Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 7- When A Flushing Toilet Is A Novelty

Gemma, a buddy of Kat and myself, had mentioned that my blog included lots of references to toilets, so I thought I might prove her right again by including the subject of toilets in the title of this blog.

For the first time since the trek began, I had slept like a baby and not waking up once through the night! Perhaps it was because of the hard work of the previous day, or it could also be because of the fact that we're down at 3100 metres, where the air is richer with oxygen as compared to the past couple of days. Nevertheless, we still had to get up early so that the porters could take down our tents, and then there was the delicate matter of tipping.

I've always hated the intricacies of tipping, especially when there's no set rule such as a 10% charge off the total cost. I've read on several blogs that the matter of tipping requires some negotiations with the guide, and there's actually an interesting guide on tipping on this website which I'm sure would be useful for those of you who are planning a trip to Kilimanjaro. Thankfully, our tips have already been factored into the cost of our trip, and when Swee Chiow announced the tips to our entourage, they were happy enough to break into song and dance. It was a joyous display, and understandably so because we were the last big group of the season and with the rainy season upon us, this would be their last wage for a couple of months. I thought I'd captured all the singing and dancing, until I reviewed the clips and was horrified to see that only 1 miserly minute of the 6 minutes was captured. Nice... I must've left some of my already miniscule brain up on Uhuru Peak. Am sure it wasn't even much of a snack for the little four-striped mice anyway.


We weren't told of this beforehand but you could bring along your old (but working) trekking gear along as a gift to any deserving guide or porter. The locals hardly earn enough to buy the necessary gear, so if you don't want your gear anymore, it'd be much appreciated by them. Since I was thinking of getting a water proof hat when I get home, I decided to give Joseph my hat since it would be hot and sunny when the season opens.

It looks like a boulevard of nature, doesn't it?

I was glad that I brought along my knee support and I'd slipped it on just for the psychological boost, but because I'd transferred the weight to my left knee so as to take the strain off the right, my left knee was starting to hurt as well. Fortunately, there were less steps on the final day, and it soon gave way to long downhill slopes. The narrow trails gave became wide semi-paved tracks where we were told is used by the rangers' 4x4 vehicles, until finally.. the ranger's hut that marked the end of the trail! We had arrived! After 7 days on the trail, out of civilisation and seeing the same faces everyday, it sure felt good to exit the trail. We had to wait around to sign out off the trail (we had to sign in at the end of each day at the ranger's hut, which I thought is a great idea to keep track of trekkers), so we went to the toilet, which turned out to be a bit of a novel experience for us. Seven days ago when we first started using the field toilets, it felt so weird not flushing after we were done (we were half expecting the person after us to yell at us for not flushing), and it just didn't feel clean not washing our hands under running water although we used wet wipes or/AND anti-septic wipes. There was a bit of silly exclamations of "Ooh!" and "Aah!" at the flush and running water, but I'll tell you that it did a bit of getting used to, like remembering to wash our hands before we walked out from the toilet. 

We'd finally arrived!

It was also at this point when we started being swarmed by groups of hawkers peddling everything from handicraft, maps to even boot cleaning. With the season closing, they were desperate to earn the last bit of dollar and were following us everywhere we went. Even when we were on the bus, it didn't stop them from knocking on the window to get our attention. 


Although we had started the trek from Arusha, we finished in the town of Moshi (Machame Route is a circuit), which has the reputation of being Tanzania's cleanest town, thanks to some very draconian (and Singaporean style) measures. We stopped in Moshi for lunch (had some local fare and really quite enjoyed it) before making our way back to Arusha, and then we got caught in the middle of a roving political rally. Ok, here's the lowdown on the action that took place: the incumbent Member of Parliament had passed away, and hence the by-election. His son was standing to replace his father, and they are from the political party, CCM, which has been the ruling party since independence (the party was founded by the first prime minister of Tanzania). The previous prime minister was passing through Moshi to rally support for their candidate, and coincidentally, the strongest opposition, Chadame, was also passing through. It was a very interesting half hour as we got caught in the middle of the convoy, where one side of the road lined the supporters of CCM, while the other side of the road were the supporters of Chadame. Although it was a highly charged affair, but you can also sense that it was largely good natured. Our guide was telling us that the CCM is supported largely by the older generation who are grateful for the what the CCM had done for them since the days of independence, while the younger generation are craving for change and hence support Chadame. I was struck by how similar the political situation is with Singapore.

Here's a picture of me with our guide, Joseph. This picture probably gives a good idea of how gaunt and worn out I'd looked

When we finally got back to the hotel, it was many fond farewells as the students took photos with their guides and bade them farewell. I grabbed my bag and got to the room to have a nice shower. The first shock that I had was when I took my shirt off: I had lost so much weight!! I honestly got quite frightened! Haha! In fact, fast forward to a couple of days later, Kat actually wasn't able to recognise me at the airport. The next shock was when I blew my nose, and large clumps of dried blood clots came out. As much as it sounds gross, it was painful as hell because it was kinda like ripping off the scabs to start the whole process of scabbing again. This process kept going even a week later. And after a week on the trail without shower facilities, it took me 2 washes before my hair felt squeaky clean, and I was glad that I had my wash cloth with me and it served as a loofah of sorts to scrub me down. I've probably never had a such a long shower before, but it felt so good. 

Climbed it, drank it

After the shower, I made my way down to the restaurant where I reveled in the fact that I now have a choice of food, rather than having to eat whatever was cooked. As I enjoyed my dinner and looked out at the pool, I took the time to reflect upon the last 7 days, and what I had learnt. It was unbelievable how the last 7 days had gone by just like that, and although I was delighted that I had summited, I had learned a great deal of humility. I'd seen how the mountains are no place for the ego, as it is an unforgivable place and will break you down no matter how strong or fit you are (or think you are). I'm so thankful for the support that Kat and dear friends have given me, such as Joanne Soo (part of the first all-female Singaporean team to summit Mt Everest) who kept encouraging me by sharing her own stories when she was preparing for Everest, and also to Swee Chiow for his little nuggets of technical advice that had gotten me through. Of course, the guides and porters who made it all possible for us. And finally, Mother Nature for being kind to us and allowing us to summit in the mildest of conditions. I honestly cannot imagine the kind of conditions that I had read about, the blustery wind and the snow that was expected during that time of the year. 


