Kilimanjaro & Meru - Page 3

Saddle-hut - Big Meru

Tonight it got serious, first summit day. The fact that we had to get up at midnight put me under pressure and I couldn't fall asleep, I also had a headache. After one Ibuprofen I was fine, the headache never came back, we should be able to cope with the coming heights. After a night snack, we marched into the night with our headlamps. Caspar was again our assistant guide. At the beginning we climbed gently, but then the path rose steeply to Rhino Point (3800 m). We left the last bushes behind us, in front of us only rocks and boulders. Steel chains made some of the climbing easier. It was getting colder and colder, and we paused only briefly to drink. We orientated ourselves only on the heels of the person in front of us, step by step. Very slowly (pole, pole), that's what Richard emphasised.

And he knew exactly what he was doing. While some of the group were already at the summit in the dark and came back, we were there in time for sunrise - Socialist Peak - 4566 metres. The sun was rising behind Kili - brilliant. We took all the photos we could and hugged each other. We were a bit proud. However, minus temperatures and strong wind forced us back downhill after about 20 minutes. Now in the morning we saw the unreal rock scenery we had climbed during the night: Brown rock and boulders steaming in the morning mist. The round crater of the volcano. Later the scenery became more sublime: glaring sun above a snow-white cloud cover, in front of dark mountain ridges. As we walked over a ridge, a rainbow appeared on the left and the 4 of us walked as shadows in the middle of it. Unfortunately my simple camera could not capture this. A sign that we are blessed, says Richard. Let's see 🙂.

Saddle-hut - Momella Gate

The descent wasn't really easier, a lot of climbing, it also quickly got very warm up here. Sun hat on, winter clothes off. In the late morning we reached the Saddle Hut again, our team was happy about the successful ascent and had already cooked a delicious lunch. The lunch break was then only short, because in the afternoon we went down to the Miriakamba Hut. A long day: 15 hours of hiking, 1066 metres up and 2066 metres down. Accordingly, we were contentedly in bed at an early hour 🙂.

The next morning it rained a lot, the path down was soggy, difficult to walk on. It seemed easier going up. Only the porters shot past us again halfway down, fully packed, as if it were a jogging track. Crazy. The route was also a bit different, the shorter way to Momella Gate this time led us past a waterfall and a bit through the grasslands of the national park. So we were able to observe some of the wild animals at the end. Most of them were far away and it was still foggy, but giraffes, warthogs and water buffalos were visible.

Arriving at the gate, we said goodbye to the ranger, the tips were distributed and then the bus brought us back to the lodge with our team. On the way there were colobo monkeys, baboons and a few antelope-like animals (I didn't get the name) to marvel at. Richard told us that while baboons avoid dogs, the smaller colobo monkeys are confrontational. Whenever we saw them on the road, we just called them dog-fighters 🙂. Our conclusion: we had and were a super team and so far it couldn't have gone better. That's why we emptied a few more Serengeti beers in the Bavarian Beergarden 🙂.