Sleeping
• Can be quite difficult at altitude & in strange surroundings / a busy campsite & a lack of sleep can really affect you & your next days walking.
• Take earplugs that you can sleep with, the first couple of days I didn’t use/have any & then someone had a spare pair - I had some of the basic foam type ones which made such a massive difference!
• If possible take eye covers, as you will probably be getting to camp when its still light & have a few extra hours to spend, any extra sleep will help & it will make it much easier to sleep along with your earplugs.
• I had a travel pillow I took with me which I found to be very useful, you could always use a rolled up fleece etc if needed.
Drinking
• Drink very regularly, a big part of avoiding altitude sickness is drinking a little & often, aiming to have at least 3 litres & if possible 4 to 5 litres of water a day, preferrably having the majority of the water before 5pm. If you drink a lot of water after 5 you may need to go for wee's in the cold / dark of the campsite which is generally better to avoid.
• If possible take a camel water pack thing (the plastic container that can hold up to 3 litres) & 1 * 1litre metal water bottle. The camel thing makes it much easier to carry & drink the water than carrying lots of bottles. The drinking tube on the camel pack will freeze up on the ascent on the last day which is why you'll need a metal (as opposed to plastic) water container.
• Some pople on the trip were putting eloctrolytes / powder / cordials in their water. I didn't, but I don't mind the taste of water. It will be boiled every morning so it may be worth taking something to change the flavour if you're fussy on such matters.
Eating
• If possible try to eat whatever they give you & as much as you can. I was very, very surprised at how good the food was on my trek/climb, but you will be burning a lot of calories every day & it's important to try & eat a lot to help replace / keep your energy levels going.
• Salt - I don't normally put salt on anything I eat, but it's a good idea to put a fair bit of salt on your food as you will be using a lot of energy & sweating out the salt content of your body, I found when I started to put salt on my food I felt a lot better.
• Lucozade / high energy tablets are brilliant for the last day, try to save 2 packets for the ascent.
• Take quite a lot of easy to eat sweets - I made the mistake of taking hard boiled sweets as I thought they'd last longer, this was true but on the last day you're generally struggling to breathe as there is 1/6th the amount of oxygen as at sea level & they're not easy to eat on the last day although are good on the earlier days.
• Energy bars can be very good, unfortunately I bought a load of bars without trying them, basing my selection on the energy / protein provided in them (stupid I know), and didn't really like them, so make sure you try any food you're going to take with you before you go!
Other
• If possible weigh your main bag before you go out there, we had a limit of 15KG that can be taken up / carried by the porters, so if possible keep what your taking to a minimum as you will be asked to leave stuff behind / at your hotel if it is too heavy.
• Take a reasonably large daypack with you (that you will be carrying), which can fit in everything you will need for the day i.e. your water, hat, gloves, fleece, waterproofs, valuables & camera along with any sweets etc you will need for the day. You will generally start off the day wearing quite a few layers as it is quite cold & as the sun rises it will get warm very quickly & you will want to store these unneeded layers.
• Take very high factor sunscreen i.e. 40+ & apply it regularly, you're much closer to the sun so will be more likely to get burnt, plus you'll probably be sweating a fair bit depending on the weather. Pretty much everyone in my group ended up getting sunburnt at somepoint & it's very important to remember it as it can make life quite uncomfortable on the later days.
• Pretty much everyone used trekking poles, they're useful to have on the way down, I didn't find them particularly useful on the way up, but people say they're good for getting into a walking rhythm!
• If possible air your feet when you get back to camp after your days walk & wriggle your toes, I found this helped & supposedly it helps reduce blisters & problems with your feet!
• Try to do long 30 second stretches on all the muscle groups at the of the days walking, this isnt necissary but will help reduce any aches & pains & prepare the muscels for the next days walk.
• The local town is called Arusha - myself and a couple of other people from the group went in unaided & although we didn’t have any problems it is very busy & there will be a lot of people pestering you to buy things. Apparently this is one of the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world, so if possible go in with a guide or someone who knows the city & try to avoid going into it at night unless with someone.
Clothing
• Take a well worn in pair of hiking boots so that your not going to get blisters / have any surprises with your feet, you will definitely need these for support as the terrain is rough & varies widely.
• On the first day I just wore a thin pair of socks with my hiking boots & found at the end of the day that my feet were hurting, every other day I wore one thin pair of sports socks & a large pair of hiking socks & was comfortable & had no problems.
• I would also advise taking a fresh pair of sports socks for each day you will be walking & one / two pairs of the thick hiking socks for the trip as you should not need to change these as often (to help on the weight of your bag).
• If possible take one pair of warm (normal) gloves for walking & a pair of very warm i.e. skiing gloves for the ascent day.
• I am sure you will be given a list of relevant equipment to bring, but as an example, on the last day I was wearing longjohns, warm walking trousers, waterproof trousers. A skin long sleeved vest, two warm long sleeve t shirts, a fleece & a goretex jacket, warm hat, warm gloves & headtorch.
• It would be well worth keeping a set of clean clothes aside for travelling back in, I did this & was very glad! You will be surprised how quickly you go through / need new clothes on the mountain & you will be most likely packing light to try & get under the 15kg weight limit.
• You will most likely be tipping the porters at the end of your trip, we did this as a group & each ended up putting in 140 dollars each to be divided between the cooks / group leaders / porters etc. You may also want to donate any unneeded clothes / equipment to the porters at the end of the walk.
The Toilet / Washing
• Take a fair few biodegradable wet-wipes as there are no showers up there & you can also use them as toilet paper.
• Mouthwash was very handy as it was easier to use to to rise your mouth / wash out toothpase after washing your teeth as water later on or early on in the day is not so easily available unless you've planned ahead!
Money & Valuables
• It's common to tip people & when you are buying things people are bad at giving you the correct change. If possible try to get Tanzanian Shillings before you go over or exchange dollars / sterling into a mixture of denominations as soon as possible, generally get the lower denominations i.e. 5000 / 10000 notes. The same goes for dollars, I took only 10 & 20 dollar notes which were far too large & difficult to use, if possible get more lower end notes i.e. 1 & 5 dollars.
• Always keep your money/wallet/passport close by if possible, both myself & a friend had money taken out of our hotel room when I stupidly left it in my daypack when I went for lunch at the hotel bar & had 70 dollars stolen - same goes for when you're up the mountain as although I'm sure porters are trustworthy they get to camp considerably earlier than you will & your bags may be left unattended
• Negotiating - When you get to the bottom of the mountain there will be a lot of people trying to sell you things & generally trying to rip you off / pester you until you say yes. If you do want something you can generally get it a lot cheaper by bartering with them i.e. they will generally sell it at half the price they originally ask you for & there will be a lot of people selling similar things so just try & ask around.
The Ascent
• This will be a lot tougher than any of your previous days trekking. Try to be as prepared as possible in all the items listed above & remember that you CAN do it! About 2 hours into the terk I thought I couldn't go on & was really struggling, but just take it a step at a time & remember that this is a once in a life time opportunity & the reward will be great & something you can look back on forever.
You will undoubtedly get some form of altitude sickness, nearly everyone who climbs it (even the porters) do. I had headaches (near the temples) & my stomach felt ropey as did everyone in my group, but it is not permanent & as long as you try to follow the points above along with keeping your group leaders informed of how you feel & following their advice you'll be fine.
I hope this helps!
Mark
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