Learning geography the painful way – Kirra Loh talks about studying International Business and Advertising in France

Kirra (centre) with fellow AIM Overseasers

Kirra Loh is currently completing her final semester of a Business and Commerce degree at the University of Newcastle. Kirra recently chatted to us about what it was like to experience French culture and hospitality whilst studying AIM Overseas’ International Business and Advertising Program as well as sharing a hilarious story highlighting the importance of paying attention in geography class!

Hi Kirra! Tell me a little about yourself and what you’re doing at the moment.
I’m currently studying a bachelor of Business and Commerce at the University of Newcastle, majoring in marketing and accounting. I’ve got this semester to go and then I’ll complete my degree. I’m hoping to find a marketing job once I’ve finished.

Congratulations on almost finishing your degree! Could you tell me about the AIM Overseas program you completed earlier this year and why you chose it?
I completed the International Business and Marketing Program in Tours, France. I chose this program because another one of my friends got accepted into AIM Overseas’ Health Care in Mexico Program and she suggested that there might be a program for me. So I looked up the website and saw the International Business and Advertising program and I thought, “This looks really good!” I think I ended up applying really close to the cut-off date but luckily I got accepted – so it was all really exciting!

Was this your first time overseas?
I’d been to other countries before but not Europe. Also, I’d never travelled without my parents before so it was a little bit daunting when I first left the airport in Sydney, but it ended up being fine.

What was a typical day like for you during the course?
We got a schedule at the beginning of the program and at first we were all like, “Oh yeah, no problem!” but actually it was really demanding and we didn’t have that much free time! We had different modules to complete with different teachers so it was not boring at all because it wasn’t as if we were doing the same thing everyday from 9 to 5.

On a typical day we’d go to ESCEM [the business school] and the school would provide us with lunch. We’d have our classes: half the class would be the AIM Overseas students and the rest were French students, so we’d mix with them. We’d usually do heaps of group work with them and the mix of Australian and French students meant that we got a wider perspective of marketing. In addition to the classes, ESCEM also organised cultural activities for us such as a cooking class, field trips and some survival French lessons, so it wasn’t all just academic stuff.

We had a few free weekends during the program as well. One weekend I went to Bordeaux with two of the guys on the program. Then the next weekend I went to Geneva in Switzerland with the girls from the program. I think most of the others went to Paris and a few of the boys went to Lucerne in Switzerland one weekend as well.

What was it like working with local French students?
It was a bit challenging at times because of the language barrier. I mean, the classes were all in English, but sometimes we’d have difficulty understanding the other students! The French students in our group were quite good and I discovered that some French people don’t like to speak English because they don’t think that they speak well enough. I found this really surprising, and of course we reassured them that it didn’t matter! So I think it was good for us to work with them as it gave us a wider perspective on marketing, and it was good for them as they were able to improve their English by speaking with us.

Did you gain any insight into French culture?
I guess a lot of people think that French people are rude – but in my experience they weren’t at all! Everywhere I travelled, the French were really friendly and it really surprised me. I’ve studied some French before in high school but I’ve forgotten most of it and I was too embarrassed to try to speak it; but it turns out I didn’t even need to speak French because everyone had really good English and was extremely helpful! And as I said before, I found out that the reason why a lot of French people don’t like to speak English is because they think that their English isn’t good enough.

I liked how the French really enjoy their food and their cooking and lunchtime is always a massive, drawn-out affair. They just seem to enjoy life and take it at a slower pace. No one is in a huge rush. Even in Paris, I had expected to see more hustle and bustle, but they had a really relaxed lifestyle. And of course, France really lived up to the hype of having beautiful food, wine, and so on!

Do you have any funny travel anecdotes you’d like to share?
Well during the trip we planned a trip to Geneva, Switzerland. At the time, we didn’t realise that Geneva was so close to the border with France. So we got off the train in Geneva and there were these two signs: one sign for ‘France’ and one sign for ‘Switzerland’; we were a bit confused but we just walked on anyway and had lunch. After lunch, I asked the waitress, “How do we get to our hotel?” She replied, “Ummm... it’s in France. You have to go back over the border.”

At this point we’re all panicking and thinking, “WHAT??!!! We got a train all the way to Switzerland and we’re in the wrong country! Oh my God, WHAT DO WE DO???!!!”

We were so stupid, we didn’t realise it was that close to the border! It didn’t end up taking that long at all, we just had to walk over. *laughs*

So your knowledge of the geography of Europe has definitely improved through this program then?
Ooooh definitely! *laughs* I really love how the countries in Europe are so close to each other and it’s great to go travelling anywhere!

How has this program has changed you?
It’s been really good – I’ve made some great friends and we’ve stayed in contact. Some of the girls from Adelaide have come and stayed in Newcastle and a bunch of us are going to spend a weekend in Melbourne together as well. There was one girl on the program from my uni and I didn’t really know her before but now we’re really good friends and hang out a lot. I think it was a great experience to stay in one country for a longer period of time. In one month in France we were able to truly experience the culture and get a perspective of marketing that I found really different to what we usually learned at uni. We also got to work with French students, which was great.