So there you have it, my big adventure for 2012. Well, there's still my Technical dives in June, but that's found on my scuba diving blog. In August, I'll be tackling Mt Kinabalu again, but this time, Kat will be with me as I told her that it'd be a shame for her not to tackle her country's highest peak. Who knows? She might get bitten by the trekking bug and join me for future expeditions. To be honest, I'm so thankful that she's not only my partner in life, but also my activity partner. There were so many occasions on the trail when I wished she could see what I was seeing.

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 6- Day of Days

So much for going to bed early to catch some sleep. My mind was super active playing through scenarios. My usual tried and tested method of plugging my ears with music didn't work either. Before I knew it, I could hear the voices of the students who were leaving an hour before the rest of us, getting ready to leave. Oh well, I figured that I would get up earlier to wish them well and see them off. 

Getting out of the tent is always a rather painful affair because of the cold. After hanging around a little, a couple of the other students started coming out of their tents because they couldn't sleep either. More students soon started coming out from their tents and we were soon huddled in the dining tent for hot drinks and biscuits for snacks. Paul was going through everyone's packs to check on the weight, and he was really strict about the amount that we were bringing along. 

As expected, the wind was blowing and I've got my down jacket, fleece and merino base layers on, but I was surprised that my hands and toes weren't feeling the bite of the cold.. yet. I had liners and outer shell gloves, and liner and merino wool socks on. At midnight, it was time to go: the longest day had begun. 

The first part was easy enough, scrambling a little over the boulders which marked the entrance/exit to the camp, but soon, the long climb up the mountain of scree began. We were really fortunate that the expected blustery wind didn't kick up, and in fact, we felt a little warm from the exertion. Unlike other days, we were taking breaks every half hour, and on a day like this, it was especially important for us to keep our breaks to no more than 5 minutes. In fact, in that 5 minutes, we could actually feel the cold and our energy getting sapped. 


My plan for summit day was pretty much the same strategy for the past couple of days: keep my head down, keep moving one foot ahead of the other with as little effort as possible, and keep my eyes on my heart monitor while monitoring my breathing. Knowing well that it was an estimated 7 hours up, I tried not to keep track of time so as not to concern myself with potentially demoralising thoughts like "how much longer to go?". When I decided to sneak a peek at my watch, I was pleasantly surprised to see what we were halfway through the expected 7 hour journey up the mountain, and I was still feeling good. Apart from the lack of blustering wind (hence no worries about windchill), there was no snow despite the fact that the rainy season had just started. However, the water in our bladder had frozen despite blowing the liquid in the tube back into the bladder. Thankfully, the water in our Nalgene didn't freeze, and that kept us going, and I was thankful for the oat biscuits that I popped to keep my energy level up.


We soon came to the toughest part of the climb, where the scree was so deep that a third of my trekking pole sank in and I punched my trekking poles into the ground just to get better support. Each step we took, we lost our footing and slipped down lower. It wasn't just a physically challenging time, but also one that tested us mentally, and it soon took a toll on many of the students as they started to fall behind and the group started to separate. Soon, it was just me and 2 other students, with our guide, Joseph.


To encourage the group, Joseph pointed out some lights along the horizon and told us that it was Stella Point, a major landmark for us as it would mark the end of the steepest portion of the climb. When we crested Stella Point, we were so happy because I knew that the summit was at most an hour away. By this time, we could see that the sky was starting to get lit up from the rising sun. It actually energised us and we found the energy to walk faster, only to have Joseph call out to us "Pole Pole!". Oops! Let's not throw caution to the wind although we have only less than 200 metres of altitude to go. 

Sunrise, as seen from Stella Point

As we trudged closer, we started passing the first trekkers that we'd seen all night. The good thing about climbing during that time of the year, was that there was hardly anyone else. In fact, we were the only group on the summit trek (on the Machame Route) that night. We passed a pair of trekkers who called out to us, encouraging us to push on as it was just a bit more to go. At 6.45am, we were arrived at the summit. After months of training, mentally preparing for the possibility that I might not make it to the summit, the support and encouragement from Kat and many of my friends.. all of that emotion came flooding into me and I admit that I teared up at the summit. I had done it. Although I was feeling better than I'd expected all the way up, I just could not believe that after months of preparation, after all the worrying, I was finally at the roof of Africa.

At last!

There was another pair of trekkers who reached the summit before we did, and one of them was obviously very tired and was resting in front of the summit sign. We were in no hurry as we had planned to wait for the rest of the group to catch up, so I called Kathy on the satellite phone to let her know that I had reached the summit (she was waiting for my call) and then called my boss to let him know that we'd arrived. Joseph was concerned about the exposure and so he started to hurry us. We took our summit photos, and then proceeded to make our way down the mountain. We made a slight detour to the see the glacier, but my student and I quickly realised it wasn't the best idea because the volcanic ash was really soft and deep, so it took a lot of energy to negotiate the slope. We decided quickly that we'd seen enough and decided that we should preserve our energy for the descent.


