World Challenge Trip to Africa

After the final kit checks in the UK, we were at last ready for our month long trip in Tanzania, Africa.

Our plane journey to Nairobi, in Kenya was long. Feeling tired we travelled to our accommodation: a hostel promising rooms with bunk beds. Certainly, there were bunk beds, but two the girls had to share one mattress: a little tight on space. The boys had a bed each.

After one night in Nairobi, we began the next step of the long distance journey to Longido in Tanzania. On the way we saw and experienced many interesting things. Every time the bus stopped street sellers would pass things through the window while persuading us to make a purchase; nobody yielded in our group apart from our group leader Stu.

Upon our arrival in Longido, we met Roger who our guide for the next three days. He began by taking us on a walk to  the local Maasai village where we were given a tour. We learnt: that the houses the local people live in are made from straw and cow poo; that the Maasai warriors are allowed to have many wives; and that most of the Maasai warriors have battled against a lion, and won.

We met the local children and spent some time with them. That afternoon Roger offered to make dinner for us and provide us with some local Maasai entertainment. Most of us agreed that Roger should buy us a goat for dinner, and we were allowed to watch when it was killed. We had it barbecued, it didn’t taste too bad but it was pretty chewy. To entertain us in the evening, the Maasai came and danced before teaching us their traditional dance. In return, we taught them the YMCA dance, which we all performed together.

The following morning, we had to leave early, in a big army style lorry that wasn’t shut up at the back. Five hours later we arrived at the base of Mount Longido (our acclimatisation mountain) and started climbing to the campsite. Once there, we put up our tents and checked out the toilet facilities: by toilet we mean hole in the ground!

The mountain is 2700m high but we only climbed to 2500m due to fast winds and low visibility. As the conditions deteriorated, we headed back to camp. Our evening entertainment of playing games was disturbed by leopards.

The next morning we made our way back to base after pancakes for breakfast.

From Longido we travelled to a hotel in Moshi that we were told had a pool. We first drove to the Ahsante Tours office, because they were the company that had organised the climb up Kilimanjaro. From there we were directed to Weru Weru Lodge where there were showers, it was great!

We spent the next day exploring the town of Moshi. Continuously, we were followed by people trying to sell things that we’d probably never use, except for a coal cooker that Deano persuaded us to buy. This part of the journey gave everyone a chance to rest before embarking on the ascent of Kilimanjaro. The girls and the boys split up for lunch: the girls found a nice café where they ate pizza and chips. The boys went to a cheap fast food shop where they ate fried chicken and chips. We cooked for ourselves that evening on the new coal cooker, a successful meal and memorable experience.

The following day, we started the tree planting project which involved planting new trees to reforest the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

On the same day, we were introduced to our Kilimanjaro head guide, his name was Rufano. By common consent he is one of the coolest people ever! He was late arriving, as they usually are in Tanzania, so we were completing our kit checks at about 6:30pm, in the dark. It had to be done in order to be ready to climb the next day.

At 6 am the following morning we woke. Our aim was to make our bags as light as possible. We had to take only the essentials: warm clothes for the summit; something to sleep in; and several packets of biscuits.

Kilimanjaro National Park was an hour’s drive away. There we met up with our guides and porters before beginning the long and boring signing-in process.

Two hours later, we finally began walking. The first section of the mountain is mostly jungle, which meant it was incredibly wet and muddy. Two hours later, we stopped for lunch, which was surprisingly tasty. After lunch, we walked for another three hours before finally arriving at the Mandara huts. It was here we discovered that we’d all be sharing a room together. Boys, girls and teachers all in one room! Our dormitory, which was above the dining room, was a rather cramped space.

Later on downstairs, we had a snack of really salty popcorn. Before dinner we wandered around the campsite and, fortunately, discovered some slightly nicer toilets. Dinner wasn’t too bad either: starter, soup of some kind; followed by spaghetti and sauce. After our briefing from Rufano and the team, we decided to retire to bed early ready for an early start.