Lastly, what would you say to someone who’s thinking about participating?
I definitely think it’s a great experience: you meet so many people; it’s a different form of learning compared to just a normal tutorial or lecture in university; it allows you to work with students from a different cultural background; and, you get to experience the culture by living there for a month.

It’s also sparked some interest from employers; for example, I had a job interview recently and during the interview they mentioned, “Oh, you did a short program in France! What was that like?” – so doing a program like this is something you can add to your CV. I think that this was a really good experience and I tell everyone about it!

Thanks Kirra!



In Cheverny doing a wine course (for educational purposes, of course!)


Doing a French cooking course


Just your average, run-of-the-mill building in Tours, where Kirra lived for a month


Kirra and the AIM Overseasers at the conclusion of their farewell dinner

First time in the UK

Suzanne Chang, the winner of AIM Overseas' 'Win a flight to London on AirAsiaX' reflects on her first weeks in the UK:

"The UK has been pretty great lately and even though it's cold, it's not cold enough to snow. I have been shopping on Oxford St (probably shouldn't have gone on the 28th of December, but we'll put that one down to a rookie error) and visited Oxford (which was freezing but very, very pretty).  The sales here are fantastic and totally worth it, I'm probably going to have to pay excess baggage fees, but we'll worry about that at a later stage! I made lots of new friends in Guilford, Surrey and Chelmsford, Essex and saw a show in the West End - going around the UK has been really fantastic so far, there is a whole heap of history that you just don't really get in Australia.

Almost every town here has some claim to fame, a castle and some cobblestone streets! The public transport here is amazing too - trains that run on time and get you very quickly from place to place...and the tube, don't even get me started. I LOVE THE TUBE." 

 

Competition winner hits London

AIM Overseas' 'Win a Flight to London on AirAsiaX' competition winner, Suzanne Chang, has reached London and has sent us this update:

"So I'm finally in London with WiFi and it is flipping freezing. I missed the snow though, so that's a little bit lame. I have a deep appreciation for the London Underground, it is so well organised, if only Sydney trains were like that. The flight itself wasn't too bad, there weren't many people so there was lots of space to chill out and spread out. The temperature shock from Malaysia to the UK is ridiculous though, almost a 40C dip. Crazy huh?

Speaking of, being in Malaysia was pretty good, spent a lot of time in the malls with my family, whom being truly Malaysian, claim there isn't much else to do but to go to malls. This is true, because of the high humidity, it is best to stay in cool, well air conditioned places, aka malls, which are pretty freaking big in Malaysia, and the shopping is also relatively great with the exchange rate and all. And Christmas in Malaysia is pretty much a non-event, all the malls stay open until late and with the exception of all the plastic decorations and fake snow, Christmas holds pretty much no meaning. But they do go all out with the decorations."

 

Competition Winner takes off

AIM Overseas' 'Win a Flight to London on AirAsiaX' competition winner, Suzanne Chang, has just taken off for Europe. Over the coming weeks during her trip, Suzanne will be sending us back updates on all the fun she's having. 

Here's Suzanne's first update:

"With the exception of a delayed flight because the plane had to divert to Alice Springs, I am here in Malaysia unharmed as of yet. Still have this odd feeling that I have forgotten something in my luggage, but I figure I can buy everything I actually need. Both flights were relatively okay, just the waiting and transit gets awfully boring!"

Merry Christmas from everyone here at AIM Overseas and see you in 2011!

Global Leadership Program In the Czech Republic

In July 2010, a group of students from the universities across Australia joined the Global Leadership Program in Prague.

How awesome is the program? Well...I 'll let the photos speak for themselves!

Beginning of the program, this was where the students stayed the first 2 nights.

Meet other participants from around the world!

(Photos provided by Sarah, Griffith University)

Trip to Budapest

Puppet show

(photos provided by Jaimi, Griffith University)

Prague!!

(photos provided by Chris, University of Canberra)

Community service

retreat

(photos provided by Julie, Griffith University)

To be continued...

For more information about short courses overseas, please go to AIM Overseas website.

Leaving....only made better by knowing you'll be heading off again

Leaving a place you love...gee, it's only really made better by knowing that you'll be back again...and hopefully in the not too distant future.

That's my overriding sentiment sitting at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris (the western world's worst airport) waiting for my big A380 jumbo to swallow me into its pouch to safely escort me home to Oz. It's definitely a mixed feeling.

The positives:

• I'm leaving -5 winter and heading for +30 summer
• The sun will come up before 8:30am
• Getting home to my half of the family
  
• I've got 24 hours to do nothing more than watch movies
• .....shit, it's Australia! What an AWESOME country to live in!

The negatives:

• The food....sorry Australia, you're about 200 years behind France in the food stakes
• Leaving half the family behind for at least another 6-12 months :(
• No snow - I went skiing for the first time on this trip and loved it!
• No more holidays.....I've burned up my next 6 months worth of holidays!
  

