Page 20 - AMA Winter 2023/24

EXPEDITIONNEWS
EXERCISE KILI YATRA
13 Signal Regiment on Kilimanjaro
Freddie Lynn
The journey to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania was a long one, taking the best part of 21 hours of flying and waiting in airport lounges. However, the destination was a far cry from the rainy and cold Manchester where our journey began in early August 2023.
Arriving on Tuesday, the next couple days were spent acclimatising to the area and visiting nearby sites. On Wednesday afternoon, we met the guides who would take us up to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. At the time we had no way of knowing how much we would come to rely on them! They introduced themselves and gave an overview of the Machame route that we would be trekking and inspected the kit we had brought; likely due to past
experiences of what some unwitting tourists had thought was acceptable clothing to summit the tallest mountain in Africa. Once we had been given the nod of approval, we repacked our bags and went to bed, equal parts nervous and excited for the challenge ahead.
The trek began early on Thursday, arriving at the Machame Gate (1800m) where we were held for a few hours. During this time, all our bags and equipment were checked for weapons, drones, and other banned items. Due to the size of our group, it took a while for all of our bags to be inspected; while this went on, we chatted to the guides and the members of the Tanzanian Defence Force who were accompanying us. We made last minute
purchases and sat down for lunch, taking in the views of the jungle that lay before us. Shortly after, we received the green light to pass through security and our trek up Kilimanjaro officially began. The journey up to our first base camp (Machame camp) at 3000m was a trek of 11km rising just under 1200m and took around 4 hours. As would become the norm (due to the fantastic guides and porters who accompanied us) the tents were already set up for our arrival and not long after we had a lovely cooked meal.
The next day we left Machame Camp and trekked to Shira Cave Camp, covering a distance of 5km and rising to an elevation of 3700m. The path proved to be quite challenging, with uphill sections and
20 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER