Most Inspirational Moment
For me this is not a personal thing but it is watching the porters. They carry all the camp gear and our kit bags and soon zip past us after we leave camp in the morning for our day of hiking. Often they were wearing clothing and footwear that is questionable for the environment yet they complete their job with incredible stoicism.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Lucia was excellent in every way. Three of our main guide team were women. Lucia, Anna and Happiness, we also had Angela for a couple of days at the start too. Brown was the fourth and only male guide we had from start to finish. Freddie, one of the helping porters who we got to know serving our food in the mess tent, stepped up and worked as an assistant guide on the final summit stage. He did a great job too. Lucia clearly earned and commanded so much respect from everyone both us as clients and the rest of her team. She and Anna were very strong, standing our ground on the Barranco wall where it is easy for climbers to be pushed aside by the army of porters also ascending the same narrow route. All our guides set a really good walking pace that made it all that much easier. Lucia told us that she sends a member of her team ahead to the next camp to try and get us good spots at the camp sites before everyone else. This often worked and was a good tactic for us all.
Advice for Potential Travellers
This was my second summit of Kilimanjaro. The first time was by the Rongai route, this time the Lemosho. I naturally compared the two. Lemosho definitely wins for altitude aclimatisiation over Rongai. The lay of the land and two more days of ascent help greatly with this. I will also say Lemosho is slightly more scenic along the trail than Rongai but not massively. Where Lemosho fails is crowds. Just about every adventure travel operator going, including Exodus generally plug Lemosho as the premier route up Kilimanjaro. Add to this the fact the also popular Machame route and Lemosho route merge on the third day, the crowds of porters and hikers can be significant. A few times, I saw a near unbroken line of people as far ahead on the trail as I could see and the same looking back where we'd come from. This also makes for very large and crowded camp sites. On summit night it took us about 20 minutes of "pole pole" walking just to clear the Barranco camp. A few years back on the Rongai there were four or five total groups , including us, moving up the mountain at the same time. I also found the final summit climb on Rongai to be easier under foot but one of our guides told me that it may no longer be as good as I remember it due to the fact with climate change, the ground does not as reliabley freeze hard at night as it once did. Sometimes making it heavy going on the loose small stoney trail. As for other things. Kilimanjaro is a dusty place, which ever way you go, and it gets everywhere. Be prepared to be mucky. British travellers don't need a plug adapter for Tanzania, it's the same plug. I travelled in July. I did not see or hear a single mosquito from start to finish. All your drinking water on the mountain is provided and is chlorinated by the crew so there is no need to bring your own water treatment. The barranco wall is no where near as bad as you may sometimes hear (apart from the numerous false summits) but it is a hands on job. Some light gloves like long finger mountain bike gloves would be handy for it. More so when Lucia told us the porters frequently spit on the rocks you're gripping on to.