I've got the great pleasure of actually being in the Star Alliance airline lounge to wait for the flight. I was given two entry passes to the lounge when I checked in (very kind of them) even though I'm travelling alone. Having travelled a lot, I know how much nicer it is to be waiting in the lounge as opposed to waiting at the gate, so I approached a couple of people (blokes only, my wife will be pleased to know) who looked like they were travelling alone to offer them my spare ticket....you know, a bit of travel karma at all.

Maybe there's something about the way I'm dressed, or the way my hair settled in a very serious, unspiked way when I woke up this morning, but I reckon those blokes thought I was trying to crack onto them - they all refused!

Ah well, as the French say, tempi pour eux - 'too bad for them'.

The unworked hairstyle....seemed to work for the bloke at check-in who gave Rob an exit aisle from Paris to Singapore. Also seemed to scare off potential people benefitting from some travel karma.





Anyway, they're calling the flight so it's off to go through security, jump on-board and be transported back to a great place half a world away.

Snow, snow, snow....

I've never ever seen a lot of snow.

When I was young, my family once took a holiday to the Australian 'Alps', via Canberra (where I have the distinct memory of swimming in a pool when the air temp was just 3 degrees - I can't remember why I thought it would be a good idea, though). We played in the snow, took the chairlifts up the mountain, but didn't actually ski.

Sitting in a Paris house, I'm now looking at more snow on the ground here than I did on our humble Aussie mountains.

It has been a freezing winter in Europe - temps down to -20 where it normally never gets anywhere near half that cold. Ironically, I went up to the Alpes to go skiing at Val Thorens and it was only -10!

There is plenty of ice, snow, slush and the white sky blends into slopes of the distant hills. It's very pretty but reminds you why people love to live in Queensland!

When in Rome....

When it comes to incredible, kick-arse, jaw-dropping, beautiful cities, Rome has got to take the cake.

Everywhere you wander, thousands of years of human history is laid out before you...or crumbling before you in many cases.....and it rocks (no pun intended).

The city centre of Rome is very compact, cobble stoned and incredibly fun to explore. It
will test your self-control as every cafe will tempt you in for wicked coffee, every shop will wink suggestively at you with the latest fashions, and every taverna will grab you around the throat and just insist that you have yet another pizza.

Mmmmmm, pizza.

Around each corner is yet another church (there are 2300 of them in Rome), piazza, fountain, ice cream shop or taverna - the place is definitely up there with my fav cities in the world.

The plan was simple: stopover in Rome for 4 days on the way through to Paris for Christmas. The fact that Singapore Airlines fly in and out of both cities is massively convenient for Australians - you can easily fly into Rome, spend a few days, jump on Easyjet to Paris (our flight cost $50 one way :) then fly directly back to Oz from Paris. A great itinerary.

So over our 4 walking-filled days we hit all of Rome's famous sites: the Vatican, the Colosseum, Pantheon, Forum, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona etc etc

 

Piazza Venezia. Above, the view from the top towards the Colosseum.

One thing that did strike us during the trip was the commonalities that exist between cities all over the world:

• Wherever you go, each major city will always have a Peruvian panpipe band
• There will always be buskers dressed up in ridiculous outfits outside every major monument offering to have their photo taken with you (in the case of Rome, it is bunches of blokes dressed up as Roman soldiers)
• Every time it starts to rain, you will start being accosted by gypsie-looking men trying to flog you cheap umbrellas, even if you already have one
• Every time the sun comes out and it's scorching hot those same men will try to flog you bottles of water (probably refilled from a scungey bucket in a backstreet)
• Taxis will always rip you off, regardless of how hard you haggle or how good your language skills are (this is one of the 10 great facts of life, I think. Don't ask me about the others)
  
• You'll meet at least one person at a cash register who will scowl at you, unhappily take your money then throw your change in a little dish in wanton disgust.
  

One of those pesky buskers










We ate at the funky Ducati Cafe (dedicated to the famous Italian motorcycle) - this funky restaurant/bar/shop is definitely worth a stop. The food is brilliant (although pricey if you're a student), and it has great atmosphere. The other standout meal (amongst all the brilliant food we ingested) was at Lo Zozzone, a tiny pizza joint packed full of locals in the streets behind Piazza Navona. Our reviews are on our tripadvisor profile.

One afternoon, standing under a crystal clear blue sky with the cold eating into our bones, we spotted pigeons in the sky.

Now I'll admit that in itself doesn't sound so exciting, but the fact that there were 100,000 of them probably was. Every pigeon in Rome was up there and they were flying formation - breaking into huge groups of thousands of pigeons, ducking and weaving. These black clouds were dancing across the sky like live art - it was truly something spectacular to see. Who would have thought that humble pigeons could create such a visual spectacular!

Simply amazing. Here, tens of thousands of pigeons doing what they do best: mindlessly flocking.

