Kilimanjaro .... sixty years on.

 

From Ol Tukai lodge, Amboseli 1975 - 

the main peak, Kibo, on the right, with Mawenzi to the left.

Kibo, taken from Tsavo, 1969 - covered in a thick blanket of snow

Two local friends of mine, have just returned from a ten day safari to Tanzania, to climb Kili; I suspect it was quite an expensive luxury safari and climb.  They had guides, and I think they said they took about 8 or so days to climb the mountain.   When we were living in Kenya in the 60's and 70's, a guided safari to climb Kili was five days; three days up and two down.  

We always saw Kili from the Kenya (north) side of the border, but on a trip to the Marangu Hotel in Tanzania, in December 1969, we saw the mountain from the other side, with Mawenzi to the right of Kibo !

I also showed this photo of the Kili glacier to my friends .... I think it was taken about 1966, and possibly by my late father-in-law, but I'm not sure about that.  

My friends said that their guide told them there is only about 3% of the glacier left, and just a little snow in some of the gullies .... global warming has a lot to answer for, especially this year with all the forest fires in Europe and Canada. 

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It is said that Queen Victoria 'gave' Kilimanjaro to Kaiser Wilhelm as a birthday present .... but this isn't strictly true.   

During the 'Scramble for Africa' present-day Kenya was under British rule and Tanzania, then known as German East Africa, was under German control. The Society for German Colonisation was formed at this time to gain access to much of the area now known as Tanzania.  Karl Peters, an explorer and adventurer, gained much of the territory for the Society through documents signed by the chiefs (who probably had little idea what they were signing) ...  of the areas he passed through.

When the boundaries of the new colonies were drawn up the documents signed by the chiefs handing the land of Kilimanjaro to the Germans was accepted, and the highest point of Africa was allocated to German East Africa, and Kenya lost it, but still had Mt Kenya further to the north.

Kilimanjaro (from Kenya) with snow on Kibo's peak under a cloud at dawn