Singapore Expeditions by David Lim. 8000m peaks.Aconcagua.Mount Everest.Elbrus.Cho Oyu Shishapangma and world mountaineering

In Aug 2011, David Lim will be returning to the 5895m high Mount Kilimanjaro to climb it from the Rongai Route (from the north) . This is a far different climb than the Voltaren Kilimanjaro Challenge in 2004.

The 2011 team comprises David's wife, Maureen Da Costa, long-time expedition doctor and David's partner on the Extreme Desert Crossing Expediti on in 2007 - Dr Shani Tan, and her trek companion, Juliana Kok.

Updates:
Visit the updates page on Facebook where George Tan will be updating our progress. Expect sketchy reports this time, folks! There may be occasional updates here The Rongai route is far less travelled than the popular Machame and Marangu routes from the south west and south east. The route the team will be taking will approach Kibo from the north west; crossing the scenic saddle between Mawenzi ( a satellite peak of Kilimanjaro) and then ascending the final summit route on the Marangu route (see right)
	Left: Maureen at some stair climbing training on Bukit Timah, 164m. The workout usually involves an hour or two of stari climbing the well -known long staircases of the Rengas, Summit and Jungle Fall path staircases. Alternatively, the Dairy Farm loop is also provided a decent long walk with ups and downs. Our training in Singapore, which is 'mountain-less' comprises running, weights, Pilates, and hillw alking. Kilimanjaro is not a technical peak. But it is high, and apart from acclimatisation, a solid aerobic fitness foundation is required to complete the climb successfully. Shani and Juliana who emigrated to New Zealand a couple of years ago have a larger variety of outdoor opportunities - although with our busy work and corporate commitments - training gets tougher the older you get!
Projected Schedule	Aug 14: Arrival in Nairobi on Jet Airways via Mumbai- 5 hour van ride across to Tanzania follows. 12:29pm, just arrived in Nairobi. It's 16 degs and foggy. Nice start to this adventure. Cheers!! David (via SMS)
	Aug 15: Arusha - Arrived after a 5 hour van ride south of Nairobi and through the Namanga border crossing. No problems with our visas. Today: tooling around the town that is supposed to be the Middle of Africa - exactly midway between Cairo and Cape Town. Picked up a shady Maasai who appointed himself as an offiicial tour guide; ostensibly to pick up tips at the end of the day by showing us things we already knew. Took a while to shake him off. Friendly dude though. Picked up a Tanzanian SIM card, ate some cool chappttis
	Aug 16: Arusha to Rongai Gate - trek begins.End at 2635m. :))) We started the day's trek from Rongai Gate, 1800m. Was a nice walk until lunch. After that, the going was a bit more challenging.We will spend the night at Simba Camp, 2635m. The weather has turned cloudy and cool. We might get a bit of drizzle later. We are all in good spirits. No one has been eaten by lions yet. David & Maureen (via SMS) The walk was pretty sweaty and humid to the campsite - but a mellow day in all
	Aug 17:Simba Camp to Second Cave 3487m to Kikelelwa Camp 3675m [SMS received SG1408HRS] We reached 2900m, enroute to the Second Cave for lunch and then a long afternoon to Kikelelwa Camp at 3600m. It is going to be a long day... Weather has been goo so far. We got the first views of Mt Kilimanjaro and Mawenzi. [SMS received SG 2243HRS] We reached Kikelelwa Camp at 4pm local time. An 8 hr day of treking. We walked thru heathland and traversed east. All are quite tired, but fine.. covering 12km from 2650m-3660m. Tomorrow is a steep climb to Mawenzi Tarn campsite at 4375m, with spectacular views from the saddle between Kili and mawenzi. Managed to wash my stinky shirt from the day before!
	Aug 18:Kikelelwa Camp to Mawenzi Tarn Hut 4302m - a pleasant 4 hour trek uphill, traversing a dry river bed that still has a few senecios (lobelias) before rising up to the Tarn Hut campsite (see left). While only a small pond left these days, the campsite is spectacular, with views of Mawenzi above. In the evening, we took a sunset walk up to around 4600m for extra acclimatisation. Ate too many salted almonds and suffered most of the night from gas - the realities of expedition life. Left: the Kili team, l to r: David, Shani, Juliana, Maureen
	Aug 19:Descent to Third Caves Campsite 3936m. This day is the spectacular walk across the saddle separating Mawenzi and Kilimanjaro. But instead of heading for the Kibo Uts, we make a sharp right turn (or heading south) and drop down to the greener valley and camp lower down for better sleep. En route, we pass the wreck of a plane that crashed in bad weather in 2008. You can see the remains of the Rebmann Glacier in the top left corner of the Kili photo above
	Aug 20:Third Caves Campsites to School Huts 4722m. This is the final campsite before the summit psuh at midnight. about 4 and half hours up from 3rd Caves, the dusty route zug zags uo the flanks of Kilimanjaro to a tiny, waterless perch. The sunset on mawenzi (left) is terrific thought. Dinner at 5pm, breakfast/supper at 1130pm, andthen off for the summit! Maureen on the trek to School Huts
	Aug 21: Summit day: Schools Huts to Hans Meyer Cave 5243m and Gillman's Point 5708m to Uhuru Peak 5895m. Started for the summit at midnight, reached Hans Meyer Cave at 5200m in darkness, and then finally, after some awful switchbacks, and overtaking a large, and slow Japanese team comprising all types of climbers and videographers, reached Gilman's Point - the crater rim - at 5721m at 6am shiarp. Sunrise coming up (see left); lighting up the eastern icefields
	Counter-clockwise from bottom left: 1)The team on the summit of Africa! s) David, making the final 200m to the summit, 3) Maureen , just below Stella Point on the crater rim, The 1.5 hour traverse from Giman's Point to the summit has a couple of landmarks. You can see Uhuru Peak(the summit) as the highest 'bump' in the photo 4) David and Maureen together, on the summit.
	Aug 22:Descent to Marangu Gate 1905m via Mandara Huts. After summitting, the team descended down the loose scree below Gilman's Point all the way to Kibo Huts (4750m), a quick lunch, and then off on the dusty saddle to Horomobo Huts at 3700m. The following day, in sub-zero temps, the team left at 645am and reached Mandara Huts at 945am; about half way down the 20km descent to Marangu Gate. As we had paid for the rescue car in our park fees, we decided to call it up to cut short the final descent section (!). Dinner at Arusha after a good shower and scrub - Indian food! Naans, rice, lamb curries, fried chicken and a few beers! Unfortunately, we came down to discover that our beloved adopted fur-kid of tem years, Bandit, passed away on our summit day. This climb is dedicated to his memory
	Aug 23: Shani and Jules had one more day in Arusha while David and Maureen left for their 3-day safari in Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara
	Aug 24 - 28: Safari and transits vis Mumbai