The Romans, who live with the miserable, cretinous pigeons day in day out just looked at us like we were idiots on drugs.

Not happy, Jan.







Rome is full of great little tavernas where you can eat for just a few euros and, as cities great for tourists go, it is right up there. We'll definitely be back!

Marine makes a wish and throws a coin into the Trivi Fountain

Rob, somewhere in Rome, on a crisp crystal clear European winter's day. 









Sometimes it's nice to play tourist: taking a ride in a callech.

The work trip: pleasure and pain

International education is a beautiful industy. Like many others, I ended up in International Ed because I did an exchange at uni, got hooked, and ended up working in an international office.

There's just nothing like helping Aussies to study overseas and seeing the passion an infectious enthusiasm that they come home with.

As the name would suggest, working in international education can involve quite a bit of travel - both domestic and international. The people who work these roles, sometimes referred to in the industry as 'Road Warriors', can spend days, weeks and even months away from home at a time going about the business of helping students circulate around the world to study. Which gets me to the interesting duality of travelling for work.

Your first interstate or international work trip is a buzz.
Hang on! Someone is actually paying you to travel and meet people? This isn't work at all!
This is living the dream.

In some senses the buzz never really wears off.
I've been in the industry nearly 10 years but every time I'm on the net searching for that next flight or booking the next hotel I'm still a little bit stoked....Anyone who travels for work and tells you that they don't enjoy it is either a masochist or a liar.

The reality of the work trip, though, is like anything. Once is a thrill, twice is a novelty, but after the tenth time it starts to become a bit of a routine.

There are the parts that are awesome: flying to new, or familiar, cities; meeting new people or catching up with old friends; staying in hotels and eating at different restaurants.

Then there are the parts that suck. The alarm going off at 3:45am for the 5th day in a row so you can be at the airport for the 6am flight. Delays. Constant packing and unpacking. Missing a good home cooked meal, your partner or pets. Crap weather. Cancelled meetings.
And most of all, the never-ending work day.

The internet is one of the banes of the modern working traveller.
Yes, you're connected all the time and can check your emails at will but.....well.....you're connected 24 hours a day and can check your email at will.

The reality is that even whilst you are on the road, travelling, going to meetings or doing other business, your friends, family and colleagues will still treat you like you're at home and going to the office. Sure you're in that nice hotel room where the in-house movies are free....but you'll never get to watch them because you've got two working days: Working day A from 9-5 including travelling, meetings, transit and other business; and Working day B from 6-11pm catching up on emails, doing follow up or 'putting out fires'.

A few months ago I was going on a work trip with a colleague. My colleague ran into a mutual friend, they had a chat and at the end the friend said, "Well, have a good holiday"
This can be normal if you travel a lot, people get confused where you are and where you're going. So my colleague explained that it was a week-long work trip where we'd probably be working 14 hour days but we'd still make the most of it.

A few hours later I ran into the same mutual friend, had a chat and at the end also got told "Have a nice holiday".

This is very frustrating for the working traveller because until you've done it yourself it is almost impossible to explain.

"We're going to be working 14 hour days and have three 6am flights this week" somehow gets translated into "Woo hoo, we're off to Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and are staying in 4-star hotels".

There's no malice in the translation in someone else's mind, just the lack of the experience to really understand the full picture.

And after awhile you do get your routines to make the crap stuff a little easier: pre-booked taxis, flying the night before, decent suitcases that fit in all your stuff, identifying decent hotels and restaurants to give a work trip a little more of that 'home' feel.

And as I say, anyone who doesn't like it shouldn't be doing it because there are plenty of others who would take up the mantle. I love it. Give me that ticket and I'm off.
But don't forget to tell me that it's okay to turn my computer off after 10pm.

Tipping on Kilimanjaro

Tipping on Kilimanjaro can be a little tricky, particularly if you are not familiar with tipping. Your travel agent will certainly provide you some information about this, but here's some independent advice.

The thing to remember is that your tip isn't really a 'tip' - it is a supplement for salaries that are far too low for the work being done (see end of post for more info).

At the end of your trek you will be expected to tip your team (guides/porters etc). You will be told that this is 'entirely voluntary' and 'not expected', but unless you have had a completely shit experience that is not true. If you are trekking with an experienced company like African Walking Company (booked through Africa Travel Resource) you will have been extremely well looked after and would be purely nasty not to tip.

Tipping is customary in Tanzania - don't be mean! You earn a lot more than these great people!

How does it work?

On the last morning of your trek your chief guide will hold a 'Tipping Ceremony'. This is when your guides and porters will stand around and receive your group's tips.

At the ceremony your group might choose to say a few words, sing a song or something else short in order to celebrate the moment. We saw people playing harmonica, singing and our group led an all-in 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes', which was pretty funny (most porters don't speak much English so were following the actions looking a little bewildered).

Prior to this you will have decided how much you are going to tip (this is explained in 'how much...' below). We called up each of our head guide, assistant guides and cook one by one and gave them an envelope (a folded sheet of paper in our case) with their tip inside. We announced what we were giving them to the whole group.

