Local nurse Machelle Bulman climbs to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro

(Editor's Note: The following item was submitted by Machelle Bulman, Registered Nurse and Education Coordinator for Infection Control at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon. Along with her two sons, Justin and Michael, she enjoyed a journey to Africa that included a safari in Ngorongoro Crater and culminated in a climb to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa. The information below details some of their experience.)

I don’t remember when I decided I wanted to climb of Kilimanjaro. I watched Ann Curry on the Today Show try and climb it, and when she did not make it I thought maybe climbing it was just wishful thinking. She has all the resources to help her make it to the top and wasn’t able to do it. I should just get it out of my head.
However, when my son who lives in Coralville called and said he had a co-worker who was going to climb and they were putting together a group of people to go I thought, “This is a sign and it means I should go.” I was planning on going by myself if I had to. Someone said to me, "You won’t know anyone," and I said, "Anyone who likes to do the same things I like to do will be fun to be around."
I asked my two other sons if they wanted to climb. Michael was ready to go from the get-go, but Justin wasn’t sure. I said to Justin, "If you really want to go, now is the time, you may never get a chance again." My son, Jesse, who lives in Coralville, would like to have gone, but they just had a new baby, so that was out of the question.
About five months ahead of the trip, I started to train. I would hike around our farm, at Effigy Mounds and down at Pikes Peak in McGregor. I added more weight to my backpack until I had about 15 pounds in it. I hiked about 25-30 miles a week. I thought, "I’m going to make it up this mountain, I better be ready." I said to my mom, "I want to make it to the top. The boys haven’t been doing any training, I hope they don’t hold me back.” Little did I know they would do great and kept me going!
So, we took off from the Minneapolis airport June 19. I had e-mailed our travel agent to find out how much money I need to bring along for tips. I found out we were to have two guides and each person would have two porters. The going tip rate was $40 for each porter for the entire trip and $50 for each guide per person. So, I made sure I had plenty of dollar bills for tips for others and $150 for the porters and guides who take us up the mountain. We met up with two new friends, Sheila and Zach. We flew eight hours to Amsterdam and another eight to Kilimanjaro, arriving in Africa June 20.
We stayed at the Mountain Inn for two nights prior to climbing the mountain. We had jet lag and overslept the first morning, just barely making it to breakfast in time. Breakfast was a cheese omelet that had no cheese. I have Celiac disease, so I told the waitress I wanted no bread, but, of course, I got two slices of bread. This went on for about four meals before she figured it out.
After breakfast that morning, we walked along the downtown streets. There were a lot of children in school uniforms smiling and waving at us, hollering "jambo". The streets were orange- red dirt. They were very busy with traffic, people were driving very fast and would pass in the middle of the road. There were no lawns, per say, and the small homes, that were more like shacks, had corn or maize growing right up to the street. People looked very poor and the children would ask for pencils and money.
We met with our Shah tour guide after supper. He explained the route what we needed to take and informed us that we could rent equipment from the hotel if we forgot something. We found out that night we were to have three guides, two cooks and 10 porters. I was frustrated with this since I had asked ahead of time how many people I would need to tip. Needless to say, money was going to be an issue. We went to sleep early that night. Our beds had mosquito netting around them. We were on the road by 8:00 the next morning.  We drove about one hour to Machame Gate.
The Machame route is a very popular route, also called the Whiskey route. It is a very difficult route but one of the benefits is climbing high and sleeping low, which helps with altitude acclimation. So, this route has a better success rate. About 15,000 people try to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro each year, with 40% of them not making it to the top.

