I am sure that when I went to Kenya in 1981, my knowledge of this mountain was less than what the German missionaries and explorers Johannes Rebmann and Ludwig Krapf knew when in1848 they caught the first glimpse of what was then known locally as ‘Kilimansharo’ a mountain that was “higher than the clouds and capped in silver”.

The accepted knowledge at the time was that ice and snow did not occur in the equator so the explorers initially failed to realise the significance of their find. However, Rebmann -clearly unconvinced- explored its vecinity and eventually wrote in his diary: “…This morning we discerned the Mountains of Jagga more distinctly than ever; and about ten o’clock I fancied I saw a dazzlingly white cloud. My Guide called the white which I saw merely ‘Beredi,’ cold; it was perfectly clear to me, however, that it could be nothing else but snow…”

He published his observations in 1849 but the scientific community did not accept them until later on. About 40 years later, the “Kilimanjaro Elephant” believed to have been killed in 1898 was found with tusks that weighed 108 and 102kg, the heaviest in history. Each were over 3m long and 70cm in circumference at the base. They were eventually bought by the British Museum of Natural History in 1932.

Much later, Ernest Heminway made the mountain more popular when he wrote his well known novel “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” that he opens mentioning another altitude find: a frozen leopard.

Microsoft Word – The Snows of Kilimanjaro.doc

It was when in Kenya that I became aware of the existence of the mountain somewhere in the rift valley until one very clear morning, while traveling from Muguga to Nairobi, I actually saw its silver shadow far in the horizon and I realized that it did exist and that it was not that far away!

 

At that time I also learnt that in the late 1800’s Queen Victoria gave her German grandson Wilhelm by changing the Kenya-Tanzania border for Kilimanjaro to be in Tanzania! Only recently, while reading history for this blog, I learnt that the border was a consequence of negotiations and that the story is not true.

 

If I knew little of Kilimanjaro I knew even less about its surrounding area and the wealth of interesting cultures and beautiful areas that it contained on both sides of the Kenya-Tanzania border. Although unfortunately at the time the border was closed as a consequence of the end of the East African Community that linked Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, we could still enjoy the Kenyan side and explore its parks, mainly Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks.

I will tell you some anecdotes of our visits to these areas around the mountain in the next posts. Just in case you are interested beyond what I mentioned here, the video below from Alan and Jane Root, despite being “aged”, is worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibfoSYwK4MY