As we approached Stella Point, we met the first of our group that were making their way to the summit, and we offered them all the encouragement and when we stood at the edge, we were daunted by what we saw: an impossibly long way down back to camp, covered with loose scree. What we had gone through in those 7 hours finally struck us, and honestly, if it was daylight, we might've gotten demoralised going up, seeing how much further we had. I decided to ski/run down the slopes and quickly realised it wasn't gonna be easy as my knee started to hurt and for the first time since the trek started, I was really starting to feel the fatigue. In fact, the two students with me were also struggling hard as well. Come to think about it, it was the longest day for us, after 7 hours of climbing, we now have to drag our weary bodies back to camp. We used all kinds of strategies, like skiing down and then taking breaks, to walking down slowly before taking a break. Either way, we were physically and mentally exhausted, and we fell plenty of times when the scree under our feet gave way. 

It's a long way down to the glacier

Looking down the endless slope of scree

We finally arrived at a point where the landscape flattened out somewhat and when we turned a corner, we were confronted by another deep valley before we could actually reach the camp. That dealt another blow to us psychologically. The sun by now was blasting down on us. Well, there really wasn't any other choice but to just do what I'd been doing for the past week, that is to keep moving one foot ahead of the other. It felt so alone in the totally barren and desolate landscape, devoid of vegetation. The ground beneath our feet soon from scree to broken slabs of slate, and walking over them felt like I was walking over broken pieces of floor tiles. It honestly felt like an eternity and I just couldn't see where the camp was until I caught sight of the ranger's hut. After negotiating a few of the boulders, I realised that I was approaching camp, and as I walked into camp at about past 11am, some of the porters who didn't follow us to the summit came up to shake my hand, and after a drink from the kitchen helper, I throw my pack into my tent and collapsed on my mat to rest. However, I could hardly fall asleep because the sun was blasting down on my tent and turned it into a greenhouse, so even though we were high up on the mountain, it felt REALLY hot. 


I managed to catch some sleep and got most of my packing done, and welcomed the rest of the larger group back into camp as they staggered in. Almost everyone had made it up the summit, with the immense help of the guides and porters, and even those who didn't make it, came back with an great sense of satisfaction knowing that they've done the best they could. We grabbed a late lunch and at about 3pm, we started to make our way down to Mweka Camp (3100m). Yup, the day was definitely not over yet, and after spending a good part of the week inching almost 4000m to acclimatise, we would descend about 1500metres in 4 hours.


Kilimanjaro was the reverse of Mt Kinabalu for me, where I had suffered during the ascent but breezed down the descent. My right knee was in total agony on the descent down Kilimanjaro because it was hurting so much when I bent it, and it came to a point when it was starting to lock up. I was massively grateful as I staggered into camp at about 6.30pm. Eighteen and a half hours after our day started, the day has finally ended. We were surrounded by the lush greenery once more, and I was so grateful to climb into my tent. As I was wiping myself with the wipe wets, I thought to myself "one more day" as my knee throbbed with pain. Off to dinner for one final dinner by the candlelight, one final briefing for the following day. Many of us had thought that it would be warmer after descending 1500 metres, but we were wrong as we started dashing back for our fleece, gloves and even down jackets. After dinner, no one really hung around much as fatigue really kicked in and by 8pm, I was already in my sleeping bag and fast asleep.


Here are the final numbers:
Total time: 18hour30minutes
Max Heart Rate: 155bpm
Average Heart Rate: 131bpm
Total calories burnt: 12150 calories

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 5 It's All So Close Now

Frost, on my tent

Woke up today and found that instead of a tent flap, I had a tent door instead. Yup, it was another freezing night and my tent flap had pretty much frozen solid, and I had frost falling on me when I opened the flap. Another day below freezing temperature, and it's hardly surprising considering that we were pretty close to the summit. 

It was a short day today, where we got into high camp, Barafu Camp (4600m), which was also our final camp before the summit attempt. As we were already in the arctic desert zone, the day's trek was a walk through the barren desolate land, under the gaze of the glacier. With this being the 5th day on the trek, my legs were starting to strain under the exertion of the climb. The inside of my nose was hurting like crazy too because of the freezing dry air, and it made sleeping at night really uncomfortable. The only solution was to pull the Buff over my nose so as to have a warm protective layer which might help warm and even put some moisture back in.

So close...

Swee Chiow was really happy today because we had become so efficient with our stops, we actually made it into camp in 2hours and 45minutes, better than the expected 3 hours. In fact, we had actually got into the camp before all the porters did, so we had to wait around a little while the porters caught up with our duffle bags. As we were on the steeper part of the mountain and was strewn with large boulders, it was really cramped. Thankfully, it was only our group at the campsite.


Due to the fact that we had to leave camp for our summit attempt at midnight (a couple of the slower students would be leaving at 11pm so as to have a headstart), we had an early dinner at 5pm. I'm not sure if it was because lunch was merely a few hours ago, or it was because of the nervous anticipation of our longest day ever (an estimated 7 hours up, 7 hours down, a quick rest at high camp, then 4 hours down to Mweka Camp, our last camp of the entire trek), but I just didn't have that much of an appetite that evening. "Wow... last camp of the trek... that's quick...", my minded wandered before I shook myself with the realisation that before I could get to the last camp, there's still the matter of 7 hours of a steep climb on a slope covered in deep scree. 

After dinner, our head guide, Paul, came into the dining tent as usual to give our brief for the following day, except this day, it was different: it was THE brief for the most important day of our trek. Paul has done about 200 summits on Kilimanjaro, and he had this ominous message for us: all of the guides, almost all of whom have chalked up over 100 summits, still feel the bite of the cold on their finger tips and toes, no matter how covered up they were. There wasn't much we could do about it, but to put up with it and push on. A valuable tip that Paul shared, and one that I'd never read about is about preventing our Nalgene bottles from completely freezing. We had already planned to keep our Nalgene in a bottle insulator to keep the water from freezing, but Paul suggested that we keep our bottles upside down in the insulator so that if it does start to freeze, it would be the bottom of the bottle that froze first, ensuring that we would still be able to drink from the bottle. Genius! And because of all the exertion, we were told to keep our backpacks as light as possible. In fact, he told us to have just 2 litres of water because we wouldn't be losing much hydration due to the fact that it was night. That, I'm not so sure if trekking at night would mean losing less hydration.


