January 31, 2006: First view of Kilimanjaro

I woke up as the sun rose, anxious to see the landscape that had been cloaked by the darkness of the previous night. I was greeted by this view, looking due north from the balcony of Springlands hotel. The main peak of Kilimanjaro, known as Kibo (19,340ft/5895m), is on the left. Mawenzi (16898ft/5149m) is the smaller peak seen on the right (east). At one point in time, a third peak was present equidistant to Kibo on the western side, but has since collapsed into a large caldera (13,000ft/3962m).

This view was fleeting, at least while we were there, as thick cloud cover usually engulfed the peaks by late morning.