1. Mighty Kilimanjaro
- The Worlds' Most Accessible Summit
Snow-capped Kilimanjaro, floating above the
clouds is no doubt one of the most beautiful and impressive
sights in the natural world.
Even hard-boiled non-believers, in their unguarded moments,
empathise with the Maasai who call it the “House of God”.
The mountain is one of the Seven Top Summits of the world
–it has the highest point on the African continent. Though
there are higher mountains, they form part of mountain ranges,
Everest for example. But Kili, as it is popularly known, is
the highest freestanding mountain in the world. It rises gently
from 3,000 feet, reaches for the heavens and only halts after
a 16,000 feet ascent.
The diameter at the base is an amazing 64 kilometres.
Kilimanjaro is located to the northeast of
Tanzania, on the border with Kenya. There is a popular myth
of how the mountain came to be part of Tanzania, which was
at one time part of the German Empire. Queen Victoria is supposed
to have granted the mountain to her German grandson Wilhelm
(later Kaiser Wilhelm II) as a birthday gift. It is also said
that the Germans had been grumbling at the blatant unfairness
of missing a snowcapped mountain within their empire while
the Queen has two – the second being Mount Kenya.
Though historians have discredited the myth,
it has refused to die and it is still a source of amusement
for many. Unwilling to allow the truth to stand in the way,
some anti-colonial historians fume with indignation, citing
how the boundaries of Eastern Africa were arbitrarily decided
in the capitals of the imperial powers. To most people in
the west, Kilimanjaro has long been associated with Ernest
Hemingway on account of his 1936 short story “The Snows
of Kilimanjaro”. In 1952, Hollywood fascinated by the
magic of Kili the book evokes, turned it into a movie with
Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in leading roles.
Kilimanjaro is young as far as mountains go,
and geologists allow it only 750,000 years. The mountain is
made up of three dormant volcanoes -Kibo (19,340 feet), Shira
(13,000 feet) and Mawenzi (16,896 feet). Kibo occasionally
belches some steam and sulfur. The highest point on Kibo is
Uhuru Peak, where you see some awesome glaciers and fantastic
views of the country below. Though Kili is only three degrees
south of the equator, the peaks of Kibo and Mawenzi are covered
in ice and snow year round.
Many learned people in Europe hotly disputed that a snow-capped
mountain could be found at the equator when the German missionary
Johann Rebmann reported it in 1849.
Going up the mountain, you move from tropical
to artic conditions. There are five distinct climatic zones,
with each zone taking approximately 3,300 feet. The zones
are- the lower slopes, then forest, then moorland, alpine
desert and the summit. The lower slopes are cultivated and
agriculture flourishes. The forest region is dry in the north
and wet towards the southern slopes. The forest carries many
tree species including podocarpus, camphor, fig and olive
trees and bamboo. The only animals to be found here are blue
and Colobus monkeys and a variety of birds including hornbill
and turaco. At the moorland region, you find the giant groundsels
and lobelias common in the high altitude mountain regions
of eastern Africa. Further up, vegetation and animal life
are sparse.
Kili is the worlds’ most accessible summit.
Any reasonably strong and ambitious person, without using
any special mountaineering equipment can conquer this giant.
It is however hard work. Altitude and the resulting thin air
will be the main challenge and not your failing strength.
To avoid succumbing to high altitude sickness, you guides
will constantly advise, you take the mountain slowly, slowly
or “pole pole” as they say in Swahili. You should
therefore avoid a quick ascent and take time to acclimatise
to the mountains’ oxygen challenged air. By ignoring
such good advice many young males fail to reach the summit,
when older more deliberate climbers make it.
Page 2 Article on Mt. Kilimanjaro
NOTE:
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