If you are able to (i.e. if you have the exact change) it is also nice to tip the porters and 'helping porters' individually too. We had 30+ porters, so announced to everyone exactly how much we were giving each porter and each helping porter then gave that to the head guide to divide later. It is critical to announce this amount so everyone is clear on how much has been given.

Your guides and porters might then sing, dance and thank you in return. It's all very nice.

How much do we need to contribute?
I want to preface these comments by saying we are not wealthy - we are middle of the road people with middle of the road ideals, working hard and enjoying our traveling. These are suggestions only, but having conquered the mountain this is how we felt (which was different to how we felt prior to climbing).

Our group were given different advice depending on who we booked through. Some were told US$50-70, others US$60-80 and we were told US$80-100. The African Walking Company rep told us US$80-100, but on their 'Tipping Guide Sheet' it advised US$50-80.

Let's set the record straight. You should be tipping US$80-100 (unless you didn't have a good experience or have good reason to tip less) if your group has 6-10 people. If you are fewer you will need to tip more each to make up the total pool.

On the last night we sat around the dinner table and everyone in the group put their money into the middle. We then had to decide how to split it.

AWC had recommended the following breakdowns:
Chief Guide: US$50-70
Cook: US$40-50
Assistant Guides: US$30-50 each
Helping Porters: US$15-20 each (these are the porters who also help around the camp bringing meals, looking after the toilet tent etc)
Regular porters: US$10-15 each

If you have had a good experience, tip at the top of this scale.

Additional Personal Tips
Inevitably someone on your trip will go well beyond the call of duty to help you. A guide might carry your bag on the summit push, an assistant guide might always be there in the mornings with a big smile to get you going and someone has to empty the toilet....

These people make your trip special and you should not hesitate to tip them above and beyond the 'pool'. A few dollars for a porter, $5-10 for an assistant guide (or more) is gratefully received.

One of our assistant guides saved our bacon on summit night by carrying our bag all the way to the summit. Without him we would not have made it so we gave him $20, an extra $10 to the chief guide for keeping an awesome trip going smoothly (they do HEAPS of work, so be generous) and a series of $2-3 tips for the porters who helped most.

Bring up to US$50 per person in smaller denominations extra just in case. Consider all the money you are spending on the trip - if someone made it unreal, or helped you get there, then leave extra behind. Some of these guys only get one trip a month (or less in quiet times), so what you leave behind helps a lot. Let's be honest, the extra $50 won't destroy your bank balance.

Leaving Excess Gear and Leftovers
If you don't want to leave extra money, that's fine. Personal choice.
The other thing you can leave, though, is your spare gear.

By the final day you might realise that you don't need all those leftover energy bars, batteries or spare raincoat. Maybe you are happy to buy new gloves, a new daypack, gaitors, thermal or shirt.
Anything, it doesn't matter what it is - whoever you leave it to will be happy.

We left gloves with a porter, a headtorch with an assistant guide, batteries and energy bars with another guide. Other people left a lot more.

Your excess gear is also like a tip, so give it to people you feel have earned it.

The main thing is be fair.

Salaries aren't big in Tanzania, guides and porters make very little. Porters earn about US$5 a day, assistant guides not much more (US$8-10) and chief guides about US$20 a day (very little for the huge amount of work they do to arrange the trip). Follow your conscience and reward exceptional service.

Climbing Kilimanjaro

I am pretty fit, so when the logistics coordinator of our climb group for Mt Kilimanjaro told us that it would be the hardest thing we had ever done, I was a little skeptical.

Could it seriously compare to cycling 300km around Paris in a day, the 200km/4000m climbing of the Alpine Classic bike ride or beating my sherpa to the top of the Tserko Ri in Nepal?

Four days later at 1 a.m. staring up into the never-ending blackness of the mountain, watching the headtorches of 200 other climbers snake up into the freezing cold darkness, I had my answer: I have never done anything harder. This was something extraordinary that we only push ourselves through a few times in our lives.

Climbing Kilimanjaro is an incredible experience: a huge challenge and a great achievement. There is beautiful scenery, great camaraderie with your climbing partners, gratefulness to your team of guides and porters and dust, dust, dust. We climbed the Rongai route, which crosses the mountain from north to south and it was just epic.

The Rongai is a strongly recommended route as there are fewer climbers than on other routes and the more modest elevation gains makes acclimatisation better.

We were walking with the African Walking Company who were exceptionally organised and highly recommended by many people. We'd certainly recommend them. It is not possible directly with African Walking Company and we booked our trip through Africa Travel Resource and they were brilliant. Great service and seamless travel connections - everywhere we went, ATR had someone waiting for us and there to make sure we made the right travel connections and that we had arrived as planned. Even though they are based in England, it was very easy to deal them, even from abroad.

Day 1: Nalemeru Gate (1950m) to Moorland Camp (2700m)

The northern side of the mountain is typically drier than the south, so the first few days go up through some pretty dry conditions. It's a two hour drive from Marangu to the park gate for the Rongai Route.

