On To Barafu Camp…

We awakened to a cold and drizzly day that gradually turned into a more steady downpour. We all had good rain gear to get us through, the cold just couldn’t be battled adequately.

Dickson waking us at 6 am with coffee in our tents has become the usual procedure. My habit of setting my alarm to an earlier time so I’d be awake when DIckson arrived has long since been outlawed in camp after hitting the snooze button one too many times. I’ll survive.

After breakfast we all put on our rain gear ready for the day in the rain. Pack covers, rain pants, rain shells and gloves. It was another steady uphill trek to Barafu Camp which sits at over 15,000 and is the base camp for everyone heading to the summit from this approach which is the most popular. Our plan had been to arrive for a hot lunch in camp and to rest for the afternoon until dinner as we’d be leaving at midnight for the summit. Because of the steady rain/hail and frigid temperatures, it took a bit more time to set up camp which left us shivering and cold at the ranger station and wanting of a warm sleeping bag. By the time everything was set up it was early afternoon for lunch and then rest. I don’t think anyone really slept all that well as were all anxious about the upcoming climb. We had planned to relax with another movie (Dances With Wolves had been the selection – one of my all time favorites), but none of us were in the mood or had nearly enough energy to sit and watch a movie.

Dinner was several hours later and though none of us were hungry, we knew that we had to eat to store up energy for the climb. After dinner, we went over the plans for later that night. We would awaken at 11 pm and get dressed. That meant three layers on the bottom and four layers on top in addition to a balaclava and wool cap. Sock liners and socks were the dress code for our feet. Lindsay had brought hand and foot warmers thankfully, which ended up being a godsend. We’d assemble in the mess tent at 11:30 and plan to start at midnight. It was a normally a five hour hike to the crater rim and then a one hour hike along the rim to peak. We’d descend back to camp to rest for a few hours, then brunch and we’d be on our way. Very simple, just climb up and then climb down. You know what they say about best laid plans, though. We were off to sleep for a few hours though none of us slept with the anticipation at hand.

The Baranco Wall…

Last night sleeping next to the Lava Tower at 15,500 feet, the wind blew at what felt like near hurricane force until morning so I had no complaints from anyone about my snoring. Wake up was at 6 am again with coffee in our tents and then breakfast at 7 am after we had packed all of our bags. It was a very cold morning having slept at that altitude.

Our route took us mostly downhill for the first part, though crossing a few ridges on our way to Barranco Camp where we’d be passing through. This is where we had originally planned to spend the night, but were now hiking through on our way to Karanga (Swahili for nuts) Camp instead.

As we walked down to Barranco Camp, we found many new plants we hadn’t seen before and crossed streams of glacier runoff, often with small waterfalls. Vegetation at that altitude must be very hearty for sure.

 

 

Barranco Camp sits at the bottom of a lovely canyon and as you approach it you suddenly realize that there is only one way out and to keep traversing the mountain – that is to walk up the other side of the canyon. This very steep and sometimes vertical trail is known as the Barranco Wall and isn’t conquered with trekking poles, but rather with your hands and feet.

Hand grips help to pull you up and over ledges and some sections have you hugging the rocks tight as you round a corner trying not to look down. It was a daunting sight to look up at and more so when you’re on it as it seems never ending. Definitely not something for the faint of heart.

The Barranco Wall was the highlight of the day, but we still had another hour to hour and a half of hiking left until our arrival at Karanga Camp, our home for the evening and night. Karanga Camp is about 2000 feet lower than the Lava Tower so the temperatures and wind were somewhat less and we settled into camp in late afternoon. Of course, everything was set up for us including the mess tent which now became our makeshift movie theatre to watch Temple Grandin on my iPad. Dickson, who served as our waiter, attendant and all-around great guy throughout our trip brought us another incredible dinner of fresh made soup along with pasta and sauce, for the first time sensing some bent towards carbo loading for our upcoming summit bid.

We had a short hike scheduled for the following day as we would be starting our ascent of Kilimanjaro in just over 24 hours.

A Long Slog to a High Camp….