Back to my tent after dinner, I took the opportunity to repack my backpack and change to new lithium batteries for my headlamp. I brought along less food, mainly just oatmeal biscuits that were bite-sized, ensuring that it'd be easy to pop whole into the mouth for quick energy. After a quick entry into my Moleskin notebook, I tried to turn in and catch some sleep before waking up at 11pm for supper. Yeah right.. wishful thinking. On the previous nights on the trek, I had SO many problems trying to fall asleep, and honestly, although I was mentally exhausted from the lack of sleep, all I could think about was the summit attempt. I kept thinking about scenarios, and how I could plan for the contingencies. "What if" kept going through my head over and over again. I honestly cannot remember if I managed to catch any sleep at all, and even if I did, it might've been merely minutes. Nothing I did could help me get some much needed sleep. Before I know it, it was 11pm.. time to go to the dining tent and get ready. 


4 months of preparations, 5 days on the trek later... the time had come.

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 4 Scrambling Up and Down

Up the wall we go

The night before in the dining tent, I was sharing that it was "hump day", meaning it was the mid point of the trek, between the start of the trek and summit day. There was plenty of excitement leading up to the trip, but now that the trek had started, and 3 days down, the nerve were starting to really kick in, and Barranco Wall would be an interesting challenge. We'd seen photos of the Wall and also videos of climbers going up the wall, and it was certainly no trek. I mean, it's called "Wall" for a reason, so there'd be times when we'd have to use our hands as well to get up the wall. 

The morning was the first of the minus 5 degrees ones, and we were amused that the water in the wash basins (that the porters leave out for us when we wake up to wash up) had frozen into solid discs. After breakfast, as we were getting our backpacks on, we could already see that some trekkers had started their way up the wall, and I tell you, I had to squint hard to see them clearly. No, my eyesight was perfectly fine. It was because they were quite far away and so small on a large wall. 

Click to enlarge the vid, and try to locate the climbers

As I'd reckoned that my hands would be preoccupied with the scrambling, I decided to dispense with Kat's Panasonic GX-1 camera and strapped on the GoPro on my head. I was hoping that I would be able to get some nice video grabs of the scrambling up the wall from a first person point of view (yeah, Blair Witch camera motion that makes you nauseate from motion sickness). No luck with that. Seems like the freezing temperature had wreaked havoc with the GoPro, and it was flashing through all the modes. I'd previously brought it down to 60m depth underwater and it still performed well, so looks like temperature had finally defeated it, albeit temporarily. Oh well, no luck then. 

The amazing porters. Nothing stops them

I must admit that although I was nervous as I approached the wall, when I started the first bit of scrambling, I started to realise why people told me that the scrambling would be fun! It was definitely a nice and refreshing change from the last 3 days of trudging along on our feet, hands on the trekking poles. For the scramble up Barranco Wall, I had to figure out the best places to put my foot on to push myself up, and also which hold would be best to push or pull myself. I'd done a little bit of sport climbing before, so the prior (albeit limited) experience was useful, and even made the whole experience fun. I'd read in some places that the if you're afraid of heights, going up Barranco Wall would be scary, and to be honest, I've yet to decide whether I'm actually afraid of heights. But when I was on the Wall and I looked back, seeing how much ground we've covered, seeing how small our camp seemed from up where we were, gave me a thrill. 

After an hour and half, the whole team had made it up to the top of the wall, and the view from the top was breathtaking. From the top of the Wall, you have a commanding view of the Kibo volcanic cone, and the surrounding landscape. It was the perfect photo opportunity and Swee Chiow practically set up an outdoor photo studio and got each member of the team on top of a rock for photo shots. Unfortunately, I've yet to get a copy of mine, so I can't post it here. But I still managed to get a student to take a picture of me up there. For the first time since the trek started, the whole team was together on the trail, enjoying themselves. The sun was out, the weather was warm, everyone was happy. Half an hour later, it was time to move on.

Going over the top, the trail continued with many up and down sections across small streams and then up to the Karanga campsite. Now, keep in mind that the Barranco Wall is a 250metre near vertical rise, so the descent on the other side wasn't going to be a walk in the park. It was rather steep and with numerous patches of wet boulders, and also parts of the trail was broken rocks, so it was rather dangerous at times. We were advised to use just one trekking pole so that we have a hand free to do a bit of scrambling. One or two parts required us to stretch and lower ourselves down to the next boulder because some of the boulders were pretty darned big. At the bottom of the descent (as you can see, it's a valley), it's a bit of a river flowing through, and once we were over that, it was another climb. Well, same ol' same ol' again, up we climbed.


3.5 hours after we started, we'd reached Karanga Camp (4200metres), earlier than what we had anticipated, and everyone was delighted at the efficiency with time. After identifying my duffle bag and it was sent to my tent, I took the opportunity to catch a nap before lunch, and another one after lunch. As we'd gotten into camp just after noon, it meant that we had a lot of time. I was glad to see some of the students sitting with the guides and some of the porters, chatting with them and finding out about life and the culture in Tanzania. When I woke up from my nap, I also had a chat with a couple of the guides and found out much about Tanzania, the politics, the people, and its post-independence policies to foster nation building. Overall, it was a very good afternoon for me, getting to know a country that its people had welcomed us. 

View from the top

Down the other side of the wall we go

Down into the valley, up the trail that you see, and our camp is at the top

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 3 A Day of Ups and Downs

Not again, yet another night of restless sleep, despite being really tired after evacuating the student to the ranger's station. All I got was a couple of hours' of good sleep, before waking up in the wee hours of the morning, shivering from the cold (the temperature had dropped to below freezing) and the strong wind blowing. A number of us were woken up by the banging of the toilet's roof which was blown up by the strong wind. Getting out of the sleeping bag, I could feel the nip of the cold.