Once at the gate you meet your guides as the Head Guide organisers the porters (who argue about the loads they have to carry - strictly limited to 15kg each).

Up through pine forest to camp 1 (Moorland Camp) we settled in and were a bit surprised by the constant arrival of many many other groups. By evening the camp was completely full - there were at least 200 people with sleeping tents and mess tents everywhere. Total chaos. Even our guides were shocked by the huge number of people, but fortunately it wasn't to last.

Tip for the day: If you are climbing Kili on this route, definitely buy some knee-length gaitors and wear them from the start. The dirt and dust is very deep for the first 2 hours of the climb and you will end up far cleaner and happier if you've got gaitors on.

Day 2: Moorland Camp (2700m) to Kikelelwa Caves (3600m)

We're in our sleeping bags, it's 5 a.m. and still dark and suddenly we can hear shouting in the darkness. Voices of staff of one of the other camps are yelling frantically and we start to freak out. Is it a landslide? Are we being attacked? What the hell is going on?

Outside it is freezing cold and one of the others in our team tells us there has been a gas fire amongst one of the other camps. Fortunately it was quickly controlled.

Each morning and each afternoon, AWC's guides provide you with a tub of steaming hot water for your 'Washi washi'. It can be pretty tough stripping down to undergarments in order to have a little wash either before or after the day's activities, but you become very happy to have it.

The day's hike climbs very gradually. Lunch is at 'Second Cave' and there are spectacular views of Kilimanjaro's flat topped crater almost all day long - it is temptingly close and deceptively far away.

The vegetation thins out a bit from Second Cave onwards - mostly just low shrubs and bushes and plenty of dust. More than half the huge group from the first camp stopped at Second Cave to camp for the night, so we finally feel a little more in the wilderness. Our team pushed on to Kikelelwa Caves, essentially just traversing across the lower slopes of the mountain to reach our camp for the evening.

Tip for the day: Drink heaps of water and take Diamox tablets. Puritans may want to climb the mountain without assistance of altitude medication (trust me, I wanted to as well) but anything you can do to improve your chances to summiting you should take. Drinking water is the first thing that will get you to the summit but considering how much it costs to climb Kili, you shouldn't hesitate to use every tool at your disposal to make it to the summit. Altitude medication should be part of your Kili toolkit.

Day 3: Kikelelwa Caves (3600m) to Mawenzi Tarn (4330m)

AWC are brilliant - there is always plenty of food, especially at breakfast although our team wasn't terribly fond of porridge (which unfortunately is also scientifically proven to be the best high-energy, easy to digest breakfast you can get for exercise).

From Kikelelwa the path goes straight up and it is a solid climb for 3-4 hours. If you don't feel the cold too much, shorts and gaitors are more than sufficient for this day's climb. Vegetation is down to grasses and all morning you stare up at the rugged and beautiful Mawenzi mountain (5149m), Kilimanjaro's twin mountain. We were actually heading away from Kili itself this day, but it's all in the name of acclimatisation.

After lunch the guides took us for an acclimatisation walk higher up above the little lake that sits beside the Mawenzi Tarn campsite. After this a few of us were feeling pretty sick (headache, nausea) so started on Diamox. It's not worth risking your chances of getting to the top, so take it if you can!

Once again, African Walking Company were great. Very thorough in making sure we were acclimatising properly through appropriate walks etc. This is the advantage of going with a reputable company, even if they cost a little more - do not compromise on your company as this will certainly compromise your chances of success!

Tip for today: An interesting tip about food culture in Tanzania: whilst it is not impolite for food to be left in the dishes on the table and not finished, it is considered impolite if you have put food on your plate and not finished it.

This is particularly important in camp as any leftovers in the dishes will always be finished either by guides or porters. So make sure you only put on your plate what you intend to eat.

Day 4: Mawenzi Tarn (4330m) to Kibo Hut (4700m)

My headache had lifted by morning, most likely thanks to a double dose of Diamox, and our team settled into the mess tent for breakfast. Altitude can be an appetite killer and several of us had lost ours, managing to get down a little porridge, eggs and bacon before heading off for the day.

After crossing a couple of little hills you reach 'the saddle'. This is the 5km long, barren shoulder of land that separates Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak from Mawenzi. On a normal day, at sea level, this would be an easy 1.5 hour stroll. But at 4700m of altitude, with chilly winds ripping up over the saddle from one side of the mountain to the other, it gets tough.

In the photo to the right you can see the long expanse of alpine desert stretching to the base of the mountain. The day's destination is just to the left of the top of Marine's head.

It is a long, shuffling walk across the col, past the wreck of a light aircraft that crashed in the changing winds of the saddle in 2006. The last kilometres are the hardest. Although the slope isn't steep at all, it is harder and harder to catch your breath. The Kibo Hut inches closer as you shuffle one foot after the other "pole, pole" the guides tell you "slowly, slowly". It's not really necessary since you couldn't go faster even if you really wanted to....

