Kilimanjaro Articles

GETAWAY - SEPT 93 THE MACHAME ROUTE

The popular way up Kilimanjaro is the Marangu Route, on its eastern flank. In recent years it has been dubbed the ‘Coke route’ owing to the high volume of traffic, excessive litter, eroded path and the huts which have developed into mini-villages. By comparison, the more westerly Machame circuit is known as the ‘whisky route’, for it is much less used, the path is narrow and in good condition, there is little litter and you must sleep in a tent (the porters fill now the ramshackle huts). It is also much longer than the Marangu Route but people who know agree that Machame is much more beautiful.

DAY ONE:
This section is eight and a half kilometres, gains 1 150 metres and takes about five hours. The trek sets off from Machame Gate at about 1 900 metres (it’s reached from Keys hotel by bus, you’ll probably have to walk when the bus starts to splutter up the steep inclines). Your chief guide will have paperwork to do and business of organizing porters with their loads which takes time. African time, sit back and enjoy it. You’ll finally set off around midday, along a jeep track which lead up into the Afro-montane forest. Supporting the 30 metre high canopy are enormous giant camphor trees, yellow woods, beach and wild figs. This western aspect is the wet side, and trees drip with lichens and mosses while the ground is covered in a lush under-storey dominated by ground and tree ferns. Consequently the path is also very wet in places and no matter how hard you try not to, you will get your feet wet and muddied. Although there is wildlife in the forest, it is relentlessly hunted so you’re unlikely to see the elephants, buffalo, giant forest hogs and antelope that inhabit it, but you might well see Syke’s or Colobus monkeys. You’ll almost certainly hear the cackling of Hartlaub’s turacos (similar to our louries), and braying of silvercheeked hornbills. At around 2 450 metres the path is forced into the narrowing gorge of the Kikafu Stream. Here it begins to ascend steeply for the final three kilometres to the edge of the forest belt, where you reach Machame Camp and the first close-up view of Kibo. Your guides and porters will already be setting up camp, pitching tents, heating washing water, cooking and even putting out camp chairs under the mess awning. This is mountaineering the way the colonials did it, and by the end of the trip you’ll be very glad it is. Eat well here, for as you ascend you’re sure to lose your appetite.

DAY TWO:
After the previous day’s shorts and T-shirt, you’ll want to set off into the heathlands wearing something warmer. The day begins up a steep slope, through a cordon of cedar trees heavily burnt in last year’s rampant fire. As a result, for the next few years you should see a profusion of redhot pokers (Kniphofia sp) and various flowering bulbs (mainly irises and gladioluses) which are fire germinated/ This steep section follows a spur for some three kilometres up Shira Cathedral (a former crater). The heathlands here are closely related to our fynbos; in fact fynbos evolved from these East African heathlands which skipped down the various mountain chains and transformed along the way. In places you will see ericas, proteas, helichrysums and other plants what will be familiar to any South African mountain lover. What you will also see, and what the fynbos lacks, is gigantic forms of some of these plants, particularly the lobelias and senecios (which South Africans know as knee-high flowers), reaching up to five metres high. It is six and a half kilometres to Shira Camp, at 3 840 metres, and the second half is far easier going than the first. You may experience mist, rain and even sleet on the way, so be prepared. This camp site is your first really cold place, and in the morning the tents and ground will have a thin layer of ice. If you start taking Diamox now, remember it’s a diuretic and you have to keep up your liquid intake (and get up in the night for relief). You’ll start to experience breathlessness, but your appetite should be holding.

DAY THREE:
Some groups elect to spend an extra day acclimatizing at Shira camp, especially those diverting up the daring Arrow Glacier summit route. We had hoped to give it a try, but the very steep final section was heavily iced and snowed under, so we continued on the longer Machame Route. The walk to Barranco Camp is a long one, about 12 kilometres on the map, but that belies its real nature. At first you ascend gently for about 1 000 metres to the based of Lava Tower, then you lose all that hard-gained ground by dropping 900 metres to the dramatic camp site, located at the base of Barranco Wall. The camp site is on an exposed spur, so be very careful where you wonder for a midnight ablution. Here the nights are very cold and you may well start experiencing headaches and breathing problems. If so, dip into your medicine bag or consult your guide.