Today, we would be climbing to the highest altitude than most of us had previously done so, which so far had been Mount Kinabalu (4095m). I knew it was gonna be a long day, and going up to an altitude that I've never been, I gotta admit that I was feeling a bit apprehensive, although I'd been taking Diamox from the day before Day 1 on the trek. As we got ready to go, I was feeling the slightest of ache in my legs, which got me paranoid. Then again, it could be paranoia that was making think that I have a slightest of ache in my legs. At the back of my mind, I was worrying if the lack of sleep and the late night evacuation just a few hours before was going to get to me.

Lava Tower

Trekking up towards Lava Tower (4630m), it was expected it was going to be an upward trek from the word "go!" (or in Swee Chiow's favourite words, "Let's rock and roll!"). Speaking of rocks, the vegetation started getting sparse, as the terrain became rockier and even the bits of vegetation were dwarf shrubs, with the only tall form of vegetation being the giant Senecios, a mutant pineapple looking plant that grew in the alpine desert. Trekking along, I was able to see the wide expanse of rocks of on the rolling terrain, with the cloud sweeping in now and then. The temperature would also vary depending on whether the sun is out or not. 

The giant Senecios in the background

During on the rest stops, Swee Chiow took out his GPS to get a reading of the altitude, and told us that we were about 4200m, the highest that most of us had ever been. Of course for Swee Chiow, this is less than half of the highest he'd experienced (8840m). And since none of us had ever been this high, some signs of altitude sickness started showing for some of the students as we continued our way up to Lava Tower. Many of them were having the classic syndrome of a throbbing headache, while a couple of them were nauseous.

Barranco Wall at the back. You can see the trail on the left

We finally arrived at Lava Tower sometime after 1pm, where we stopped for lunch before going down to Barranco Camp at 3860m. Yup, after all that effort, we'd lose the 800m gain in height and end up with a net gain of.. *drum roll please*.. 20m over the previous night at Shira Camp. The whole purpose of climbing to the altitude and then going down to a lower camp, follows the climbing maxim of "climb high, sleep low", which aids acclimatisation greatly. Generally, it is not recommended to climb to a gain of more than 300m in a day, but with "climb high, sleep low", it exposes the body to an higher altitude to allow the body to adapt to the conditions (adapt to the lower oxygen level and increasing production of red blood cells), then descending to allow the climber to rest properly. 

Lava Tower is a rock tower formed thousand of years ago by molten lava which formed the tower and then solidified and hardened as it cooled. As we trudged around the rock to get to a sheltered area away from the wind for lunch, we passed a couple of tents which had set up camp at that altitude. Sitting down for lunch, we ripped open our lunch packs to see the content: chicken, sandwiches and fruits. I wasn't so keen on the chicken since I found the chicken that we had during lunch on day 1 to be pretty darned tough, but I was so hungry, I just tore right into it and thoroughly enjoyed it. While we were eating, the familiar ravens and mice were hanging around waiting for the scraps again. 

Going down from Lava Tower to Barranco Camp proved to be a teeny weeny preview of summit day. Some parts were quite steep, and covered with scree (broken rock fragments and loose rocks). Joseph took the chance to get us mentally prepared by telling us that the steepness was going to be something like 6 hours long, with the scree 3 times deeper. Descending to a lower altitude eased the headache for some of the students, but descending on scree also made the footing unsure. I was quite glad when the scree slopes ended and we scrambled over rocks. Stopping occasionally, the surrounding rock structures were breathtaking, with several caves and increasing number of Senecios, and with the fog rolling in, it was quite a surreal scenery: this was the Barranco Valley. 

Just before 3.30pm, with fog getting thicker and obscuring the sun, it was getting a little dark, so we were ecstatic to get into Barranco Camp, almost 8 hours after departing from Shira Camp this morning. As we got into camp and started identifying our bags for the porter to bring into our tent, we couldn't help but notice Barranco Wall, 250metres high. What was daunting was seeing the trail that went up the wall, seeming so small, hence making the wall look a lot bigger and higher than the 250 metres. Oh well, "whatever will be, will be", we told each other, and that's basically been our motto so far. We'll just take each step at a time, and we'll reach the top when we get there. There was simply no point in stressing ourselves out ahead of time and worrying about the future. 

As I walked around taking pictures of some of the desert flora, I made the mistake that Joanne (who was part of the first team of Singaporean women who summited Mt Everest) had warned us about before our trip: standing up too quickly. With oxygen getting increasingly scarce, standing up quickly would cause you to be dizzy, and it was definitely not a good thing to be feeling dizzy in front of some cactus. A potential "ouch!" situation. 

Here's the numbers for the day:

Max heart rate: 145bpm

Average heart rate: 128bpm

Total calories burnt: 4935

Total time on trek: 7 hours 50 minutes

Garden of Senecios

Kilimanjaro 2012: Day 2 Finding My Pace

I've never been a fan of sleeping bags, and the horrid combination of not being able to sleep in a new environment (even in a nice hotel on a nice bed) meant that I hardly caught any sleep all night. I guess it was also because of the excitement, looking ahead to the coming days ahead. 

The amazing porters

Our typical breakfast comprised of oatmeal, bread (there was jam, peanut butter and margarine), eggs, sausages and food. Our usual routine before breakfast was to make sure that we clear our tents before going for breakfast, so we have to pack everything away into the duffle bag and leave it out for the porters, and the tents would also be taken down and packed, ready for transportation to the next camp. It's amazing how efficient the porters are (we had 50 porters for the 19 of us). We would leave camp at least an hour before they do, and yet, they would've caught up with us after an hour (mind you, they do it with 20kg packs on their heads) and raced ahead of us so that camp can be set up by the time we arrive. Of course, they're more conditioned than we are, therefore they are able to work harder without feeling so much the effects of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) or altitude sickness. But that being said, there's no doubting the seriously hard life that they have. I felt so sorry for a porter (from another group) who was throwing up at the side of the trail, presumably from the effects of AMS. While trekkers like us could afford to give up and turn back, he's dealing with his livelihood. Joseph (our guide) was telling me about how he started out as a porter (all the guides start out as porters, before moving up the ranks to being cooks/ kitchen hands or assistant guides, and then taking an exam to be certified as a guide), that because of the weight on his neck for the long period, he couldn't turn his head for some time. So whenever someone called him, he would have to move his whole body to look at the person. 