Tip for the day: Pole, pole!

Day 4/Day 5: The Summit Attempt
Around 1pm we arrived at camp at Kibo Hut, the final uphill section seeming impossibly difficult for such a gentle slope. By now we were truly breathless and collapsed into our tents after checking in with the rangers at the hut.

Our guides filled us with lunch and gave us our final climb briefing: dinner at 5:30pm, sleep as much as you can and we'll wake you at 11pm for breakfast. The climb starts at midnight. Good luck!

We hit the sack and tried to sleep. I managed 2 hours and Marine snuck in 30 minutes of shut eye.

Dinner:
A light dinner (nobody is hungry anyway) then straight back to the tents. The sun has gone down and it is already getting cold. We prepare all our things for the final ascent and crawl into our sleeping bags. Sleep comes fast.

11pm:
Our bladders have been bursting for half an hour but it's impossible to get motivated to get out of the sleeping bags. Then a guide is at the tent calling to you 'Good morning, time to go!'

Layer up: long johns, leg warmers, pants, overpants.
Thermal, breathable sports shirt, second thermal, arm warmers, wool jumper, down jacket, shell jacket, beanies (x2), gloves, two sets of socks, boots....

'Breakfast' is porridge: high energy food. We swallow down a little chocolate, fill our water bottles with hot water, put on the headtorches, grab our walking poles and....it's time.

It's a little after midnight and very cold. To the left and right, above and below, the headtorches of other groups going for the summit form thin chains of light snaking up the mountain. There are a lot of people on the mountain, 200 at least.

A crescent moon is already falling from the sky and sometime in the first hour it is gone behind the summit crest, leaving only a halo of light and the most spectacular display of stars....if only we felt up to appreciating them!

Our guides shepherd us - one at the front, one at the back and several on the sides. They are constantly monitoring us, checking our condition, keeping us moving, encouraging us.

You look up and can see the lights winding high high up on the mountain, out of view so high above. Then you put your head back down and focus on that little circle of light from your headtorch....shuffle forward a few steps...your heartrate is going nuts...just watching the boots in front of you. Don't fall behind.

This goes on for hours. Feet are cold, fingers are numb. At last the guides call a break and everyone collapses onto whatever rock they can find to rest on. We all try to swallow a little water..a little food...it's tough. One of the guides takes my backpack - with nearly 6 litres of water for me and Marine it is too heavy for me. My heartrate is at least 150 and my breathing is shallow and rapid.

Within a minute of stopping it is suddenly viciously cold and we all want to get moving. The group encourages each other and we push on - for 10 seconds you feel great, this is easy! Then suddenly your heartrate jumps, your head slumps and you're back following that little yellow circle of light.

The surface of the mountain is incredibly loose - a mixture of sand, thick dust, gravel and rocks. Every step you take the surface slips away a little and it is the case of 2 steps forward, one step back....very frustrating at over 5000 metres!

I feel abysmal. Marine is nauseous and a guide takes her by the arm and leads her quickly higher. I struggle to keep up. Somehow this does her good and the nausea passes after an hour or so.

My lungs are feeling rotten. 4 days of sucking in dust has taken its toll and I am coming down with a strong cough, which is a little stressful when thinking of pulmonary oedemas. I ask a guide about it and he reassures me it is just irritation from the dust.

A team mate, Bayju, appears in the darkness, looking strong. I feel like death and ask him how he's going 'I'm dead man' he tells me and suddenly I feel reassured. We're all in this together, we all feel rotten with the possible exception of 49 year old superwoman Janet who is already high above us on the mountain. Legend.

Hours crawl by and we lose two of our team: Anna and Jan who have been sick for days with altitude related conditions. Both made it a good way up the mountain and we are all in awe they even started the final night. Respect.

Shuffle shuffle, pause, breathe, shuffle shuffle, pause, breath, look up at long line of lights, shuffle shuffle...the hours pass and suddenly one of the guides announces 'Look, dawn is coming'.

In the east, the sky has melted just a little. We push on....

...some time later one of the guides, Rambo, yells and is pointing up. About 50 metres above we can see headtorches hovering on top of stacks of rocks. It's Gilman's Point! The crater rim!
The guide starts singing and I am sobbing....oh my goodness, we're actually going to make it!

6am: Gilman's Point is 5681m above mean sea level and it is a technical summit of Kilimanjaro. In this photo you can see the first shades of dawn in the eastern sky, but can't see how magnificent the hot cup of tea was that our guide Rambo poured for us. You can see how stoked we are to be there though.

From here Marine was in great form and I struggled. She had it together and took lots of photos of both us and the group.

The main peak of Kilimanjaro, Uhuru Peak, is actually visible from Gilman's. At sea level it would be a comfortable 40 minute walk on mostly flat path with a couple of uphill sections. For us, after 6 hours of battling the mightly slopes of Kili, it was a massive struggle. The path winds around the crater rim providing spectacular views.