JUNE 22
Machame route starts at the Machame Gate at 5,718 feet and travels upward through the mountain rainforest to Machame Hut at 9,927 feet. It was hot and humid, making me think of a hot, humid Iowa summer day. We walked uphill for about eight hours. We all thought this was one of the hardest days. We dressed too warm and had too much weight in our backpacks. We wore gators, which cover the tops of your shoes and bottoms of your pants to help keep you clean and dry, as the ground was muddy, slippery and wet.
Shortly after getting to camp we were told to go to the dining tent. It was about 5 p.m. and popcorn and warm peanuts were brought in to eat. We were hungry so we sat around eating this and waited for supper. Supper did not come, so we thought this must be supper and we finished up the popcorn and nuts and headed to our tents, where we promptly fell asleep. At 8 p.m. we were awoken by our guide telling us to come to dinner. Of course, we were not hungry anymore, but we tried to eat some. The cook took our poor appetite as an insult to his cooking.
We took our first dose of Diamox that night. Diamox is a weak diuretic to help prevent altitude sickness, and its diuretic worked well all night. We slept each night in a small tent that had been set up by the porters each afternoon. Watching the porters carry tents, food and our sleeping bags on their head was quite the sight, and then realizing it would take 15 people to get five of us to the top of the mountain was a humbling experience.

JUNE 23
The second day we hiked to Shira Camp, and this took us about six hours. We traveled straight up rocks, then through the moorland. Shira Camp is at 12,355 feet. There was moss covering the trees, which gave us a feel of something unreal. When we arrived at camp it was raining and cold. When we woke up in the morning there was frost on the ground.

JUNE 24
Day three we traveled to Barranco Camp, we hiked about eight hours this day. Barranco Camp is at 13,066 feet elevation. There was sun in the morning, and then it started to rain. It rained all day and we arrived at camp wet, cold and tired. It was a nice uphill climb to 14,500 feet, and then we walked downhill to camp for about two hours, although this walking downhill was harder.
There were huge trees called giant senecio tree. I’m not sure if they were a tree or a plant or cactus, but they were something I have never seen before, and they were beautiful.

JUNE 25
Day four we hiked an hour and a half over a very rocky cliff wall. We needed to use our hands to climb up and around the rocks. The landscape became very rocky and it was like a desert where there were very few flowers, some of them were straw flowers that grow wild. We arrived at lava towers and it was raining, cold and very foggy, so we were unable to climb lava towers.
We continued down the path, which was really rocky and hard to walk, to Karanga Camp. Karanga Camp is an optional camp, and we stayed here one night so we could rest prior to climbing to the top of Kilimanjaro. Karango Camp is at 13,000 feet. We are above the clouds, and all we could see on the horizon were clouds and Kilimanjaro’s sister mountain, Mount Meru. So surreal to be higher than the clouds!

