Day to day Journal of my climb kilimanjaro

DAY 1 -- Machame Gate to Machame Camp
27.06.2012
Elevation (m): 1830m to 3100m
Elevation (ft): 6000ft to 10,200ft
Distance: 11km
Hiking Time: 6 hours
Habitat: Mountain Forest

We drove to the Machame gate of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park. The journeypasses through the village of Machame, which is located on the lower slopes ofthe mountain.
We had to register ourselves at the gate before we started the hike which tookabout an hour and a half because there were many people. We then left the parkgate and walked through the rain forest on a winding trail up a ridge. Lowerdown, the trail was not muddy and slippery since it had not rained but stillour gaiters and trekking poles came in handy. We continued the hike and saw alot of different flowers, which the guides explained to us and highlighted theflowers that are only found in this forest; they are Impatiens psodiviols, KilimanjaroImpatiens and camphor trees.
We had apacked lunch which included Chicken, a sandwich, a queen cake and bananas.
Since theguides kept us busy by explaining to us the different flowers we did not reallyhave time to think how long the hike would take us and we reached the MachameCamp around 6:45pm and it was already dark. We went to register ourselves andwere shown where we would sleep, we were given hot water to clean ourselvesthen called for dinner which consisted of rice, minced meat and vegetable soup.

That nightI did not sleep because my body was adapting to the weather so was awake thewhole night; since I went with my I pad I was able to read a book instead ofthink about the hiking that lay ahead of me.
DAY 2 -- Machame Camp to Shira Camp
28.06.2012
Elevation (m): 3100m to 3840m
Elevation (ft): 10,200ft to 12,600ft
Distance: 9km
Walking Time: 6 hours
Habitat: Moorland
We werewoken up by our server at 7:00am and given hot water to clean ourselves and shortylyafter had breakfast. We then left the glades of the rain forest and continuedon an ascending path, crossing the little valley walking along a steep rockyridge, covered with heather, until the ridge ends this was the best day for me.We had a lot to see including different types of flowers which included Red hotpoker, Gladiulus wastsonioides Gladiola impatiens Kilimanjaro, Helichlisumnewii, Breaded trees,Jenecio kilimanjaro .

My friendwas not feeling well us we approached shira camp so her sister and I advisedher to take Diamox which is to treat altitude sickness, and the route thenturned West onto a river gorge. Overnight at the shira camp, we left my friendand her sister resting and the chief guide and I went for a walk for an hour hetold me this was to prepare me for acclimatization the following day, when wegot back dinner was ready and my friend was feeling much better so we all haddinner which was pumpkin soup, minced meat and rice.
DAY 3-- Shira Camp to Lava Tower toBarranco Camp
29.06.2012
Elevation(m): 3840m to 4630m to 3860m
Elevation (ft): 12,600ft to 12,700ft
Distance: 15 km
Walking Time: 9hours
Habitat: Semi-desert
Afterbreakfast we left shira camp and passed through  the Shira Plateau, we continued to the east upa ridge, passing the junction towards the peak of Kibo. As we continued, ourdirection changed to the South East towards the Lava Tower, called the"Shark's Tooth.
We hadstill opportunities to see more flowers protea kilimand charica, Helichlisumpendulum, here  we had our packed lunchwhich was a sandwich , chicken , juice , Shortly after the tower, I startedfeeling unwell with a headache and explained my situation to the assistantguide and he advised me to take a pain killer or Diamox  if I had any because he knows it  help some people , but I did not take anything at that point.

We then cameto the second junction which brought us up to the Arrow Glacier at an altitudeof 4876m / 15,997 ft. We now continued down to the Barranco Hut at an altitudeof 3860m / 12,664 at this point of our descent it helped my headache feelbetter. Here we rested, enjoyed dinner which consisted of soup, macaroni, andslept overnight. Although we ended the day at the elevation as when youstarted, this day was very important for acclimatization and helped prepare usfor summit day.
DAY 4--- Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp
30.06.2012
Elevation(m): 3860m to 4200m
Elevation (ft): 12,700ft to 13,800ft
Distance: 7 km
Hiking Time: 7 hours
Habitat: Alpine Desert
We were wokenup at 7:00am and got hot water for cleaning and breakfast was at 7:30, I wokeup with swollen and painful eyes and also felt a bit sad so the guide was reallyconcerned about me because I was quiet throughout the day. My friend wasactually the first person to ask if I was ok because my eyes were swollen I wasnot talking but I tried to explain to them that apart from my eyes, when its myanniversary of being free from cancer some times I feel sad whereas some times am happy and excited.
After breakfast, we left Barranco and continued on a steep ridge passing theBarranco Wall, to the Karanga Valley campsite.
Since Iwas feeling tired I went ahead and left my group behind and arrived in the Karangacamp one hour before others and went straight to my tent to rest and when theygot there my friend went to check on me and came with warm water mixed withsalt (Saline solution) to clean my eyes after that we had hot lunch whichconsisted of French fries and roasted chicken since it was my ‘birthday’ i.e the day I completed my cancertreatment which I celebrate as my second birthday.

