Tag Archives: gallery

Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Steve at Barafu Camp

Saturday 1st August 2015, 6.10pm (day 1,437)

Steve at Barafu camp, 1/8/15

Barafu camp lies at 4,600m, or about 15,100 feet, and is ‘base camp’ for the final ascent to the summit of Kili, which rises behind this point. One arrives there around lunchtime and is supposed to get some sleep in the afternoon and evening because the final climb is done overnight. But the views are amazing, and I was not the only one defying advice and being up and about later on as the sun went down behind the shoulder of Kibo (and what must be one of the world’s most spectacularly-sited toilets, visible to the right).

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bird in the Karanga Valley

Friday 31st July 2015, 1.00pm (day 1,436)

Bird in Karanga valley, 31/7/15

Did not see a huge amount of fauna on Kili, though with so many people around this is probably attributable to animals’ shyness rather than depopulation as such. There were flocks of big white-necked ravens, with impressive beaks, however, and also quite a few of these sparrow-like birds. This one was pictured in the Karanga valley, which we dropped into just before the end of walking on day 4, here at about 3,700m (12,140 feet).

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Landscape

The porters, and Kibo

Thursday 30th July 2015, 9.25am (day 1,435)

Porters and Kibo, 30/7/15

In no way was this climb of Kilimanjaro a solo effort, and I mean that beyond just the fact I went up as part of a group of walkers. We had four guides, then also a team of porters, who took most of our luggage up the mountain, not to mention the tents, cooking equipment and other such gear. These guys (and occasionally girls — saw two or three female porters during the week) put in an astonishing amount of work and without them the climb would not have been possible for us. Here, some of them are pictured on day 3, which was one of only two fully sunny days during the week. Kibo, the main peak of the Kili massif, is in the background — getting closer… We approached it today through this Mars-like landscape.

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Landscape

Shira Camp, in the rain

Wednesday 29th July 2015, 4.35pm (day 1,434)

Shira camp, 29/7/15

Day 2 ended at Shira Camp, 3,810m (12,500 feet, or 2.37 miles) above sea level. It probably looks nicer than this in decent weather, but most of the second half of this day was spent in the rain, a slightly dispiriting experience. Should you ever climb Kili, don’t necessarily expect it to take place in some kind of glorious African sunshine — a lot of the time the weather was rather reminiscent of the Lake District.

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

At the Machame Gate

Tuesday 28th July 2015, 11.00am (day 1,433)

Machame gate, 28/7/15

There are various routes one can take up Kilimanjaro. Ours was known as the Machame route, named for its starting point, one of the gates to the Kilimanjaro National Park. This point stood at 1,800m (just over 5,900 feet), so was already higher than I had ever actually walked before. As you can see, it was popular with these critters, blue monkeys, this one using this information board as a vantage point to scope out the potential for stealing the food of the other critters, the hundreds of walkers, porters and guides getting ready to start on the climb (one thing about Kili — you don’t do it for the solitude).

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Portrait

At the Kilimanjaro Orphanage, Moshi

Monday 27th July 2015, 9.35am (day 1,432)

Kilimanjaro orphanage, 27/7/15

The tour company that organised our hike up Kili (Zara Tours) look after their porters and generally seem to support the local community, including this orphanage in Moshi, which we visited while spending a rest day before beginning the hike. I know it’s easy for such pictures to seem exploitative but I hope this one isn’t, it is just meant to represent the fact that although basic I thought this seemed an essentially happy place. Most of the orphans are that way because of HIV, though apparently rates of infection in Tanzania are declining from their peak of a few years ago, which is good news.

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Landscape

On the road from Dar

Sunday 26th July 2015, 7.05am (day 1,431)

Road from Dar, 26/7/15

From sunset in Turkey to sunrise the following morning in Tanzania. Taken from the back of the minibus into which I and seventeen of my fellow walkers were packed, on our ten-hour journey north to the Kilimanjaro region. No idea where we are at this point, so the records will have to show the location as “unspecified”, but the beautiful landscapes we passed through boded well for the walk to come.

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Urban scene

View from Istanbul airport

Saturday 25th July 2015, 8.00pm (day 1,430)

Minarets at sunset, 25/7/15

We flew to Tanzania on Turkish Airlines so changed planes in Istanbul, allowing this city to get onto the blog a second time following my trip to Beirut two years ago. Who knows, one day I might even leave the airport here — it’s a city I’ve never properly visited. This was taken from the plane as we taxied to the second take-off of the day.

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Airport hotel bar

Friday 24th July 2015, 9.20pm (day 1,429)

Airport hotel, 24/7/15

Well, I’m back from Kilimanjaro, and yes I did make the summit, but you will have to wait a short while to see it because I have several hundred photos to get through this morning. No excitement with this first one however, as I waited out a Friday night in one of the massive and anonymous hotels sitting just outside the boundary fence of London’s Heathrow airport. In such places, everyone is just waiting it out, aren’t they, including these three, with the bloke on the right ruminating about how much like Simon Cowell he looks, only without his cash (or why would he be in this hotel?). It will get more interesting… I promise.

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Jul 23 2015
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Interior

Packing for Kilimanjaro

Thursday 23rd July 2015, 1.50pm (day 1,428)

Kili kit, 23/7/15

OK, we’re finally here. I’m off tomorrow for the first stages of a trip that on Sunday 2nd August should culminate with me reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro, at 19,340 feet (5,895 meters). I’m not taking the laptop so there will be a two-week hiatus in the blogging, but hopefully not in the picture-taking — I have a backup camera just in case…  I’m certainly ready, in fact I feel like I am just hanging around and am very keen to get on with it. So let’s do it. I’m back late on 6th August, will probably be spending all day on the 7th sorting out the social media, so expect to hear from me again then. In the mean time, if you would like to support my fundraising cause, the Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team, feel free to visit my sponsorship page: every little helps and all monies raised will go to the CVSRT.

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