Today the group will take a slow trek over intervening ridges and valleys to join the Mweka Route, which will be their descent route.  They will hike up the ridge through sparse landscape and alpine desert for another hour to the Barafu Hut. The last water on the route is in the Karanga Valley; there […]

 ‘We’re at Karanga camp. What a fantastic day – tough but rewarding.  We arrived to chicken and chips – chef Salvatore is outstanding. Everyone is off to have a late afternoon and much needed nap’.

Kili ambulance Option 1

Kili ambulance […]

 Received 09:30am SA time (10:30 am Tanzanian time) ‘We’re on top of the wall. Beautiful views of Mt Meru. It’s warm above the clouds. Encouragement all around and everyone is in great form’.

Mt Meru (4566m) is located 70 kms west of Kili and is the 10th highest mountain in Africa.

 Today the group will ascend the great Baranco wall which is easier than it looks and will take them about an 1hr. At the top, they’ll be able to appreciate just how beautiful Kilimanjaro really is.  Thereafter they will descend into the lush Karanga valley, trek over gently sloped hills and then up to 4100m for […]

 Message from Sean ‘Beaut day. Great views and loving the terrain. It’s a perfect starlit night. A big moon rose over the Baranco wall – it’s going to be full for summit night.  There is a low Swahili mumble in the background. Dry, crisp air is descending off the moonlit peak 2000m above’.

Many […]

 Sms from Sean last night ‘Lots of fun.  There were 500 climbers on the Machame route today. We never saw a footprint on our route – it’s all to ourselves. Brilliant. Weather perfect.  Tucked in now and reading a great book ‘No way down’ – the story of three fateful days on K2 […]

 Heard from Sean late last night – hellish travelling day with flight delays.  But happy days now at the hotel and everyone amped for the climb. 

This morning, after breakfast, the group will drive to Umbwe gate (1800m) passing through villages with coffee and banana plantations. At the gate, they will meet their guides and porters […]

Kili climbers at the airport

 Sean landed in Joburg last night and spent the evening reuniting with the Elbrus group. He had a brilliant time catching up and reminiscing with everyone.  It was not too raucous an evening as Sean had to meet 13 people on the Kili trip at 6am at OR Tambo this am.  Their 1time flight […]

Yesterday the group flew from Mineralyne Vody in the Baksan Valley to Moscow.  Last night was spent celebrating a fantastic, memorable and special trip.  Sean said there were super emotional goodbyes all around this morning.  Half the crew are going touring to St Petersburg, Pern etc, while Sean, Vivien, Michelle, Keith and George depart from […]

We did really well until 4400m the day before yesterday when the weather started deteriorating. George was suffering with the meanest dose of gippos and I watched him blits out of his tent in the pounding snow with his thermal pants around his knees. 

We left for the summit at 2.20am on Sunday (George went down […]