Today's trek was definitely harder than day 1, with plenty of ups and downs, as we made our way to Shira Camp at 3840m. It was pretty much a whole day of of different terrains, with rainforest vegetation giving away to shorter ones, and vegetation was also getting sparse as we encountered more rocks. Certain sections were narrow and winding, even needing a bit of scrambling. There's something about moving up and down, climbing over one peak after another, and it kind of got to us mentally as we started asking our guides how much further have we got. It really wasn't about the fatigue, I guess it's quite disorientating going up and down when we expect to the going up... I mean, we were supposed to be climbing a mountain. The fog that kept rolling in and out made the mood a little depressing for me as well. Guess I was missing the sun already. 


I was also careful of how my body might take the ups and downs, always worried that my body might start breaking down soon. While following Swee Chiow, he gave me a very good piece of advice that I reckoned helped me through the trip: if you find yourself breathing too hard, you probably are working too hard. He also explained that the reason why older climbers fare better is because they are able to breathe rhythmically. So whenever I found myself breathing harder, I'd take a quick look at my heart rate monitor and if it was indeed higher than 140bpm (that was the threshold that I'd set for myself because any lower than 140bpm, I felt very comfortable. If you wish to try my method, I'd advise that you find out the "magic number" that works for you), I'd tell myself "pole pole", and slowed my pace down CONSIDERABLY, and practically dragged my feet along just to make sure that work as lazily as possible (my rational was that I wanted to use as few muscles as possible). It was a tactic that worked really well for me all the way up, and it's something that I will keep using for my future climbs.

White-necked raven

We took a longer break on a plateau, where we got acquainted to the local fauna, namely the four-striped grass mouse and the white necked raven. These guys are really contrasting on the cute factor: the mice were scampering around, hoping for food to fall for them, but shy as can be, while the ravens were in your face, sometimes coming so close that I reckoned that it was going to snatch the food right out of our hands. They stand at 50-54cm with a weight of almost 900g!! Check out the beak on that face that only a mother would love. 


Thankfully, just as the sun appeared, we caught sight of our camp. We were really pleased with the short day, finishing about 5 hours after starting. The camp was set up on a flat expanse of desert like land, and the first thing we noticed was that it was VERY windy and there were so many ravens hanging around. A couple of the students decided to take advantage of the sunny day to sun their clothes on the rocks, while keeping a weary eye out for the ravens that were hanging around. While they didn't have an appetite for socks, we did see the ravens tear up a plastic bag and eat it up. 

Lunch was macaroni with minced beef, and it was such a welcomed meal! Not only were carbohydrates essential to replenish our body's fuel system, but being a meat lover like myself, I was grateful for a nice hot meal like that. Plus, with the early end to the day, I was grateful that I could rest up, pack up bags, and catch a nap to make up for my lack of sleep at night. 

Shira Camp, with magnificent view of Cathedral Rocks

One thing I noticed was that a number of students were lagging behind and weren't back in camp even after we'd finished lunch. When they returned, I found that they were either suffering from fatigue or nausea (some even vomited), all of which are primary symptoms of altitude sickness. We were particularly concerned about one student who hadn't really managed to keep any fluids down. In the evening, Swee Chiow passed out the oximeter which measured our heart rate and the amount of oxygen in our red blood cells. Most of us were in the range of 80-90%, which was normal at altitude, but we were concerned about the student whose reading had dropped to 66%. Swee Chiow gave him a Diamox and his oxygen saturation raised to 88%. But the point of concern was that he still wasn't holding down any fluids, and didn't have any dinner either. We huddled together and decided that we would wait until the morning to see if his condition would improve further. However, just before dinner, the student came to us to tell us that he wasn't feeling any better and wanted to get off the mountain. It was probably the best decision for him because any further up, evacuating him would've require greater logistics (via helicopter) as it was the last camp where evacuation by road would be possible. 


While his gear was being packed up, Paul (our local chief guide) administered oxygen, and some of the local guides were summoned to help with the evacuation. Swee Chiow, myself and my colleague set off with the local guides who were holding on to the student as they skilfully maneuvered him quickly over the rocks to get to the ranger station on a very blustery night, with just the headlamps for illumination. Following the local guides, I was full of admiration of the skills of the guides. When we returned to the hotel after the 7 days and I managed to speak to the student, I asked him if he was exerting much effort and he said that he felt as if he was floating along as the guides helped him along. Seeing how dehydrated the student was that night, it was really worrying, but he was still lucid as he was still able to laugh at a lame joke that I made. 


After the student was evacuated and sent off to the hospital in Moshi for observation, we were joking on the way back that we were having our rehearsal for the summit attempt. And to be honest, it was really a rehearsal for me as I eventually used the same kit for the summit attempt. I had a chance to experience the blustery cold wind which was to be expected on summit day, and I was pleased to find that I was well protected. By the time we got back to camp, it was almost 2am and I was really tired (mentally) and I collapsed into my tent, mindful of the demands of the following day: the high climb to Lava Tower (4630m) for acclimatisation, and then descending down to Barranco Camp to sleep low. It was going to be a long day.

