Mainers’ trip includes climb of Kilimanjaro Mountain is Africa’s highest

Last October, an adventurous group of Mainers set out to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, not only the highest point in Africa, but the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. On the morning of Oct. 21, nine of us stood at 19,340 feet on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. We also took advantage of our opportunity in Africa to spend four days on a wildlife photo safari and saw an amazing diversity of animals that were straight out of the pages of National Geographic.

The two-week trip was organized and led by me and Eric Clapp of ASA Adventure Travel in Brewer and included Bangor residents Lee Souweine and Cathy Fessenden. The rest of the group was made up of Mainers from Lewiston, the midcoast, the Portland area, a couple from Maryland, and a wild-card German from Zurich.

Kilimanjaro is far and away the highest and most famous volcano in Africa, a splendid solitary snowcapped giant rising above the plains near the border of Tanzania and Kenya. We climbed up the Machame route, although it would be more accurate to say we hiked up the mountain since Machame is a popular trekking route. We drove to the trailhead at about 6,000 feet, picking up porters and supplies along the way.

The daily hiking routine is dictated by the altitude gain that is required to acclimate to the thin air before attempting the summit. The trail gains several thousand feet each day over four or five miles between camp sites. Each day reveals another ecological zone of unique plants and animals until you reach the barren alpine slopes.

We were lucky to see a serval, a small cat similar to a cheetah, high on the mountain. The final climbing camp at Barafu is just over 15,000 feet – an uncomfortable height for sleeping, but we were up at midnight to start the summit climb. The early start yielded a beautiful sunrise at Stella Point and an early morning summit on Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the rim of the Kilimanjaro massif.

The Kilimanjaro massif is dominated by the Kibo, a relatively young volcanic cone topped by a broad two-mile-wide caldera with a half-mile-wide central crater and ash cone that sometimes emits ash and volcanic gasses. The entire mountain is protected within Kilimanjaro National Park.

The famed glaciers of Kilimanjaro all flow down from the rim of the crater, both inward toward the central Reusch Crater and outward in nearly every direction. The glaciers on Kibo have lost nearly half their area in the past century and may be gone in less than two decades. Although this may be due to global warming, it is also possible that increased population and land-use changes around the mountain may be affecting local weather and reducing snowfall on the summit.

The wildlife safari included several days on the famous Serengeti Plain, a day and a half in an amazing volcanic caldera known as Ngorongoro Crater, and a half-day visiting Olduvai Gorge, where important early hominid fossils were discovered. October is the end of the dry season and most of the migratory game are usually farther north in Kenya. The fall rains were early, which brought game down to the region.

We were treated to scenes of thousands of wildebeest, zebra, and various species of gazelle. Lions, elephants, hyenas, and giraffes were also very common and often came within yards of our land rovers. Nights in camp were even accompanied by the dubious treat of lions in the bushes and hyenas trying to steal supplies.

Steve Shepard of ASA Adventure Travel will present a slide show and lecture on the climb and safari at 7 p.m. on April 6. The presentation will be at the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Orrington. The Center requests a $6 donation to support their programs.