We had made the decision to go to a higher camp than originally planned for the day which meant a significantly longer hike to over 15,000 ft where we’d spend the night (higher than I’d ever been, let alone slept, before). The porters who are carrying their own backpacks plus waterproof duffels on their heads have to break down camp after we leave for the day, pass us on the trail and have camp all set up for when we arrive. They are simply amazing. Two guides start off with us each morning and the third guide supervises the breakdown of camp and joins us at some point during the day. We have Mike, Michael and Emanuel guiding us and they are great. They’re constantly checking on our well being which includes a pulse ox and heart rate each morning and night, but most medical personal reading this would be shocked to know that the cutoff is 50% on the pulse ox. Lindsay said that if she ever said “hakuna matata” to a patient with a pulse ox of 50 in the hospital without calling a code she’d be fired!

The morning views of Kilimanjaro at sunrise were incredible – it was clear as a bell without a cloud in the sky. We started our hike after breakfast passing the original campsite we were supposed to stay at that night by a little after 11 am. The afternoon was a very long gradual uphill hike to the Lava Tower Camp and we were all very sore and drained when we arrived. We relaxed in our tents as it was too cold and windy outside and then assembled in the mess tent for hot chocolate and popcorn. As a simply amazing sunset gradually developed to the west looking at Mt. Meru which is the same height as our camp sticking up above a layer of clouds as the sun slowly sunk into the horizon and lit up the sky in a full palette of colors.

It became very, very cold after sunset and we all awaited dinner in the mess tent as the wind began to blow at what seemed like near hurricane strength and battered the tent while all the porters ran around securing the guide wires so we wouldn’t blow away. I think my telling everyone that we were in the same expedition tents used on Everest somehow didn’t entirely ease their minds. After a dinner of cream of celery soup and spaghetti with meat sauce we all ran to our tents to crawl into our sleeping bags except for me who is crazily typing this blog while the wind is really whipping my tent every few minutes. It’s an interesting experience and even more so when I know I’ll have to get up at some point (or two or three) during the night due the Diamox I’m taking to prevent altitude sickness and run out of my tent only to endure the cold and wind.

Leaving the rain forest and on to Shira Camp 1….

I actually slept pretty well until around 2:30 when I awoke to nature’s call only to find Lindsay and Danielle chatting and giggling in their tent and then beating me to the punch for the bushes. I sat in my tent and was eventually able to take care of things along with checking on them to make sure all was OK. We all eventually fell asleep amid the monkey cries and other unfamiliar noises of the forest.

Tea and coffee were brought to us at 6:30 after which we had to do our packing so they could break down the tents and pack our duffels while we were having breakfast. The breakfast was delicious with fresh fruit, oatmeal porridge, toast, crepes, scrambled eggs with onions, and sausage (which is really a hot dog, but is referred to as a sausage here in Tanzania). It was a relaxing visit and we even had an unexpected visitor in the form a large (and brave) blue monkey who stood at the doorway of our mess tent waiting for a handout from one of us. Had it been a baboon we would have been in real trouble.

Our hike began around 9 am and was supposed to take us 6 to 8 hours to reach our next camp. The first hour or so was through the remainder of the forest, but we soon broke out into a much more open terrain composed of brush and grasses.

After an hour or so, though, it was almost all uphill and much of it quite steep with steps cut into the hill. We traveled for hours uphill along a ridge line and eventually reached a flatter portion of today’s hike and took a lunch break. The views looking westward were amazing as were the clouds below us that were continually being pushed upward with the prevailing winds. As we turned one corner, a portion of the massive bulk that is Kibo Peak came into view though the clouds still shrouded the summit in such a teasing manner as the clouds merely swirled without revealing our goal. We arrived into camp earlier than expected and I think the guides were actually impressed with the pace we maintained throughout the day.

We spent the afternoon relaxing in camp and did take a little walk to explore as if we hadn’t already done enough walking today. While sitting in the mess tent with our hot chocolate and popcorn we studied the map of our upcoming days to see what we had gotten ourselves into. Emanuel, our head guide, came into the tent about that time and when we began discussing our upcoming plans with him he offered to use a different schedule that he thought would work better for us. It’s all about aclimitizing and the summit day and we could change our plans while allowing more time to aclimatize and give us more time in our final camp before our summit bid to rest and get ready since we’ll be leaving at midnight for that portion of the hike. Part of the reason for his offer, though, was due to the fact that we had been covering more miles than expected each day. So tomorrow we’ll be heading to the Lava Tower Camp which will take 7 to 8 hours and will be getting up bright and early at 6 am for coffee and then pack and breakfast at 7 am.

