Parcham-e Iran on Mount Kilimanjaro

By Amir Khosrow Sheibany
May 18, 2001
Written for Iranian.com  continued from Part One

Part Two

 

So, seven friends had made their way to Africa. Kilimanjaro was picked because it was supposedly possible to climb without prior mountain climbing experience. On the way there I learnt more about Tanzania and its history. During Queen Victoria's time, the mountain, which is right on the border with Kenya, was given to Tanzania as a present, Shatt Al-Arab style.  More recent history: Freddie (Farouk) Mercury, lead singer from the famous UK rock band Queen, was a Zardoshti from Zanzibar. He left Zanzibar with his family after the political troubles described in the history section below.

A Brief history - from Tanganyika to Tanzania A land of plains, lakes and mountains with a narrow coastal belt, Tanzania is East Africa's largest country.  Its capital very recently moved from Dar-e Salaam to Dodoma. Over 100 different tribal groups make up the countries 20 million population. The majority are of Bantu origin. The islands of Zanzibar and Pemba have people who are a mix of Shirazis (from Persia) Arabs and Comorians (from Comoros Islands). They introduced many of their local vocabulary, denominations and customs, though after many years under the British protectorate, much of the instruments of trade were changed to British terms, such as their currency that is now the shilling. Zanzibar, which had been ruled for decades from Oman, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, became such an important trading center that the Omani Sultan, Seyyid Said, moved his capital there from Muscat in 1832.  After a Communist inspired revolution that left most of the Arab/Persian locals massacred or expelled and  brief rule under the revolutionary council of the Afro-Shirazi Party, Zanzibar and Pembar joined Tanganyika to form Tanzania.(from guide book to Tanzania)

We disembarked from the 747 onto the tarmac and walked to the small airport terminal.   The baggage was put onto trolleys and the airplane flew away to its next destination.  As soon as the plane backed away and it's bright headlights no longer shone on the terminal, the entire terminal's lighting had faded to the glow of weak yellow lamps inside of it. As I looked into the darkness surrounding me, I understood that we were now truly in  A-f-r-i-c-a,  and far from any of its big cities.

We all arrived in Moshi with several pieces of luggage and it was quite stressful getting everything organized and placed on the Land Rover. I had one conspicuous, extra piece of luggage, an Iranian flag, all wrapped up with Marks and Spencer plastic wrapping and rubber bands. It was on a big 5 or 6 foot pole and with all the other baggage, the flag was proving to be a big nuisance to carry.

   
The rainy season had just started when we arrived.

Road to hotel, sky at night.

As we drove to our first hotel where we would plan the expedition, I saw one of the most amazing, beautiful and awe-inspiring sights of my life. There were no cities in sight, no street lamps, only the light from our Land Rover and the sky above. And what a sky it was! There was a sprinkle of lights above, bright as a discotheque, so dense in the center that the light was like illuminated milk (now I know why it is called the Milky Way). Not all the stars where white, some glowed with a red or blue colour. I could only stare up at the sky, mapped by the bright stars, in complete wonder.

Next day to base camp.

Another tour group taking photo's of wild life.

 
We saw no wild cats (Lions etc.) but saw pretty much everything else.

We had arranged a rendezvous with 22 helpers comprising of: 16 porters, 2 cooks, 3 assistant guides and one chief guide. It was like sending a Saturn 5 rocket to the moon.  To carry the food supplies for the seven of us for the five-day journey, we needed so many porters, but then to carry food for those porters we needed another bunch of porters.  Ultimately, to get us up to the top and back it was calculated that we would need 22 helpers, some of whom would only go between base camp 1 and camp 2 several times.

 
Our chief guide is selecting the 16 helpers for our trip.

It was here I got my first big frown. The chief in charge of the base camp saw that I was with a flag and he let out a primal scream of anger: "You cannot put your flag on our mountain!!" And he confiscated it and placed it in the corner of the room behind him and said I could collect it on my return. There was no reasoning with the angry man.

As we started our ascent I slipped a few greenbacks, ten bucks I think it was, to one of the porters and asked him to be a good boy and go and nick the flag for me, which he did. Little did I know how much trouble I was now in.

Postcard: Weird plant called Giant Groundsel (bottom right). Huts for climbers on 2nd night (top right)

 

Article continued in four parts. Part three next week.