 

Breakfast was porridge, but it wasn’t the normal type of porridge made with oats, we still do not know what was in it but it was disgusting. To make it more palatable, we added hot chocolate powder, and sugar, but it didn’t make it any better. Fortunately, there was toast and egg afterwards so we had some sustenance to sustain us for the day.

The walk to Horombo hut was not particularly long: only four hours. Slowly we crept up towards the higher levels of altitude, making the walking tougher for us. Despite this, we arrived at Horombo in good time and were taken to our dorm: one dorm for all of us this time!

Only this time there was a difference. Mice. It was noticed, when we arrived, that writing on the walls warned ‘Beware of the rats’. At first, we thought nothing of it until we saw one crawling very close to Miss Vilkhu’s head when she was lying on a bed.

After dinner that evening, we were informed about the next day, we would be staying in the area a little longer in order to become acclimatised to the altitude; to help us do so a walk was organised to Zebra Rock.

The scenery at Zebra Rock was lovely: everyone took photographs of the amazing scenery. The expedition also enabled us to know our guides better. Derrick, was a really cool guy with an even cooler hat; while Dell taught everyone a number of songs. To vary the scenery a different route was taken back to Horombo.

The following morning we started walking to Kibo hut from where we would prepare ourselves for the hardest thing we had ever done. As we were already a phenomenal 4,700 metres above sea level, some members of the team became ill with altitude sickness, sadly, they were finding it difficult to do anything.

On arrival at Kibo hut we were introduced to Al, our summit leader. He told us what we had to wear: at least six thick layers on the top half. Knowing the ascent was beginning at midnight, we went to bed and tried to sleep at 6pm.

At midnight of summit day, it was clear that not everyone was going to be able to make the ascent to the summit because of altitude sickness. Those who were able left camp at midnight, in the pitch dark, guided only by the light of head torches. The walk to Gilman’s Point was tough, climbing up a long slope of sand and rock. Five hours later, the first stopping place was reached: a fantastic achievement for everyone. Sadly though other members of the team were forced to return to the camp. Those able to continue climbed for a further two hours. Thankfully, many of our bags were carried by excellent guides and porters. Finally the summit was reached at approximately 7:15am; in time to watch the beautiful sunrise. Due to the high altitude, we had to return to Horombo hut as fast as possible to enable our bodies to return to normality.

At Horombo we met up with the other team members to share stories and experiences. That evening we celebrated Abi’s 16^th birthday with a lovely party that had a watermelon cake as its centre-piece: that was interesting. Eventually, we all went to bed for some much needed sleep.

At the base of Kilimanjaro we celebrated our safe return and incredible achievement. At the office we were given our certificates by our guides. Before leaving we said an emotional goodbye to our new friends.

Next, we travelled to the Ngorngoro Crater for our safari. Our drivers, Colin and Eddie were characters. Colin was really funny, although sarcastic at times. At the base of the crater were amazing animals: zebras, lions, buffalo, warthogs, hippos, hyena, elephants and wildebeest. This was a welcome break in our hectic schedule.

The next phase was to complete the community project. After a ten hour drive, we reached the Baobab Children’s Home. Ten children lived there. Over the next few days we plastered walls; moved mud; helped cook the lunch and dinner; built a young girl a new house; took the children to the beach; and painted memory boxes for them. We also played a football match against the locals: we lost but only because they had more players than us.

 

Finally, the project phase was completed, and we moved to a beach resort named Kipepeo. It was here we met up with the other Great Marlow groups. All of us had the chance to relax on the lovely white, sandy beaches; swim, snorkel and kayak in the sea; and play volley ball, badly. The local town was explored, too. On our last night we decided to go to bed early in readiness for our flight the following day.

After spending eight hours at Dar es Salaam Airport, we were finally on the plane home.

All of us had experienced a trip of a lifetime but we were all ready to be back at home with our families.

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