. Audrey was there to meet us and take us
home. WOW!
Lastly, a word about Jacob. When we first planned this
expedition Jacob talked about father/son bonding. I had
my doubts. Jacob was very focused on his career as a
photographer, rather set in his ways, and like most 19
year olds rather selfish (I know I was at his age). I was
not the easiest person to get on with, and we would be
sharing a tent for a week with no computers, telephones
or luxuries – just each other. As it turned out most of our
arguments happened on the way to or on the way back.
Once we started trekking we got on well enough. He
mothered me and gave frequent advice, which I
sometimes found annoying. But that was really his job
and he did it very well indeed. He was always there when
I needed him, was calm and laid back (too much so for
me on occasion) and there is no way on God’s earth that I
could have managed without him.
So THANKYOU JACOB – a true son
And Here is a short video I put together from the trip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYf4vCcTtr0
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