Having just returned from a 4 week trip through Eastern Africa, one of the highlights of the month was without doubt the Kilimanjaro Climb which I did from Monday the 12th through to Sunday the 18th Oct. Following on quite a reasonable amount of research in preparation, I had decided to do the Rongai Route which goes up the mountain from the Kenyan side. Primarily because most who were prepared to give an opinion listed it as the Route with the highest successful completion ratio. It is comparatively infrequently used though, primarily because of the considerable additional distance needed to travel to get to the start of the route. A small glitch right at the beginning of the whole adventure was trying to alert my SED contact Elifasi by phone on the Sunday evening when I arrived in Arusha. The original plan had been that I contact them upon arrival and they would visit with me at my chosen hotel (The African Tulip which I would very highly recommend to anyone looking to stay in Arusha for any reason.) on the Sunday evening to give me a pre-climb briefing. But taking into account the amount of trouble I had already had in the week prior in Kenya and in the weeks following in southern Tanzania with trying to maintain mobile phone contact on my Australian phone, I would be inclined to give SED the benefit of the doubt here as it appeared there was every chance they had not received my texts and calls. I had selected SED Adventures from a number of Tour Operators who all offer the Kili Climb, primarily because they were the ones who responded quickest and with the most accurate and detailed answers to my specific enquiries. Also because they had an office based directly in Arusha and the grasp of English seemed more than adequate. In hindsight, tho I stayed in Arusha and the hotel was excellent, I would not recommend doing this as Arusha is simply too far from the climb beginnings on Kili and certainly way too far from the start of the Rongai Route. I would strongly recommend flying into Kili International airport and if you are staying overnight before the climb, find yourself somewhere in Moshi. Elifasi and the SED driver were at the hotel nice and early on the Monday morning and were very willing and helpful in assisting in the additional running around I still needed to do. Firstly in getting my flight booked back out of Arusha to Dar on the the following Monday, then getting to the SED office to endeavour to pay the outstanding 50% of the fees, then arranging for all the gear I was looking to hire. I booked my flight out with Precision Air but when we arrived at their office they wanted cash only so as we did not have the time to then go off and withdraw cash and then return, SED kindly offered to take me to an ATM and they then sent a staff member back around to Precision to pay and pick up my ticket which they did without any glitches whatsoever. We then encountered further difficulties when I got on their computer at their office to make the funds transfer of the balance, only to find that because I did not have an account with their bank, I could not simply transfer online so would need to get into a bank. Once again SED made the point that it was more important that we get the climb underway on time in order to make the 1st nights camp (Simba Camp) before sunset and there was still a long, long way to drive. So they allowed me to commence the climb only having paid 50% of the climb fee. I was very grateful to them for this leniency. In fact as it turned out, it was some days afterwards before I was able to finalise full payment and once again SED were very patient and helpful in assisting me in my travels to and from the bank to make this happen on my return from the climb. From then on we were finally on the way and leaving Elifasi at their office, the driver and I headed off via the markets where we picked up Allan the cook. The hiring of the gear at the Marangu gate went very smoothly and once again, when it was discovered that I needed a few extra items I had not previously listed: spare batteries for the headlamp, sun screen oil and sun glasses, SED staff were more than happy to assist in tracking down the items in the teeming mass of humanity pushing through the markets at the gate. Regarding the hire gear, everything functioned exactly as it should of; though I still to this day have no idea what the proposed purpose of the 'gaiters' were and the only failing that I did experience with the gear was something of a hassle, in that the inflatable mattress would not stay inflated for more than 30 minutes at a time. This meant that I spent most nights tossing and turning, positioning and repositioning the pillow I had hired under my head and a plastic bag of my dirty clothes on which I balanced my hips as I always sleep on my side. Finally with all goods and staff on board we had picked up Florence the guide and the 4 porters at the Marangu Gate we were on the way. Round the base of the mountain on roads the worst I had seen since the day before! When I had driven in from Kenya via the border crossing at Namanga. A fun and lively atmosphere ensured for most of the long, long drive tho I must admit puzzlement and some distress at the choice of music with Kenny Rogers maudlin tones crooning for most of the trip providing a most bizaare out of place clash with the scenes out the window of rural African life. Finally we arrived at the starting point and with comparitively minimum fuss, I signed my commitment to commencing this long awaited quest and set out in the slow patient footsteps of Florence. My unflappable guide who was to become my ever present companion over the next 7 days. Right from the start I was completely at ease