Here's my readings for the day:

Total calories used: 4935calories
Max heart rate: 145bpm
Average heart rate: 128bpm

Kilimajaro Expedition 2012: Day 1 Plugging Through The Rainforest

Well, today's the day. We hopped onto the bus which took us from Arusha to Machame, where we will start our 7-day trek. For me, the first day would be a test because it's a 6-hour long trek, and I remembered that my last climb up up a mountain (Mount Kinabalu, 4095m) basically killed my quads. Granted, we'd be training heaps (8 hour treks), I'd also learnt my lesson of making sure that I replenish my salts, and unlike Kinabalu, the trek up Kilimanjaro is gradual (read: NO STEPS!). So many people had told me that climbing Kinabalu would be easy but they've obviously never climbed it in the kind of conditions that I climbed in: through a storm with the wind gusting, making conditions really cold. Some of the students were told that if they can't afford base layers, they could make it with several layers of dri-fit tee-shirts, a sweater and a jacket. What a massive mistake! I'm thankful that I had a base layer that I used for drysuit diving, a fleece that I'd had for some time, and a half decent outer shell. I had a hard time fighting the nip on my fingers and also my face because my gloves were soaked through (bad advice from a shop which reckoned that I won't need waterproof gloves because it won't rain) and my double layer of Buff just couldn't keep the rain out. Although I managed to summit, I was massively humbled, and I swore that I'd never take the mountain for granted anymore. I'd read up heaps about Kilimanjaro, made sure that I had the appropriate gear (thankfully, we had an experienced guide in Khoo Swee Chiow, an adventurer who'd summited Mt Everest three times, and he provided far better advice than what I'd received for Kinabalu). 

While waiting for our local guides to sort out the administration for our expedition, we had lunch and tinkered with gear adjustments. After being introduced to the guides and some last minutes group photos, it was time to start. Walking through the gate, we could see blue monkeys scampering from tree to tree. Today's trek was very comfortable, and we were wearing the kind of clothing we would for the tropics, so there was no need for base layers. And we also learned a new word today: "pole pole", or "slowly slowly" in Swahili, words which would come to prove extremely valuable to me and eventually contributed to my ability to summit. I found the pace set by our guide, Joseph, to be extremely comfortable, and being the gadget freak that I was, I was keeping a close eye on my heart rate monitor to see how my body was adapting (yes yes, plus I wanted to see how many calories this fat man was burning). Today's trek was largely uneventful, apart from our first experience with the toilet (a really deep pit, though not wide enough to fall in, with a shed built over it). It also started to rain, which hardly came as a surprise considering that it was the start of the rainy season, which eventually proved to be a blessing as we were practically the only group on the trail. 

Toilet

The most important lesson that I'd learnt today (and a lesson that I will hold dearly for future expeditions, especially in colder climate) was that we took way too much time during breaks. There wasn't a sense of urgency in getting things done fast, and we also struggled with our rain gear as we were not familiar with it and had not practiced with them previously. Swee Chiow said that we could get away with these "mistakes" or lack of urgency down in the rain forest area where it was warmer, but we could ill-afford taking such long breaks when the temperature gets colder. We took a total of about 6.5hours today, way past the 4-5 hours that he'd expected from us. 

Seemed so close, but so far away

The day ended when we reached Machame Camp, where we caught the magnificent view of the snow capped mountain, which came at an appropriate time, reminding us our of our objective. Settling down for the first night, there were lots of things that we were uncertain about, like the routine of cleaning up, packing and repacking for the following night (absolutely essential as a time saver), etc. Dinner was in a larger tent when we sat around a long table, and we were greeted with snacks of popcorn, and hot drinks could be made with the tins of milk powder, Milo, coffee powder and tea bags. The first night of eating dinner was definitely a challenge, eating by the dim candlelight meant that we couldn't quite see what we were eating. Subsequently, we learned to bring our headlamps along.

Overall, it was a great day for me and I felt cautiously optimistic, none of the crazy aches that I'd felt after Day 1 of Kinabalu. Then again, while Kinabalu was just nothing but steps all the up to the camp, I'd hardly seen any steps on the first day of the trek. I gotta say that the pace that we'd been on had been very comfortable, and that might've played a big role in feeling fresh at the end of almost 6.5 hours. I was also thankful that our long training treks of 8 hours and the back to back treks (we did a long trek that started in the afternoon and ended well past midnight, and did another 5 hours trek the next day after resting for 8 hours), which was designed to get our body used to the demands of a 7 day trek. And for the number freaks amongst you, here's the data from my Polar heart rate monitor on the first day:

Time started: 12.30pm (East Africa time)
Total calories burnt: 3951
Max heart rate: 154
Average heart rate: 126


As you can see, it was really quite an easy day with an average heart rate of 126. Coming next, it's the trek to Shira Camp, another full day of trekking.

Click for the larger image to have an idea of our route

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Flying is such a pain

After 4 months of preparations, the big day had finally arrived. After a nightmare of a time trying to pack all the gear for the 7-days on the trail, I hauled the equipment off to the airport. As excited I was about the trip, I wasn't that excited about being away from my family, and to make matters worse, it's a 2am flight via Qatar Airways. Don't ask me why, but I hate flights that are in the middle of the night. Maybe it's because I have to wait for my flight at a time when I'm supposed to be sleeping. The flight was completely full, with most of the passengers traveling from Bali.

The flight was largely uneventful, with an excellent in-flight entertainment system (loads of movies, music, TV programmes, games, etc), which isn't surprising considering that it's Skytrax's 2011 Airline of the Year, and a 5 star airline. However, I felt that the stewardesses could be more friendly, even when you are polite to them and speak to them with them with a smile, it's still a pretty dour expression on their faces. The food was unremarkable although there was a good spread and the appetizers were pretty nice. Caught the movie "War Horse" (LOVED it!), caught a bit of sleep, and 7.5 hours later, we arrived in Doha at dawn.

