These past six days have been exciting. For those who haven’t heard the news, my family and I have climbed on the fourth tallest mountain by continent: Mount Kilimanjaro! Mount Kilimanjaro is actually made up of 3 volcanoes: Shira, Mawenzi, and Kibo. My family and I climbed up Kibo, which was the tallest of the 3 peaks, and the only one that is still a dormant volcano!! Our trip to Kilimanjaro started off by flying 13 HOURS to the country of Tanzania, to a city called Dar Es Salaam. The flight was very painful because we were constantly going through security and we had very bad airport food that tasted like junk. BOTH WAYS. On the way back to Cape Town, I had a burger that was so bad that I didn’t finish it(It was the first time that I didn’t finish a burger!). After the long process of traveling, we got to a hotel where we got our last rest in a clean place until after the trip.
The next day, we got ready for the trip. We woke up and our guide, Marwa, came to us and checked that we had all the right equipment for the climb. After he checked our equipment, we went to a gear shop where we rented gear to climb up the mountain like extra jackets, gloves, extra pants, sleeping bags, and long socks that would all protect us from the cold. Then, we got to the Kilimanjaro Park and, after all the preparation and work, the six-day long trek to the summit began!
Although the trek lasted six days, it felt much longer than it actually was. It was due to the fact that our daily hikes were over 3 hours long and that I was very tired most of the time. The trek to the first base, when I was well prepared, was 3 hours long and I got tired at about 8% of it. When we finally reached the first campsite, it was located in the woods and although the cabins were packed next to each other, my family and I got our own cabin to the 4 of us! In addition, there were monkeys called blue tailed monkeys that hung out near the huts and giant ravens that wanted to steal our food. The first day ended up being successful and we got a good night’s rest. However, the rest of the journey wasn’t so peaceful as the first day.
On day 1, we woke up in a hotel and started to climb a few hours later. On days 2,3,4,5, and 6, however, we woke up in a wooden cabin, immediately got dressed, had breakfast, and started to hike. It actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds, although it was uncomfortable at first. For breakfast, my family and I had porridge with hot tea. Afterwards, we got dressed, brushed our teeth, and set off on a six-hour hike to the second camp with Marwa and our 14 porters who took some of our bags. One of my favorite parts of the entire experience was all the nature that we saw on the mountain. There was so much wildlife and it stunned me how much the enviormnet changed as we progressed up. We even saw a couple of Marvins in the trees!!! The majority of hiking going uphill towards the summit was very sunny and exhausting because there weren’t any breakpoints. When we reached a lunch point, we stayed there for 5 minutes at the max and started to move again, but we did have time to look at all the nature around us. When we got to the campsites, we often stayed there for the rest of the day and rebuilt our strength. We always got our own cabin except for the night before the summit, where we shared a cabin with 8 other, noisy people :(.
On the day of the summit, we woke up at 10 pm and began our ascent to the summit. Waking up at 10 was not fun, and preparing for a long hike made the situation even more tiring. After we finally got ready to hike up, we got our headlights and made up our way to the summit in the cold, dark night. The hike up was the hardest physical thing I had ever done and it got even worse as my mind kept telling me that I couldn’t climb up and I kept on growing tired with every step. I considered stopping and turning around many times on the hike, but I knew that it was my mind playing tricks on me, so I pushed on. Finally, at 7:00 am, I finally summitted the tallest mountain in Africa!! I learned that if I really wanted to get something done, I could get it done if I put my full mind into it.
Because the hardest part of the climb was over, the climb down was really easy. I raced down the mountain with 2 porters and it was very fun. Climbing down was very relaxing because we weren’t in any hurry and we slept soundly in another wooden cabin. The hike down to the gate was 6 hours, but it was very easy. But then, at the restaurant before we left for the airport, I ordered fish and chips. Guess what I got: A whole, fried, un-boned fish that looked like it just came out of the water and chips! I literally threw up because of the heat and this unexpected surprise. Although, overall, the entire experience was very interesting and although I wouldn’t do it again, it was very educational and would recommend Kilimanjaro to anyone who wants excitement and something different.
<–A Marvin in the tree(middle branch)!!!
Ella, Asher, Ofer and Troy reach the roof of Africa! What a High….
Nice job, bro!
Thank you for your support.