with Florence and let me state categorically that the man was brilliant. He was the perfect guide for me. He chatted when it seemed right, he was more than happy to be silent for the long periods as I gasped for breath and struggled along behind him. He never let me slack off, but yet he never pushed me beyond what I was capable of. He was complimentory of my efforts and constantly asked how I was doing. By the end of the 7 days I had privately dubbed him King of His Mountain as I do not think we passed one group on the entire 7 days where if not the guide than at least one of the porters seemed to know Florence and happy greetings and either a few quick words or on occasion much longer discussions were held. After one such encounter on the final 7th morning I had lost count of how many encounters there had been even on this final day he somewhat sheepishly turned to me and said: I am very famous no? I have no doubt that Florence played a major part in my successfully completing the climb and even on that final morning as I alternatively, begged for rest, complained of frozen fingers (Florence ended up switching his far more effective gloves for my obviously inadequate ones), collapsed in a heap on a regular basis or threw up, he was ever present, showed genuine concern but was quietly and insistently persistant that I keep going. That I would be able to make it. I was somewhat peeved that having thrashed myself to near death for 6 days to get there, I was only actually at the summit for no more than 5 minutes and really never had the chance to even catch my breath and take in the scenery and the accomplishment before being pretty smartly ushered away and back down the descent. I had been taking religiously the anti AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) tablet Diamox (Acetazolamide) and really felt that I had not suffered in any way from the altitude and besides being very cold, was not nor had been in any way suffering from headache, insomnia, dizziness, sweeling of face, hands or feet or feeling any other ill effects (apart from being totally totally stuffed!) so I was dissappointed not to have more clearcut memories of the stunning views of the actual peak for all my effort. But this very brief time on the summit proper seems to be the norm for any and all who have made the climb, so perhaps there is greater justification for it than I can see. The only serious incident that did cause some unease between us, in hindsight was entirely my fault. I had insisted despite Florence questioning me on it at least twice that I did not want to be taking my backpack on the final summit attempt and therefore I did not have any back up supply of water. I was confident that the 1 litre flask I had clipped to my belt would be sufficient. And so it would of, except that halfway up when I was trying to unclip it with my frozen hands I dropped it and thereby lost a third of the precious water. This meant that by the time I was halfway down, still dressed in my full outfit of thermal underwear and all the additional sub-zero gear needed to have survived the ascent, when I ran out of water I was in real trouble. Florence only had enough water for himself so there was nothing for it. I had to complete the last couple of hours descent in increasingly hot direct sunlight and I suffered mightily for my insistent lack of foresight in neglecting to bring a backup for such a basic necessity as water. By mid afternoon, after I had finally crawled back into camp, been given a special saline suppliment to rehydrate myself and collapsed in a totally exhausted heap in my tent for an hour or two, all had been forgiven and we were back on totally agreeable terms. The food prepared and served throughout the entire trip was excellent. Healthy, wide variety and in an over abundance of supply. In fact my only complaint was there was constantly too much food. I don't believe I ever even came close to finishing any meal ever served to me. Alan the cook was to be very highly commended. The entire rest of the staff, all four porters, were always friendly, never exhibited the slightest sign of unease or discontent and to my knowledge were faultless in carrying out their duties. Even to the extremes of coming out in the pouring rain to deliver my meal to me in my tent and then returning to dig trenches all the way around my tent to try and divert the flowing streams of stormwater away. The only other possible item of discontent I would mention has nothing to do with SED as they honoured the route I had chosen, but tho I made it on the Rongai Route and I particularly loved the day spent in Mawenzi Tarn, having experienced the much more scenic Marangu Route on the descent and seen the alternative of sleeping and dining in huts, I would recommend the following for any who may be interested: The Marangu Route 8 day option: Day 1: Marangu Gate to Mandara Huts Day 2: Mandara Huts to Horombo Huts Day 3: Horombo Huts to Kibo Huts Day 4: Midnight acclimatisation hike for 2-3 hours before returning to camp and a day of rest Day 5: Midnight summit attempt and return to Kibo Huts Day 6: Kibo Huts to Horombo Huts Day 7: Horombo Huts to Mandara Huts Day 8: Mandara Huts to Marangu Gate. In all and in summary I would without hesitation recommend SED Adventures for any Kilimanjaro Climb attempt and most certainly would suggest that you ask for Florence and his team. I am reasonably confident that should you be looking for other adventures in northern Tanzania that you give SEDAdventures a try. If you have any thoughts, clarifications, agreements or dissagreements with my brief review, I would love to hear from you. Breen Schipke breenschipke@hotmail.com +61 412 421 274 | 