Looking out onto the tarmac

I was interested in seeing Doha since it was one of the world's richest nation, and like its fellow Persian Gulf states, it's launched many multi-billion construction projects and showcase events, and most recently, winning the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In order for us to get to the terminal, we had to hop onto a bus to take us there, and there were a total of 3 different alighting points, namely for transit passengers, arrival, and premium cla$$ passengers (Oops! They actually have limousines to pick them up. Only the plebeians in economy class had to take the bus). It's not an ideal situation but apparently when the new Doha International Airport is up, things will be easier. From what I could see, there were no aerobridges that connected the planes to the terminals, thus allowing for passengers to get directly into the terminal. For all its gleaming new structures, Doha is very much like Singapore: all hardware but no heart. Travelers were greeted by stony faced staff, who can sometimes border on being rude. And I also noticed a large number of migrant workers working at the airport. I read recently that Singapore celebrated its close relationship with Qatar, that Singapore had been sharing its economic model with Qatar. I hope that Qatar hasn't picked up the Third World service standard that Singapore has. 
 

To be brutally frank, I wasn't impressed with the Doha airport during my 2 hour transit. I had to use the toilet and I found the floors wet and even dirty, and I was mortified to find a HUGE glob of thick yellow phlegm on the toilet seat, part of which had flowed into the toilet bowl, and yet, due to its amazing viscosity, the two globs were still connected! Major gross out at 5am. I decided to walk around the terminal and it was the usual cafes and duty free shops. I took some pictures and proceeded to the glass panels to peer out on the tarmac as the sun began to break. I must express admiration for the Qataris with their battle to build over the desert. Anyway, before I could take anymore pictures, a security guard practically grabbed me by my arm and told me gruffly that I wasn't allowed to take pictures within the airport. I was perplexed because taking pictures in airports is something that almost all holidaymakers do. It wasn't as if I was taking pictures of some restricted area, like the immigration. Nevertheless, being a stranger in a strange land, I had no intention of being detained, so I put my iPhone away.

I had more opportunities to observe Qatar from the air after we took off for the Doha - Dar Es Salaam leg of the flight (yes, we had to bus out to the tarmac again), and while the city centre and waterfront developments were impressive, the outskirts of the city was very much brown in colour, which I presumed to be caused by the desert dust. This leg of the journey took us over the Gulf Peninsula, and over the Horn of Africa. Looking out of the window, it was mostly red dusty landscape, with long tracks cutting across the large stretches of land. I got a bit excited when the flight information display showed that we were flying over "Nazret". Silly me got it mixed up with "Nazareth", the childhood home of Jesus in Israel. Thing was, I was flying over Ethiopia. Apparently after World War 2, the then Emperor of Ethiopia renamed the city after the Biblical Nazareth. Since 2000, the city reverted to the name of "Adama", but "Nazret" is still widely used.

As we made the approach over Dar Es Salaam, I could see the beautiful islands off mainland Tanzania, which I later found out to be the old trading port of Zanzibar and the island of Pemba. I later found out from my mountain guide that many Western climbers would fly out there to relax after climbing Kilimanjaro. Looking at the beautiful clear azure water, it's definitely a place I'd want to visit with Kat for some scuba diving. 

Disembarking from the plane, it struck us that we'd finally arrived in Africa, and continent so far away, and one that we'd never thought that we'd have a chance to visit. Moving from the international terminal to the domestic, we were greeted by a scrimmage of travel agents trying to sell us domestic tickets. The next 6 hours waiting for the Precision Air flight (Precision Air is a subsidiary of Kenya Airways) would be a restless one. The terminal was really small with just one cafe, and one bookshop. While the students sat at the cafe sipping from glass bottles of Coke (by the way, no one understood when I said I want a bottle of "Coke". I have to say "Coca Cola"), I sat at the hard plastic seat of the terminal and pondered what laid ahead, and realised that exactly a week later, I would find out if I'd summited Kilimanjaro. That made me even more restless. I'd also noticed that there were a fair number of Chinese at the airport, and remembered Tanzania's long ties with China, and that China has been making in-roads with Africa's construction, manufacturing, and exploitation of natural resources. There were also quite a number of Westerners there too, and I found out that a number of them worked for the United Nations (Arusha, Tanzania, hosts a number of United Nations' offices), although I must confess that after watching movies such as "Blood Diamond" and "Lord of War", they looked like smugglers. My bad! 

Finally, it was time to leave! Boarding the little 70-seater ATR 72, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the interior of the plane looked much better than I thought it might, although the service is pretty gruff. The last time I'd flown in an prop plane was 20 years ago when I flew from Sydney to Newcastle (Australia), and that was a roller coaster ride. Remembering that experience, I was rather apprehensive about the flight, but it turned out much better than I'd expected. I had another chance to check out the city of Dar Es Salaam and I could see how densely populated the city centre was, and it was also sad to see factories spewing yellow fumes that lingered above the city sky. As we approached Kilimanjaro, Swee Chiow (our guide) pointed out a distant sighting of Kilimanjaro, and everyone got so excited.

After planning for four months and with loads of gear in our duffle bags, we were massively relieved that find that our bags have arrived together with us after the 3 flights. At almost 900m above sea level, the evening air was crisp, something that we had not expected of Africa. We were met by the local travel agent and after an hour's bus ride, we arrived at the Impala Hotel. After traveling for 24 hours, we were exhausted and just wanted to grab dinner and go to sleep. As expected, I was jet lagged and woke up several times through the night, including once at 2am (East Africa Time, GMT+3) when it was time to wake up for me at 7am in Singapore. 

The following day was for us to just take it easy and recover from the jet lag, do a spot of sight seeing around town, some peer teaching for the students, and last minute packing for the 7-days ahead. For when we wake up tomorrow, it'd mark the start of the expedition proper. And the butterflies are starting to flutter in the belly.

Please feel free to leave any comment or questions on my blog!

The Mt Meru market.. stuff for tourists. As it was the low season, the stall owners were VERY persistent

The Arusha Clock Tower, popularly supposed to be situated at the midpoint between Cairo and Cape Town