In theevening we had minced meat and rice, vegetable soup, and after dinner theassistant guide called all the porters and explained to them that I was 8 yearsfree of cancer and they all sung for me happy birthday and wished me all thebest for the future.
DAY 5 -- Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp
01.07.2012
Elevation(m): 3930m to 4600m
Elevation (12893ft): 15091ft
Distance: 6 km
Hiking Time: 4 hours
Habitat: Alpine Desert

Here myfriend’s sister was not feeling well so it took us long time to get to the
Barafu camp,  the tour heads up a moraineridge moving ‘pole pole’. The views here were spectacular of the southernglaciers and the glacial valleys that snake their way down the mountain. Thefinal stage to Barafu camp is quite steep, and as always it's taken very slowly.As with the day before we reached camp by around lunch time leaving lots oftime to prepare and relax, but because my friends sister was not well wearrived around 3:00pm and had a hot lunch at around 4:00pm. In the evening ourguide gave us instructions of how our summit will be and advised us to go tobed and rest. We were called for dinner at 7:00pm and after that we went backto bed after putting on all our warm layers. We all slept in the same tent forwarmth and were woken up at 10:00pm for tea.
Day 6 -- Barafu Camp to Summit to MwekaGate and Moshi
01.07.2012 – 02.07.2012
Elevation(m): 4600m to 5895m (and down to 1830m)
Elevation (ft): 15,100ft to 19,300ft (and down to 6,000ft)
Distance: 7km ascent / 31km descent
Hiking Time:6 - 8 hours ascent / 10 - 12 hours descent
Habitat: Stone scree and ice-capped summit
We then startedour final ascent at 11:15pm; the head guide decided to go with one porter in casemy friend’s sister got any problem and we would divide after two hours ofhiking i.e. I would go ahead with one guide and another guide would come withmy friend plus an extra guide with my friend’s sister. Our way to the summit goesbetween the Rebmann and Ratzel glaciers. We headed in a northwesterly directionand ascend through heavy scree towards Stella Point on the crater rim. This isthe most mentally and physically challenging portion of the trek.
We left myfriend and her sister around 2:00am and we said our byes to one another andwished each other the best. It was a difficult decision but we had to do it, sowe took off with one guide, who was the assistant and he told me if I was tosee the sun rise at the summit we had to go faster because we were runninglate. We were the trailing group but we were able to overtake all the othergroups who had by pass us before and reached the summit by 6:07am, after takingsome photos I started feeling real cold and we decided to descend and aftersome distance, at Stella Point, I saw my friend with our chief guide. I thendecided to go back to the summit with them, but first we took some photos stellapoint and then continued to Uhuru peak. I wanted to encourage and ensure thatshe reached Uhuru peak despite the fact that I was tired.
For the descentto barafu camp I ran down through the volcanic rocks that look like a river ofsand which was about 7km, and then I waited for my friend and the guides toenter the base camp of barafu together.
There we discoveredthat my friends sisters situation had worsened and we had to have a quick lunchand pack our bags to leave as soon as possible because my friends sister had toget to a lower altitude to help in reliving her situation (She had HighAltitude Pulmonary Edema and needed to descend ASAP). She was carried by theguides and porters on their backs because there was nothing we can use until wereached millennium camp which was at about 3900m. As we arrived, they gave us astretcher to continue down to mweka camp where we signed out and continued ourdescent down to the Mweka Park Gate where the ambulance was waiting to take mysisters friend to hospital. The route down was wet and muddy and my friend hadto use her trekking poles to help her down.

Special thanks tothe   English Speaking Cancer Association and  all of you who supported me, to  make my adventure a success.