Dinner was an amazing fresh pumpkin soup, followed by a main course of pepper steak, rice, vegetable stew and pineapple. Another meeting with Emanuel to review our plans for tomorrow and to check our pulse oximetry and pulse rate to make sure we’re doing well. We all passed. Off to bed now…..

NOTE: While on the mountain we had very limited cell reception and certainly not enough to upload photos and work on the blog. Additionally, I didn’t have everyone’s photos at the time of posting so will likely add more photos later.

Well, I’m writing this sitting in my cozy tent in the rain forest with the multitude of ants tunneling their way underneath and my hopes that they will not find their way in. I’ll explain shortly….

The day began with breakfast at Tumaini Cottage – all the fruit and vegetables grown on the premises and fresh scrambled eggs from their own chickens. Pendo came by at the end of breakfast with the boys, Lennox and Lee (now 9 and 6 years old) along with 9 month old Gabriella who is as cute as a button. It was great to see the boys this morning, especially because they are heading off to boarding school in Nairobi tomorrow. It was tough for Leonard and Pendo to make that decision, but for them to get the education they deserve they have to go to private schools which are far to expensive in Arusha. There are public schools here, but as only 30% pass the standard seven exam that allows one to go to secondary school (equivalent of our high school), it leaves much to be desired.

We said goodbye to Pendo and the children along with Tumaini Cottage and began our drive to the trailhead that would begin our journey up the mountain. At the gate we met up with the entirety of our “crew” which is comprised of a head guide, two assistant guides, a cook and nineteen porters. The amount of equipment necessary is fairly immense as there are tents, sleeping pads, a mess tent, food, and other necessary supplies that have to be carried up the mountain with us. And the porters are only allowed to carry a certain amount of weight. We then drove the trailhead for our departure from civilization as a steady rain began and by the time we got out of the Land Cruiser, it was a full downpour requiring that we deploy every bit of rain gear that we had. We ascended about 2000 feet in several hours in and out of a pretty steady rain that managed to cause everyone to be quite wet by the time we reached camp which was already set up by the porters who went of us as we trekked up the mountain.

 

 

We have the luxuries in camp which include the mess tent and, of course, a lovely private toilet tent with a chemical toilet no less. We had popcorn before a dinner of wonderful leek soup followed by cut up potatoes, vegetables and fried talapia. During dinner, Danielle decided to use the bathroom and found herself doing the best imitation of the hot potato as the result of bitting ants having crawled up both legs of her pants and were actively biting her. Such is life in the rainforest. Jeff and Nick went to investigate and found multiple sizes of biting ants all actively staking out their claim to The best possible real estate when it comes to hitchhiking on a unwary travelers pant legs. After Jeff and Nick nuked the toilet tent with bug spray and salt from the guides, it turned out that the ants were already circling our tents and planning a major offensive. So here I sit in my tent typing this blog post and don’t dare stray out of my tent lest I get carried away by these rain forest arachnids from hell. Hopefully, tomorrow will be drier and less buggy than today. We have been given our wake up time of 6:30 am as we have a much longer hike than today as we try to acclimatize as we make our way to the top.

Tumaini Cottage….

We arrived to Kilimanjaro International Airport amidst the mass of other travelers coming to vacation here on safari or climbing Kilimanjaro. The airport here is quite small and having to pass through immigration can be quite daunting at times. And then there’s customs…more on that in a moment.

Having your visa ahead of time can make a huge difference as the line to obtain your visa here is massive which is why I always make sure we have ours well in advance. A thoughtful tip from Thomson Safaris who brought me here in 2009.

