November is a super quiet month on Kilimanjaro, as the weather isn't great for trekking.
Seeing opportunity, the Kilimanjaro Responsible Trekking Organisation (KRTO) has in recent years been organising a big mountain cleanup project for this month.
All Kilimanjaro tour operators are invited to join in the effort by sending some crew members to spend time on the mountain picking up litter. You must, however, sponsor your own crew. So it's not only a great initiative in terms of looking after the mountain we all love, it also offers crew members some paid work in an otherwise quiet month. Double win.
Our team tackles the trash
So our team gathered together at the base of the mountain, ready to hike and camp out on Kilimanjaro for five nights and six days of hardcore litter control ...
They began in the rainforest on the popular western flank of the mountain ...
But quickly worked their way up to the moorland band ...
And even at one point collected litter on the edge of the alpine desert band ...
All crew members were armed with tongs for picking up litter safely and hygienically ...
Each day in camp our team would receive their assignment along with some encouragement from the cleanup organisers ...
They then tackled that day's job, working in all sorts of weather. There was wind ...
There was rain ...
There was mist ...
And more mist. So much mist ...
But there was also some simple ol' cloud cover ...
And, happily, even some sunshine, like when they were cleaning up at Barranco Camp ...
Our Kilimanjaro director, Chris Sichalwe, summed up the cleanup event as follows:
We collected a total of 440.5 kg trash. A mixture of all sorts of rubbish, mainly plastic bottles, sweet wrappers, cigarettes buts, juice boxes and straws, shoe sole particles and rubber pieces. All went smoothly. Am glad I was there.
Well done, team!
