Unfortunately, the glaciers are disappearing, due to climatic change, but also because Kilimanjaro consists of three volcanoes and the youngest of them, Kibo, where the summit is located, is dormant and the ground at the summit is still hot and sublimates the ice! 🥶🥵By the way, this is the reason why the walls of the glacier are so vertical and there is no water at the ground from melting ice: the heat comes from the ground upwards!! 😵
Day one: starting the trek after a long wait while the porters' load was weighted. We have a team of 16 with us, including guides, cook, waiter, and porters. You can notice some concern in our faces
We gain altitude slowly, maybe too slowly, through the jungle, starting at 1800 m asl. It is not yet cold! Jungle has always fascinated me! Here I was caught in the act of admiring the green canopy engulfing us 💚
My lovely jungle... nothing left to say 😍
Introducing my trekking mates: Ángel, Sandra (honeymooners!💑) and Ana, from Asturias, hurrah!
Satisfaction on arrival to the first camp, located in a spectacular place, at 3000 m asl, surrounded by mountains packed with truly lush vegetation...🌳🌳🌳 One can feel the power of nature!
And the first glimpse of our pitched tents, I can't wait for adventure!
On the second day, we keep gaining altitude through the jungle, which is so packed that we do not get an idea of where we are, we have not yet seen the bulk of the mountain... Suddenly, a clearing appears in the bushes and the views force me to stop... They are so spectacular that I get emotional and can not go on... The guide was so puzzled at this 😅 Those "balls" looking like bushes are in fact huge trees measuring several meters tall and counting many years of age... Nature is overwhelming in places like this, it makes you feel insignificant!
The jungle clears up gradually with altitude...
We arrive at camp 2, at 3800 m asl, a zone where jungle trees can not grow anymore. I explore the camp a little bit and find a "fossilized" lava stream. Of couse, only organic matter can change into a fossil, but I just want to give an idea of how old this rock is... 🦎 It is completely eroded! Maybe our first ancestors, who were living not too far away from here (first fossils of Homo habilis found at Olduvai Gorge, just a few hundred kilometers away), were looking at the eruption! 🌋My guess: this was pahoehoe type lava, and with this level of fluidity, maybe its surface temperature was still 1500 degrees Centigrade! 🥵
Here we can see already the bulk of the higher slopes of the mountain, but looking to the opposite side we can see above the sea of clouds Mount Meru, 4565 m, another volcano which seems to be claiming "climb me!"🤩🤩
Priceless cultural experience. Hakuna matata! 🤎
The sunset, looking at the opposite side... Soon a huge full moon with rise up above Kilimanjaro... At this latitude so close to the Equator the sun sets at around 18:30 all year round.🤔 We have dinner at this time and then we sleep in our comfortable sleeping bags after a few hours of chit chat... so warm!🥰
Finally, I can see the starry sky tonight, I was curious about how different it would be here at the Eqauator compared to my country, Spain. it's impressive to check that Scorpio is much higher above, the Pleiades and Cassiopeia are also in totally different locations, and not a hint of Ursa Major! 😲😲😲
Third day: we keep gaining altitude and the vegetation keeps disappearing step by step...
Now we head for the summit, which still looks far away...
Looking back down we can see the path that we have been walking, full of people, mostly porters... We see a lot fewer "clients" than we expected...
Today we are instructed to wrap up warm, as we change to another climate zone and enter the moorland, where the vegetation consists of just a few bushes. It is cloudy but we have no rain, and from now on we will always see in front of us the summit zone of Kilimanjaro, which looks closer and closer 😍
Group pic in one of the short "technical stops" we make en route. That interesting plant behind us is a Senecio. If anyone has seen the film The Snows of Kilimanjaro will recognize them... They impressed me when I was a child and I am so excited to see them in real life
We will arrive shortly at the highest point of the day, 4600 m, called Lava Tower, a geological formation called "volcanic plug", where we stop for lunch and afterward we descend again several hundreds of meters with acclimatization purposes
Arriving at the third camp, called Barranco (gorge), at 3850 m asl. Indeed, it is surrounding a river gorge and vegetation comes again to sight. It is an incredibly beautiful place. Today I skip the popcorn and go exploring the place 🥰
In this camp, there are small "woods" made up of Senecios, this Kilimanjaro's endemic plant, called that way because it resembles an "old man " (Latin translation)... 🙄
The upper slopes of Kilimanjaro appear closer and closer, with some snow patches... The views from this camp are spectacular, and even the weather is making things quite easy
If we look closely, we can see the row of people climbing up the wall in front of the camp, using their hands sometimes. That will be the start of our trek tomorrow. Can't wait to climb! 🧗🏼♀️
Fourth day: today we need the help of our hands to move for the first two hours. The path is quite narrow and does not allow for overtaking. There was a small jam formed but this is an opportunity to enjoy the views and grab my camera. This was my favorite part of the trek as it was more physically demanding 💪🏼💪🏼
We arrive at a higher ground and there is a large flat rock which is an excellent place for everybody to rest after climbing, so a lot of people are congregated here. Here we are with our assistant guide, Joseph, who always walks with us. The leader guide, Sam, walks back and forth because he also has to coordinate the team of porters.
