It's been a little while folks, but here is the second part of my travels up Mt. Kilimanjaro!
Aside from Mount Kilimanjaro’s amazing summit, the tough trek to the top, and its campsites above the clouds, Kili also features surprisingly distinct vegetation zones.
When climbing the mountain, I was taken completely off guard by the intense differences vegetation zones. People have said the climb is a “climatic world tour,” but I wasn't exactly sure what they meant until I was immersed in it! So, for you environment lovers, I’ve compiled a post on the vegetation zones, biomes, climatic differences--however you want to say it--on Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Rainforest Zone (6,000- 9,000 ft)
If you read my first post on climbing Kilimanjaro, you would have seen that our group took a 7-day trek up the Machame route, which begins from the south/Tanzanian side of the mountain. This started us at an elevation of 5,718 feet in the rainforest zone (which is typically seen from ~6,000-9,000 ft). Here, there was dense vegetation and tons of life--including monkeys, colorful orchids, bright ferns and large insects; the temperature was decently warm and humid (I started day 1 in shorts and a tank top).
Low Alpine Zone (9,200- 13,200 ft)
By the end of the first day, we had just barely made our way out of the rainforest and into the heather/moorland vegetation zone. The tree-line transition from rainforest into this low alpine moorland zone was so distinct, it felt like we had crossed national borders or something!
We reached our first camp at just over 9,000 ft as the weather was quickly cooling off and the evening brought in some major chill (I did not wear any shorts after this first day). This heather/moorland zone, often referred to as the low alpine zone, ranges from 9,200- 13,200 ft. The trees were significantly shorter than the first day of our trek (except the occasional seneco trees scattered around, see photo below) and they looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book with their twisty-ness and fuzzy looking moss/lichen coverings. We were in this wonderland-type of zone for almost 2 days. It wasn't until day 3 when we ascended from our second camp at 12,500 ft to Lava Tower Point at 15,190 ft, into the next vegetation zone.
Alpine Desert Zone (13,200- 16,500 ft)
At Lava Tower Point, we entered into the fairly barren alpine desert zone. This zone was filled with sandy-type trails, lots of lava rocks, and spare shrubs scattered here and there. Despite the barren majority, this section of the mountain did have some unique plants like the lobelia plant, whose leaves close up at night, and still had seneco trees that look like yet another set of Dr. Seuss-inspired vegetation.
Lava Tower point is an amazing 300-ft lava rock structure, but unfortunately for us, it was very cold and rainy on the day we arrived here so no great photos were taken. :(
We continued day 4 in the alpine desert zone as well; we descended down some valleys and back up the infamous Barranco wall (a steep ~900 ft tall rock wall) to finally rest at Karanga Camp that night. Sometimes, trekkers choose to skip this day as it's shorter and mostly for acclimatization purposes, not for getting closer to the top of the mountain, but it is very helpful for getting your body used to the high elevation you'll reach on summit day.
Then we began the 5th day of our climb -- it was summit day, meaning we had a short trek from Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp, which sits at just over 15,000 ft. We arrived at Barafu Camp in the late afternoon and after some quick dinner, slept for a few hours before waking up at 11pm to begin our summit climb through the night.
Arctic Zone 16,500ft +
We began the "summit night" portion of the climb in alpine desert zone but at about 16,500 ft up (a few hours in), we arrived at the arctic zone. It was hard to tell the difference between biomes at this point due to the fact that it was about 2am (and dark) when we reached this elevation (not to mention I was low-key dying at this point). However, after making it to Stella Point (the crater rim, but not the highest point of the mountain) around 6am, the change from alpine desert to the arctic was NOTICEABLE. We were surrounded by a rocky, barren landscape with snow that was feet deep (due to a blizzard 2 nights before our ascent). It showcased beautiful, massive glaciers, and hardly any noticeable wildlife from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak (~1.5 hr hike).
After finally reaching Uhuru Peak (Kili's highest point), we made our descent that same day, climbing more than halfway down the mountain, leaving the snowy arctic behind, running (literally, because of the STEEP trail) through the sparse alpine desert zone, and reaching the very ends of the wonderland-like moorlands before we stopped to FINALLY sleep for the night.
The next day was a quick few hours through the moorlands, past the lush rainforest to our ending point, Mweka Gate, where we received official climbing certificates and an easy ride back home!
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Stay safe and happy traveling dreams, friends!
Very well done and very interesting. Never been there and always wanted to go. Congratulations to both of you for making the trek.