Our Planned Route:
We are ascending Mt Kilimanjaro via the Lemosho Route, it is one of the newer routes on the mountain. Lemosho is considered the most scenic route on Kilimanjaro, and grants panoramic vistas on various sides of the mountain.

It is our preferred route due to its ideal balance of low traffic, beautiful scenery and a high summit success rate. The route approaches Mount Kilimanjaro from the west, beginning with a long drive from Moshi to the Londorossi Gate.

From there, the first two days are spent trekking through the rainforest to Shira Ridge.

The Lemosho Route crosses the entirety of the plain from west to east. We anticipate encountering low traffic until the route joins the Machame Route. Afterwards, Lemosho follows the same route through Lava Tower, Barranco and Barafu, known as the southern circuit. Descent will be made via the Mweka Route.

Our Experience:
DAY 1: ‘Always plan for the unexpected’

We started Day 1 by driving via truck from the town of Moshi to the Londorossi Gate (elevation of 7,742 feet) of the Kilimanjaro National Park to begin our trek to the summit.

It began to rain….HEAVILY. The truck got stuck and could not carry us to the designated Start Point of our climb.

We unloaded in the torrential down pour and walked an extra three miles in the rain (thus starting our climb closer to around 4,500 feet elevation), uphill and against numerous mud slides to reach our destination of Big Tree Camp at 9,498 feet elevation.

We arrived at Big Tree Camp, under the canopy of the very tropical jungle, in the dark, completely soaked and thoroughly exhausted. To our surprise and grateful relief, our guides had walked ahead to begin setting up camp and a hot meal was waiting for us as we arrived.

Day 2: ‘The vistas are breathtaking’

The climbing is rigorous. We begin at our first camp of Big Tree and hiked up to Shira 1 Camp at 11,500 feet elevation.

Motivated to do our best, we actually surpass our camp elevation to go onto 11,800 feet elevation just because we could.

As we move in and out of the jungle, the views are incredible.

It is still raining today (not as heavily as yesterday, but wet none-the-less). Did you know that it does ‘hail’ in the jungle? That was a surprise and unbelievable encounter!

We end Day 2 at Shira 1 Camp with a wonderful hot meal provided by our guides. The meals prepared by our guides are very good and plentiful.

We are told the climb tomorrow is a less intense day, and we can see our next camp, Shira 2 Camp, from our current position.

Since arriving in Tanzania, the local people that we have met are very friendly and enjoy a wonderful sense of humor.

Our head guide is a man named Frederick. He is shorter and slender in stature and says that he has been up and down Mt. Kilimanjaro about 60 times since taking up this line of work.

As we continue our journey to the summit, we are ever mindful and personally motivated by the struggles, the discomforts and the desire to overcome that children with illness fight everyday of their life. Our own discomforts and struggles are minimized as we carry with us thoughts of these children, and what your support to this Challenge will ultimately do to help them. We humbly thank all those who have so generously donated and urge you to continue broadcasting this event to encourage others to take up the challenge to fight children's leukemia.

We will check in again tomorrow with more from our adventure.

If you haven’t already done so, please make your donation online at www.ClimbforChildren.org and make sure you “Become a Fan” of the Loveall Foundation page on Facebook.com.

Onward and upward!