Some porters are true artists of balance 😎
Above the sea of clouds ☁☁☁
We keep on walking with very little altitude gain but already quite high, so there is no vegetation anymore. We have arrived officially at the "alpine desert" zone, and I would also add "volcanic" because the type of rock influences the landscape greatly 🌋🌋🌋
We have to go down again to cross the gorge and go up on the other side, and the camp is up there, at 4050 m asl, just a little higher than yesterday. But the trek was not flat at all, we have been gaining and losing altitude for acclimatization. Today the distance is quite short and I ask for permission to explore the area and discover new sights. I walk a pair of extra kilometers at least
My "exploration route", I leave camp 4 down there: without planning it, this is an useful acclimatization walk 😎
Porters collect water from this gorge ⛲ Unfortunately, the guide does not let me go down to research it. He says it is dangerous. On the background, the summit zone, though the summit can not really be seen from here.
This is the tent where we eat and socialize within our group... it's a pity that there is not any window to see the landscape outside before dark... Each trekking group carries one such tent, so we do not get many chances of meeting people...
The interior of my tent... it has something that makes me feel super comfortable inside here 🥰
Fifth day: we stay in the desert zone, the slope is very gradual, and today we will sleep 1200 m below the summit. This will be the last camp, we will have lunch earlier and sleep some 5 hours before waking up to start the summit attempt by 24:00. Luckily, we have a full moon. 🌕 It will be spectacular!
Looking back, that is the path we have taken. Despite the landscape being quite monotone, it never loses charm as we are always walking above the clouds
Last push for today: at the end of this slope is camp 5, aka the Base Camp, yipee!
Mandatory pic at the last camp, at 4750 m asl, we are quite satisfied and excited already, we start to get nervous thinking about the nocturnal hike 😁😁😁😁
Here at camp 5 it is windy, we make use of our windbreaker jackets for the first time... I am worried about the apparent temperature drop at night, as we have to ascend during 6 hours at maybe 15 degrees Centigrade below zero. The wind can make this feel even 5 grades less or so, depending on its speed 😨
From the tents, 🏕🏕🏕 we observe the beginning of the path that we have to solve in the dark after a nap...
Finally, it's time! 24:00, moderate wind, atrocious cold... We plan to watch the sunrise from the summit, by 6:30, so we have to walk more than 6 hours up. However, it looks like the guide thinks we are fit because we start to take over all the other groups... He tells other guides to let us overtake... This pic is quite blurry, but we could not stop because of the freezing cold! Oddly enough, the mobile phones were working at this temperature 🥶🥶🥶🥶
Summit!! 5895 m, the roof of Africa
The guide played for us in his loudspeaker the famous song "Despacito" to remind us about walking at a slow pace. I was so happy that I arrived at the summit dancing and singing the song, even though I dislike it so much! 🤣🤣I also remember I did a countdown very loud, which I later regretted because there was another group already there when we arrived 😬😬 But not every day I feel so exultant 
Behind me, a chunk of the scarce glacial ice that is left... Those walls measure several meters in height. The sun was about to rise 🌄
It was so cold that the guides insisted on going down, even though some of us were feeling really good, no headaches or altitude sickness at all. Each of us had also a porter as a company, so nobody would be left alone in case of an emergency. It was a pity because the sun rose up 20 minutes after starting the descent, and we did not see the crater, nor the glaciers... Moreover, in just 10 minutes we had to take off 3 out of 6 layers of clothes we were wearing due to the temperature increase. I was feeling sad about not having any summit views
The way down is for me the hardest part of the trek, clearly. After a short rest at camp 5, from which we had departed to the summit, we descend a total of 2800 on that loooong day. My knees are complaining more than those of my friends 👵🏼👵🏼
Again we find ourselves at the moorlands, green lush, beautiful... The descent path is like stairs all the time, down to 3000 m again, an altitude at which sickness is not likely after having climbed up to almost double height.
7th and last day: we cross the jungle again, but through another slope... today it is very misty, like in a fairy-tale... the mud forces us to slow down the pace to avoid slipping
Super proudly posing with our summit certificates... We have left Kilimanjaro climbed! 😎😎 THE END
