Eight Cypriot climbers recently joined the throng of people heading up Kilimanjaro, an experience that has now been turned into an honest and moving documentary. ELENI ANTONIOU reports
It has been estimated that well over 25,000 people have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. This number also includes a number of celebrities such as UK stars Cheryl Cole and Fearne Cotton and US actors Jessica Biel and Emile Hirsch, who have all made the 100 km or 6,000m up the mountain in the name of charity. Eight Cypriots may not have attracted the world’s media attention when they decided to do the same yet they returned with their own tales of the difficulties faced when it’s man against nature.
Anna Pericleous, Georgia Georgiades, Kyriacos Kyriacou, Evripides Kyriakides, Manos Hadjipetris, Panos Vlamis, Lazaros Sophocleous and Nectarios Vilanides spent five days in February last year climbing one of the most popular mountains in the world. They are all experienced rock climbers; many have even participated in major climbing events, but this experience was to be different as it would be filmed and eventually turned into a 53-minute documentary depicting how quickly even the most prepared mountain climber can be stripped down to a withering mess by Mother Nature. “You prepare for it and you know exactly what to do but it is a totally different experience once you’re up there, walking in the clouds,” explained Nectarios, the film’s producer, director and cameraman.
After flying to Egypt, then Kenya and catching a bus to Tanzania, the group, dressed in t-shirts and shorts, found themselves at the bottom of the mountain ready to begin their climb. But they weren’t alone. “Even though there are climbers everywhere, that’s not the only reason why you’re not alone,” said Nectarios. “We had two guides and over 10 porters with us, all the way up and all the way down. Without them nobody could climb Mount Kilimanjaro.”
Porters accompany trekkers and carry about 15 to 20kg of luggage and equipment and more often than not, do so in donated clothes and worn-out shoes. “Their gear doesn’t even come close to the professional stuff we had on,” explains Nectarios. “one of our porters was climbing the mountain in army boots… without any socks or laces! They are truly remarkable but unfortunately are not rewarded properly for risking their lives the way they do.” Porters get paid an average $10 a day. “That means that each of the ten porters we had with us made $70,” he explains. “Even if it is a walk in the park for them and a tradition, they survive on what they get from climbers and what they leave behind. It was important to show these unfortunate situations in the documentary.”
The team may have been wearing proper shoes and refrained from carrying luggage on their heads, however, difficulties began to unravel on the third day. “Exhaustion just hit us,” said Georgia, who had previously climbed Mount Olympus in Greece. “It was bad enough that we were starting to feel physical exhaustion but once our mental states were affected, things became hard.” The constant change of scenery reminded the team that they needed to be alert despite headaches, caused by changes in atmospheric pressure.
“It was mind-boggling how quickly the environment around us was changing,” they all agree. “We went from tropical heat to snow and hail stones raining down on us,” explains Georgia. However, it was important that they continued despite the weather, which switched from 27 degrees to minus 20. “We had to reach camp and that meant six or seven hours of trekking in rain and on rocky ground,” said Nectarios.
Since Kilimanjaro has become such a climbing attraction, camp sites have been set up throughout the mountain, making life a tad easier for everyone. Yet, the atmosphere pressure changes were so rapid it was vital to maintain an up and down trekking course. “We had to adapt so we would climb 500 metres and then go down 200,” explained Nectarios.
A landslide of vomiting, severe headaches and extreme change in clothing later and the team had reached the 5,895 metre mark, the Roof of Africa. “When we finally arrived, of course, words couldn’t describe our feelings but we were so cold all we wanted was to get down,” laughs Nectarios, who says that despite arranging to go on full moon dates, which means arriving on the mountain top on a cloudless full moon night, things didn’t quite turn out that way. “It was unfortunate that all we could see was white vastness but still, it was an unforgettable experience. But that was what each step of the way was,” he adds. “When you’re there, there’s a certain ritual to trekking and you can’t quite digest the magnitude of things. You quickly realise how small you are compared to nature.”
A private screening of Kilimanjaro Trek 2009 Cyprus Team will be held at the Cine Studio at the University of Cyprus on May 26 at 8:30. Anyone interested in going needs to contact [email protected] by May 17