Every visit here (this is my twelfth) something changes just a little bit. A barrier here or there or new lines. This year, though, they asked everyone to pass through customs with our bags when I usually walk through the “nothing to declare” line. Perhaps it was the large hard sided Pelican case that caught their attention this time. The case carried our EEG machine that was donated by the EEG department at Penn and is one of the main objectives of our visit this year – we have a tech coming and Danielle and Lindsay are going to focus on epilepsy. Now I have brought lots of donated equipment with me on each trip and have never had an issue before – Danielle and I brought five large Baxter IV pumps with us in 2013! This time, though, they explained to me that I needed to have a letter or certificate from the ministry of health to bring the machine in whether it had been purchased or donated and, of course, that hadn’t been done. They brought over a gentleman who was very nice, but also very adamant and thus began our lengthy discussion as to what to do. He eventually brought me over to his office where we sat down to discuss things and during this time I was constantly deciding whether we should leave the machine and get the documentation later, but without a doubt, I wasn’t going to give him a bribe as I had decided that well in advance. At one point I walked back out to get a letter from my luggage and told Danielle that I’d meet her in the parking lot with the others when I was finished and she said she wasn’t going to walk out of the airport without me. That’s dedication! Honesty and common sense prevailed and they were eventually willing to accept the letter of introduction I had from FAME and give me the necessary documents without any transfer of money. I thanked them profusely and we were on our way.

 

Tumaini Cottage in Arusha was our first stop here and what a pleasant surprise. Tumaini means “hope” in Swahili. It is a little Oasis in the sea of humanity and traffic that is Arusha and when we pulled through the gate, exhausted from our eighteen plus hours of travel, Andy had tall glasses of fresh squeezed and cold fruit juice waiting for all of us and our drivers. Places like this are those that you remember, use over and over again and recommend to any friends and fellow travelers coming after you. I finished packing my stuff for Kili and settled into the wonderfully soft bed for a well deserved nights rest. Pendo will be here with the boys to visit with us before our hike and pick up clothes and shoes I brought for them from the States, and then we’ll be on our way to the mountain to begin our adventure.

And first the Mountain……

Well, we’re in the air right now on our way back to Tanzania for the beginning of our fall 2015 expedition. I thought it might be helpful to give a brief rundown of who will be with me and what our itinerary will be. This will be our largest contingent yet to visit FAME and perhaps our most adventurous.

To begin, several of us will be tackling Mount Kilimanjaro. This is something that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do, but the stars were aligned and with some gentle nudging from Danielle and Lindsay (or was it a challenge?), I decided to finally take the week necessary to make the climb up. And, oh yes, down as well. For those who aren’t aware, I will have to tell you that Kilimanjaro is the only one of the seven summits (the tallest peaks on each continent) that requires no technical skills to climb. It’s just a long hike up a tall mountain that happens to be just shy of 20,000 feet. My brother and nephew will also be joining us on the climb so it will be the five of us together on the mountain for a week. If all goes well, I will be able to blog going up so hopefully you will have great images in the coming days. Stay tuned…..

Meanwhile, I have two residents accompanying me, Ali Mendelson and Thu Vu, along with Danielle Becker (who has been there twice before and will be working specifically with epilepsy patients) along with Lindsay Ferarro, who is an epilepsy fellow. For this trip we are also bringing an EEG machine with us that we will leave there and have Cara Linenbroker joining us, who is an EEG technologist from Penn and will teach one of the nurses at FAME how to perform the EEGs in our absence. The last member of our group is Fima Macheret, the only non-neurologist to have come with us from Penn. Fima and Ali are getting married this weekend and will be traveling to Zanzibar for their honeymoon before joining us at FAME. Fima is a medicine hospitalist from Presbyterian Hospital at Penn and will be working directly with the other doctors at FAME to do more general medicine work.

This year is an election year in Tanzania which means that there are demonstrations and large gatherings that will curtail our ability to visit some of the traditional locations that we travel to. We will be spending more time at FAME and less at the mobile clinics, unfortunately, as our visits to these villages have become a twice annual routine and patients have come to expect our visits. We will make the best of our time, though, and I’m sure we will have plenty of work to do.

I hope you will enjoy my blogs over the coming weeks and I promise that they will include plenty of photos. I will hopefully provide the local flavor of the lovely culture that is Tanzania and has become my second home over the past six years.