I climbed Kili at the end of 1998. I know things have changed a lot since then, but maybe this will help. We also didn't do the coca cola route. We called it something else, can't remember what, something about puke. We took the Machame route like Hilton, but didn't go all the way around to the North. We joined the coca cola route at the last camp before summit. This part sucked - puke, shit and rubbish everywhere. You don't need to be very fit to do it. It's more of a mind thing than anything else. We tried to make the mountain bigger by acclimatising on Zanzibar for a week, just before we went to the mountain. I remember really enjoying the lower parts of the mountain. Pretty much up to the Breach Wall. From there all I remember is utter despair until we got to the rim of the volcano. The view was great and the ice fields interesting. The slog to get to the rim was just down right awful.
We did all the arrangements and travelled in a big group (33). We drove up and visited everything we could think of along the way - Zim Ruins, Lake Malawi, Zanzibar, Vic falls amongst others. The trip took us 35 days to complete and we drove 10 000km. We went as cheap as possible, camping most of the time and we had a chef that cooked us decent but cheap meals every day. We mostly ate bread, fruit and fresh fish when we could find some. The whole trip cost us R5500 each (including permits for the mountain, guides, porters and rafting down the Zambezi at Vic Falls. We stayed in a very cheap hotel in Zanzibar - it cost us $1 per night for bed and breakfast. The owner claimed to be the East African Chess champion. We all managed to beat him
Enjoy it, and try to pick up some rubbish while you are at it. That's something worth sponsorship, rather than being the youngest, ugliest, fattest or whateverest to walk up the mountain
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