DAY FOUR:
This was by far my favourite: you look up at the Barranco Wall, black in shadow against the rising sun, and wonder how on earth you’re going to get up the 400 metre rock face. Once you cross the roaring Umbwe Stream you’ll pick up the far-off lilt of voices, somewhere above you. Some of the porters will have set off earlier and you’ll see their tiny forms moving back and forth across the crag. Amazingly, apart from a few simple scrambles, the path is pretty straight forward - just take it slowly. Once at the top you’ll find yourself in real moon country, for here there is very little vegetation other than occasional tussocks of grass among the volcanic ash or brave everlastings hiding against the rocks. The air here is noticeably thin and you’ll be huffing and puffing while learning the rhythm of the dance you will come to know well over the next 18 hours - the Kili shuffle. For five kilometres the path rises and falls three times to negotiate ridges and valleys as you skirt the southern flank of Kibo. Where you meet the Mweka Route path you turn sharp left, up the Mweka sput towards Barafu Camp. The ridge is exposed and, when you reach camp at 4 800 metres in the late afternoon, you will understand how it got its Swahili name, meaning ‘ice’. When dinner is served you will find it stodgy and unappetising: you will be cold and nauseous; you will have a sore head and you will be tense with anxiety about getting any sleep, and about the midnight call. This will be the night of facing your misgivings and gathering your inner strength. Just remember to drink as much liquid as you can, and carry at least two litres with you.

DAY FIVE:
The way is long and getting
longer.
The road goes uphill all the way
and even further.
I wish you luck, You’ll need it.
The way is dark and getting
darker.
The (peak) is high and even
higher.
I wish you luck.
There is none.

So wrote the humourist James Thurber, and that is how you will feel in the sub-zero temperature, probably with a howling wind, and only the light of several head lamps to show the way. Perhaps that’s just as well: for the next six hours you will slog and sweat, huff, puff, wheeze and curse your way up what feels like the vilest, steepest most treacherous scree slope on the planet. One thing is for sure; you won’t be thinking very deep philosophical thoughts as you go. However, as golden light begins to break over Ratzel Glazier and distant, jagged Mawenzi, you will start to feel a sense of elation welling up through your despair - you are nearing Stella Point and you are going to make it. Uhuru is only 200 metres higher than Stella, round the rim of Kibo Crater, and only two kilometres away, but it will take an hour or two to get there. As you go you cross the tops of Rebmann, Decken, Kersten and Heim glaciers which cascade over the southern wall. Just how much the small rises and falls along the way leave you breathless will astonish you, and this is where you will perfect the Kili shuffle: 30 steps then stop for two minutes, over and over, until the netball-court size plateau of Uhuru shows you there is nowhere higher to go. But don’t overstay your welcome, for you still have to descend to Barafu Camp. There you will get some food and water and take and hour or two’s rest, then it is on your feet again and down another six and half kilometres and 1 500 metres to Mweka Camp.

DAY SIX:
Your body will feel extremely tired but your mind will be soaring. Still, you have another six and a half steep kilometres to descend through dense forest to the park gate, and then another two to where your bus will be waiting. Luckily you will find small refreshment stalls along the way where you can procure the required celebratory Kilimanjaro beers. Back at Keys Hotel the real celebration begin but remember you have to drag your body, mind and soul out of bed early the next morning to catch the flight home.

Source; Getaway (September 1998)

ESSENTIAL READING

East Africa, a travel survival kit (Lonely Planet Publications, Australia)
Globetrotter Guide to Tanzania (New Holland, UK)
Guide to Tanzania (Bradt Publications, UK)
Spectrum guide to Tanzania (Camerapix Publishers, Nairobi)
Travellers Guide to Tanzania (New Holland, UK)
Visitor's Guide to Kenya and East Africa (Southern Book Publishers, Halfway House)
A field guide to Birds of East Africa (Collins, London)
Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania (Russel Friedman Book, Halfway House)
The Safari Companion (Russel Friedman Books)

Getaway has featured Tanzania extensively in past issues.