Halfway to Uhuru we run into Janet who is already on her way down. How far is it left? Just 15 minutes, her guide tells us....







....an hour later we are within 50m of the true summit of Africa.....














Then suddenly we're there!
AIM Overseas on the roof of Africa!

It is one of my most emotional moments ever - a lump rises in my throat and tears come to my eyes. What an achievement! We are both so proud of each other!



Then it's time to go down, down, down and, quite frankly, I couldn't wait to be as far down as possible!

Back at Gilman's you look down off the rocks and it's quite a view: a 45 degree slope reaching about 1 kilometre or more back down to Kibo Hut. You realise straight away why it was so tough getting to the top.

Now it's fun time: scree surfing!
You take your poles and start jumping down the mountain, half running/half skiing down the ridiculously loose slope. Within seconds you are slipping/running down Kilimanjaro losing height 20 times faster than you gained it. Dust comes up in clouds and it's getting warmer. We realise that we haven't drunk anything in nearly two hours and we're dehydrated.


Down, down, down we slide (see photo to the right) - eating up huge chunks of the mountain with every lunge down the slippery slope. Woo hoo! You're accelerating, dropping, sliding, plunging down through the gravel and dust. It's a rush and reward for all the hard work. The sky is crystalline blue, not a cloud to be seen as you drop below the level of Mawenzi's summit (5149m) towards camp.

The roof of Kibo Hut comes up and soon enough you're back in camp.

I'm shot. I get given a sugary drink from Tosha, our head guide, but it irritates my oesophagus and I'm having difficulty getting it all down. I crash out in the tent, 10.5 hours after leaving it.

Tip for the day: Don't give up. It's hard, but worth it. Have courage and push through and you will be rewarded.

Day 5: Kibo Hut (4700m) to Horombo Hut (3700m) (via the Marangu 'Coca Cola' route)

After an hour or so sleep, we were woken up: lunchtime then time to repack everything and descend further to the Horombo Hut. Everyone was pretty buggered after an epic climb (7 out of 10 of us made Uhuru Peak, and a further girl made it to Gilman's on the crater rim), but there was still 3 hours to go down across the saddle towards Mawenzi and further down to Horombo.

But we pulled on our shoes and started plodding down, which is amazing how easy it is compared to going up! The hours melted away 3.5 hours later we came down into the very scenic Horombo clearing.

We were all very impressed by our guides. Not only had they carried our bags to the top and done all the same walking that we had, but they hadn't slept at all the day before. Whilst we had walked 21 hours out of the previous 32 hours, they had too and had not slept a wink.

They build them tough on Kili.

Dinner was done by 6pm and shortly afterwards Marine and I fell into our sleeping bags. We knew the wake up call would be coming at 6am and sleep was quick to come to us.

Tip for the day: Coca colas and beers are available at Horombo for 3000 Tanzanian shillings each (about $3). You'll need to have change if you want to buy these!

Day 6: Horombo Hut (3700m) to Marangu Gate (1900m)
Day 6 is all about going down down down, but the day starts off with your 'tipping ceremony'. I've written a separate post about tipping on Kilimanjaro because it is important to get it right, so if you're interested check out that post.

As you go down you feel better and better, stronger and stronger. The vegetation changes from alpine desert to scrub, scrub to health, health into forest and forest into rainforest as you drop down from above down through the clouds and out underneath. We didn't have rain but it often does on the Marangu side of the mountain.

Eventually we reached the bottom, ran the gauntlet of children selling things and begging for chocolate and money (this is not the place to leave spare food and money, by the way - if you feel the need to do so, give it to your porters as they've carried your gear for a week and have certainly earned it!) and arrived at the Marangu gate.

At the gate we signed out of the park, were handed our certificates and took final photos. There was a little time to just to say our final farewells to our guides and porters. Thank you to them all!

Tip for the day: strap your feet with tape, lengthen your walking poles, use talcum powder to reduce friction and wear two pairs of socks. These are all measures to reduce the pressure on your feet and knees which descending 2000+ metres in two days will place a lot of stress on.

Don't forget to stretch your main muscles (quads, hamstrings, calves as a minimum) because everyone from our group was sore at the bottom.

Here is our group (from left): Anna Braaten, Janet Vickers, Chris Higman, Paul Tynan, Jenny Tynan, Jan Tynan, Rob Malicki, Marine Hautemont, Priya Jamus, Bayju Thakar. A group of total legends!

The End
Back at the Kilimanjaro Mountain Resort our group put the feet up, shared some beers, exchanged email addresses and basked in the glory of an epic adventure. Even the ladies who didn't make it to the top deserved massive credit for the courage they showed pushing through serious sickness to battle their way up the slopes. If it had been me I'm not so sure I would have been as strong.

If you are thinking of an epic adventure then Kilimanjaro is one of the finest out there. Highly recommended by both Marine and I - once again we strongly recommend the African Walking Company and booking the trip through Africa Travel Resource.