JUNE 26-27 - TO THE SUMMIT!
Day five we were able to sleep in this morning. We got up at 8 a.m. and left camp by 9 a.m. We had a short but very steep three-hour walk. We could tell it was much harder to breathe here. Our hands were tingling and I had a headache. The altitude at Barafu Camp is 15,239 feet.
I stopped taking the Diamox twice a day the day before. I decided to take it only in the morning since I was unable to get a good night’s sleep. The boys continued to take it twice a day. We took an afternoon nap, got up and had supper early. We then went to bed around 6 p.m. because we knew we had to get up at 11:30 p.m. to walk to the top of the mountain.
It was difficult to sleep because it was cold and the anticipation was great. The reason you walk at night is because during the day the ice and snow start to melt, making it difficult to climb. Also, most people want to see the sunrise at the top of the mountain.
We got up at 11:30 p.m., and we were told to wear four layers of pants and tops. We started to climb and immediately knew we had too many layers on. I took off my coat, tied it around my waist, took off my fleece and tied it around my waist, then took off my hat and gloves. When you live in Iowa, you know how cold it can be. I think this helped us a lot. We met many people on the mountain who were complaining of the cold. Really, we didn’t think it was too bad.
Around 4 a.m. it became very windy and then colder. The guides said it could be as cold as -30 degrees and that is without wind chill, so we started to put our layers back on. Michael had become overheated initially, and when it got very cold he said he could feel the sweat freezing on his back. He said his toes and fingers were chilled to the bone and that was what kept him going. He didn’t tell me then, but he was not feeling well at all and was ill with altitude sickness. But he kept going.
The boys and main guide were ahead of me and I had a hard time keeping up. I fell behind about 20 feet, which doesn’t seem far but on top of the mountain it felt like miles. I would take a very small step - about the size of my foot - and then take a deep breath. I continued to repeat that step, breath, step, breath pattern. It is so hard to explain how out of breath you felt. The oxygen level is about 40 % lower here than at sea level.
After walking for four and a half hours, we were close to Stella Point, and our main guide wanted us all to get there together. He stopped and wanted me to get behind him and keep up to him, but I told him I was exhausted and was doing okay at the speed I was going. Again he insisted I follow him, so I did until I couldn’t keep up anymore. I stopped and stated he had to slow down, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.
The second guide picked me up and we began climbing again. Michael took off in front at a much slower speed trying to keep the pace slower.  We made it to Stella Point in five hours, and it was still very dark. Stella Point is at 18,652 feet elevation and it sits on the crater rim. I found out later that it takes most people seven hours to make it to this point. I’m not sure why the guide pushed us so hard.
We continued on to Uhura Peak, which took about another hour. Uhura is pronounced “oo who ra” and its elevation is 19,366 ft. There were only two other people at the peak when we arrived. Here we waited for the sun to rise, and it was well worth the wait. Pictures do not show the beauty of it all. The sky glowed a bright orange- red and the glaciers appeared out of nowhere, blue in color. As we stood there, more people began to arrive and everyone was overwhelmed with emotion over the beauty and to finally have made it.
After two hours we began our descent back down the mountain, which one would think would be a piece of cake, but this is not the case. We walked/ran down a scree slide slope, which is a very steep, sandy, rocky gravel path. I fell countless times as the ground gave out below my feet and my tired legs could not keep me upright.
When we arrived back to Barafu Camp four hours later, we had a Fanta pop and then collapsed in our tent. We had to wait for Sheila and Zach to arrive in camp so we could walk another seven hours to Mweka Camp, which is at 10,204 feet altitude. This was a very difficult and long day with 17 hours of hiking.

JUNE 28
At Mweka Camp we paid the porters and the cooks and guides. I had the money I brought and took all the money Justin and Michael brought to have enough money to give them tips. Each porter got $40, dollars which doesn’t seem like a lot since they had to haul all the gear up the mountain. The cook and waiter each received $45, but I could tell they were not happy with this amount. The guides each received $150.
Looking back on this, we should have waited to pay everyone when we arrived at Mweka Gate. The Shah Tour group was paid about $1,800 per person to get us to the top, the tips are tips. Leaving Mweka Camp to walk down to Mweka Gate took about four hours and at this point everyone had been paid so you could tell they really didn’t care too much about us or our stuff.
As we were walking down the hill the main guide came up to me and stated to me, "You owe us another $35 dollars." There was money missing. I said, “James, I don’t have much money, I have already given you most of my money.” If I had been thinking right and not so exhausted, I would have said a tip is exactly that - a tip. But I found my money belt and proceeded to count out one dollar bills. When I got to 20, I had 10 dollars left and I said “no more, I only have 10 dollars left.” Leaving the mountain with $10 between the three of us in Africa was not a good feeling.
As we walked to the gate we traveled through thick vegetation where we saw blue monkeys, the black and white colobus monkey, velvet monkeys and baboons. We had been walking downhill for a total of about 15 hours by now and our quadriceps and knees were hurting. The boys' toenails were hurting and turning black from all the downhill momentum of their toenails rubbing against the front of their boots.
At the gate we met other hikers, many who did not make it to the top.  Realizing this, we again were humbled and overjoyed by summiting Kilimanjaro. We arrived back at the Mountain Inn and had the best tasting Coke I have ever had, and a splendid shower that was well deserved and needed. My next goal was to find an ATM.

