Day 0 - Arrival
Day 1 - Arusha
Day 2 - Lake Manyara
Day 3 - Ngorongoro Crtr
Day 4 - Tarangire NP
Day 5 - Arusha
Day 6 - Kilimanjaro, d1
Day 7 - Kilimanjaro, d2
Day 8 - Kilimanjaro, d3
Day 9 - Kilimanjaro, d4
Day 10 - Kilimanjaro, d5
Day 11 - Kilimanjaro, d6
Day 12 - Arusha
Day 13 - Departure
Tanzania
Woken up on what was technically still day 4-- about 10pm-- and then prep'ed for a ~11:30pm final ascent to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro from Barafu Camp. 4,000 feet of climb to Stella Point and the rim of the crater, plus a little more to Uhuru Peak (19,341 feet), all by sunrise?
That would prove to be a bit optimistic. Dark, cold, rock, ice, and snow thanks to a slightly early start to the wet season would make the "trail" slow going, the extreme altitude wore us all down, and even as dawn approached, it was cold as we neared the top. One step at a time, don't lapse too far into microsleep with each step, keep going and going... and then as you near the top, the sun breaks and the sky begins to show the first hints of how pretty the day will be.
Only we weren't quite there yet, and a few more agonizing minutes (and steps, and elevation gain) passed before hitting the rim of the crater and being able to appreciate what we'd just done! The rim of the crater at our ascent, Stella Point, is 18,828 feet and one heck of a view. We were also freezing our butts off, and after a few minutes and a few pictures, much of the group was already on the way back down.
A few of us pressed onward to the highest point on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Uhuru Peak (19,341 feet), where as the sun rose and temperatures warmed, things got a lot easier. 90 minutes later we'd made it to the very top! Passing by the glaciers atop Kilimanjaro (Furtwangler and the others comprising the northern and southern ice fields) may be gone by 2020 so it was something special to see them before they are gone entirely, almost as significant as making it to the top itself!
Then time to slip and slide the way back down to camp, where the others promptly left me in the dust. Fortunately Juilus (sp?) did a great job getting my slow *** down and back to camp, even if that walk down seemed even longer than the way up! Slipping and sliding down to within sight of camp still meant over an hour to actually get to camp itself, something that had never seemed longer!
Found much of the group already passed out-- in Alicia's case for a few hours!-- by the time I'd got back, then it was naptime til the last of the group showed up. They then fed us a bit, and then it was time to walk on rubbery legs down to High Camp (12,449 feet) for the last night on the mountain.