From the Itinerary - September 5, 2019: An early start to reach Stella Point in time for sunrise; on to Uhuru Peak (5895m), the highest point in Africa; descend to Millennium Camp (3800m) We will start our ascent by torchlight around midnight so that we can be up on the crater rim by sunrise. The steep climb over loose volcanic scree has some well-graded zigzags and a slow but steady pace will take us to Stella Point (5735m), in about five or six hours. We will rest there for a short time to enjoy the sunrise over Mawenzi. Those who are still feeling strong can make the two hour round trip from here along the crater rim to Uhuru Peak (5,895m), passing close to the spectacular glaciers and ice cliffs that still occupy most of the summit area. The descent to Barafu is surprisingly fast, and after some refreshments we continue to descend to reach our final campsite (3800m) at Millenium camp. Most of us will be too tired to notice the beauty of the forest surrounding the crowded campsite. This is an extremely long and hard day with between 11 and 15 hours of walking at high altitude - 6 miles.
This was a short night - we were awakened at 11:30 for the final push. It was cold, but not as cold as I thought. Even so, I had on everything I owned. Imagine 400 people hiking at roughly the same time. Anyway, weather is perfect and all these people had on a headlamp roughly staggered up the trail - it was beautiful.
Unfortunately, no picture except in my memory. As a team we do the "Uhuru shuffle" and slowly go up the hill. We didn't quite make it to Stella Point for sunrise, but when we did get there we stopped for tea and a snack. We had one person who couldn't make it up the last 200 meters, which was a shame, and had to go back down to camp. I expected a more difficult final ascent with a lot of scree, but was well "switchbacked".
Uhuru Peak is a bit further on, and up. These last 100+ meters was very difficult for some people - surprisingly it was not difficult for me and I just continued up slowly. I was surprised that the glacier wasn't more prevalent - I guess this too is a result of global warming. There was a weird "stick" sculpture you could see marking the final destination so you could pace yourself up the final part of the trail.
The environment reminded me a bit of pictures of the Moon - black lava and very bleak. Weather couldn't have been better - cloudless sky, cold and crisp. The bunny also made it with me! The altitude didn't bother him at all:)
Was very sad that I had to come down. I could have stayed up there for much longer. The descent to last night's camp - Barafu - was awful - hundreds of feet of scree skiing which I hadn't trained for and was quite frightening. Finally, one of the guide's insisted I give him
my pack and I eventually made it down to the final section of the trail. Then a final surprise when there was a bit more scrambling. The guides were mandatory at this point because I was exhausted and trying to cling onto rocks. Anyway - not a lot of pictur
es of this part of the trek.
We stopped at Barafu for our meal and continued down to the Milleneum Camp for the night. The day never seemed to end as we continued the downward march. The fog closed in.
You can definitely feel the decrease in altitude already. We finally made it to the camp and passed out. This is our last night of camping - thank goodness! Will be weird and wonderful experience to be back in a hotel tomorrow night.
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