AFTERTHOUGHTS
So, people will ask me what the food was like as we hiked, and all I can say was... it was terrible. The first night it was okay, but we had the same thing almost every meal for seven days. Porridge and eggs for breakfast and sometimes there would be a thin, very flat pancake. Sack lunch was a peanut butter sandwich and fruit, and we would have popcorn and peanuts as soon as we arrived at camp. Supper was a chicken broth soup and some thick vegetable and meat concoction over rice or spaghetti noodles and a piece of fruit. By the sixth night we said no more popcorn, we were even sick of that. As we approached our seventh day, we were all talking about the McDonald’s we saw in the Amsterdam airport.
Another problem encountered was the availability of safe drinking water. We would add iodine tablets to the water and then crystal light to flavor it. Out of the five of us, three became sick with diarrhea. Our fried Zach was very ill with fever, chills, abdominal cramping and diarrhea. We had him take Imodium the first day, as directed. The next day he still didn’t feel better so at bedtime I had him take an antibiotic that I had brought with, just in case this happened. He felt so much better the next morning. So when two others became sick with diarrhea, we went right to the antibiotic and were able to get them feeling better within hours, not days. Thank you, Dr. Schwartz!

JUNE 29 - ON SAFARI
June 29 we set off for our safari in Ngorongoro Crater. Our safari guide, Merlin, met us at the Mountain Inn in a very nice jeep. We drove five hours on a paved highway that you would think was misplaced from the U.S. Japan put the money into the highway, and when you looked around at the vehicles seen there, most of them were Toyota and Nissan.
Our guide said there were over 150 different African tribes, and he had left his tribe years ago. As we drove we would see Maasai people walking along the road. The men would be in red capes of some type and women in mostly purple. Their heads were shaved. The children would be watching herds of goats or cattle.  You would also see young men warriors with faces painted white and black.
Merlin told us the Maasai are the largest of the African tribes, the elders still abide by many old customs.  One of their customs includes circumcising boys at the ages of 12-25. While they do this the boy must not cry, because if they cry they cannot be a warrior, and all boys want to be warriors. Young women are also circumcised as part of an elaborate rite of passage ritual called “Emuratare,” this ceremony initiates young Maasai girls into adulthood and then into early arranged marriages.
The Maasai believe that female circumcision is necessary and Maasai men may reject any woman who has not undergone process as either not marriageable or worthy of a much-reduced bride price. The Maasai men may have many wives. Piercing and stretching of the earlobes is common in the Maasai people. They live in round thatched-type homes.  Listening to all of this took you back in time. I still wonder how they can keep all the old customs going when life around them is changing so fast.
We arrived at 1 p.m. Our lodging was another tent, but a luxury tent that had a bed, bathroom and shower. Even though it was very nice, it was chilly there and we wished we were in a hotel. The benefit of staying in a luxury tent was it was located inside the crater, so we would get to see the animals first - early in the morning when they are more active.
The hotels are not allowed to build in the crater, they are on the outside of the crater.  Staying close to the crater via hotel or tent is not cheap. The tent was $250 per night. This did include our meals and the meals here were much better. We had to have a guide with us whenever we were out of the tent after dark.
The tented camp is in place for 10 months before it is taken down, the tents are fixed and then relocated. One would never know that a camp was located there when they leave. We went on a walking safari to a waterfall during the afternoon, and our guide carried a gun. The landscape was beautiful, but I would say we didn’t enjoy it much since everyone was still hurting from our walk down the mountain.

JUNE 30
The next morning we were up early and the temperature was maybe 50 degrees. We rode around in a jeep that had a top that lifted so we could stand up and peer over the sides to view the animals.  There were so many animals, we saw a lot of lions, hippos and elephants; herds of zebra, wildebeest, water buffalo and gazelles. We saw a few cheetahs, rhinos, jackals, a serval and some hyenas. The lake was pink with flamingos and, boy, did it stink. We were on the safari most of the day then arrived back at camp for a campfire and dinner. I remember as we talked about our climb to the top of Kili, we all said, “done it, won’t do it again.”

HEADED FOR HOME, SWEET HOME
As we headed home the next day we stopped at the cultural center in Arusha. Hillary Clinton had stopped here the year before, and it was pretty impressive. We still had food on our minds and were talking about the McDonald's in the Amsterdam airport, but this had to wait for another eight-hour flight.
Two weeks later, Michael called me and said, “You know, Mom, how we could not wait to get down that mountain?”
"Yes," I replied.
“Well, I wish I was back there,” he said.
"Me too!" I replied.