The Roof of Africa

 

The eighteen months of training weekends, bag packing, sponsor seeking and preparation were over. On the 7^th July, 12 Venture Scouts and 3 Leaders left Edinburgh Airport, en route to Kilimanjaro International Airport, to attempt the highest mountain in Africa at 19341ft Kilimanjaro is ‘The Roof of Africa’

 

After a long flight and meeting up with our Russian Scout climbers, we arrived to meet our Tanzanian Scout Liason Mr Kapungo. We were staying in a hostel in Moshi, the nearest town to the Mountain.

 

We found out that the plan was to climb by the Marangu route staying in huts, however due to an administration mix up it turned out that the park authority had no knowledge of us. Into the breech stepped Mr Shakir a scouter from Arusha, and the man who would organize our 3 day safari trip, if we ever got to climb the mountain! A lot of serious negotiation and no small amount of money later and we had permission to climb the mountain by the little used and remote Rongai route.

 

This turned out to be a bonus as we would be camping throughout and only descending via the ‘tourist route’. Our plan was to meet and climb with Tanzanian Scouts and we duly met a group from Marangu, of whom 2 of the scouts, Victor and Rugewanma would climb with us. They wre soon kitted up along with Willie our guide and his assistant guide and cook Elvis Williamson (honest). We set off on the 3 hour bus journey to the start at Rongai. This track was soon christened ‘the Rocky road to Rongai’ but despite the rough terrain we only saw one other bus crashed off the road!

 

After a good luck sending off ceremony, we were at last walking through fields and forestry to our first camp at 8000ft. Some porters were mandatory and they cooked tea while we set up camp. Chris Aitken the team trainee vet checked out the next days dinner that had escaped from its basket and was clucking about the campsite. At this point a number of members became vegetarian!

  

Having taken blood oxygen levels to monitor acclimatization, we settled down for our first night on the slopes of the ‘shining mountain’.

 

An early start saw us climb through temperate rain forest into Alpine conditions, getting dryer and rockier as we ascended. We were heading for the second rocks campsite at 11000ft. This was well above cloud level and was subsequently much colder. After a night of star gazing and chatting into the small hours, we settled down to a frosty night.

 

 

Dat three was to be a very long affair – after an early start wa ascended to the 15500ft Kibo camp where we set up camp and rested until about 11.30pm when we prepared to start the ascent to the crater rim and then hopefully to the summit.

 

With head torches bobbing in the dark we started the long, steep and rocky climb to Gilmans Point, this section of the route is the hardest and we managed to get everyone to 18000ft , at which point the altitude, cold and exhaustion meant descending for 4 members of the team. The rest of the team slogged up to Gimans Point then walked the traverse of the crater rim to Uhuru Peak the summit.

 

Dawn was breaking over Africa, a sight we were privileged to see, it was breathtaking although the sun brought no warmth to cold limbs, eleven of the team stood on the summit, an exceptional effort by all and after a few pictures we made our way back to Gilmans.

 

Most of the summit team were by now very cold and our expedition doctor was suffering from altitude sickness! The danger was now slipping through exhaustion and cold. We descended the tricky steep section back to the Kibo camp to meet the rest of the expedition. We struck camp and headed down the mountain to Horombo camp, with spectacular views of Mawense, one of the tree tops of Kilimanjaro. We then continued down the well worn track to the Marangu gate where we met our Scout hosts and after a farewell exchange of songs, said goodbye to our porters and guides. 

 

So back to Moshi for a well earned rest – actually no we were taken straight into a meeting with the Area Government Official who congratulated us and presented certificates to us. We in turn presented the Tanzanian Scouts in the Area with a lap top computer which they had requested beforehand to help with administration. This was donated by Bitwise Ltd Dunfermline. 

 

We then started our service/promotion projects with the Tanzanian Scouts. We visited a primary school; and met the school; run scout troop. All school activities came to a halt as 15 kilted Scottish Ventures chatted with and then helped plant trees (which we supplied) and re- rendered classroom buildings. The next day was spent at a secondary school, again planting trees and discussing scouting. We had a close encounter with a snake and tasted freshly cut sugar cane. We had taken masses of writing books, pens, paper and games with us and donated these to the schools where even basic equipment is in short supply. 

 

We set off for Arusha and into the capable hands of Mr Shakir who runs Adventure Tours and Safaris, he is also the local scout leader, and would be running our 3 day safari. A packed tour started with a trip to the Tarangire National Park famous for tree climbing lions, then on to the Lake Manyara National Park with its views of elephants, giraffes, baboons and the Great Rift Valley. The next day was spent in the Ngorogoro Crater, which is a World Heritage Site, where we saw rhinos, hippos, antelopes and zebra – a truly amazing place. Our last day on safari dawned at 5.00am and saw us drive up the roughest of roads to Lake Natron where the flamingos get their pink colour and where we also met Masai villagers.

 

Back in Arusha we met Mr Shakirs scout troop and had atraditional Muslim meal and visited their Mosque. Finally we visited an orphanage supported by the Scouts and took food and games and spent the morning playing with the children. We thought our African Adventure was over but our flight home was cancelled so we flew from Nairobi in Kenya, a 7 hour bus ride away. The airline put us up in a 4 star hotel so it did have a up side! 

 

We would like to thank our sponsors and helpers: Tiso Ltd, Keela Scotland, Tunnocks Ltd, Summits Ltd, Motorola, Bitwise, Alltitude, and all the Scouters, friends, and parents who supported us. Thank-you it makes a difference.

 

Chris Aitken, Pete Bratcher, Christine Chalmers, Mark Doggett, Jennifer Hannah, Liz McIntosh, Ross Moy, Ian McNair, Catherine Noden, Linzie Mack, Paul Davidson, Steven Thomson, Kevin Lloyd, Alex Munnoch, Kev Mitchell