BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi all, I leave for Africa in about a month. One concern I have for the Kilimanjaro climb is water. We are using Roy Safaris via the Rongai route. Do most people just drink the untreated water? I have a filter, but am trying to keep the weight down. Does anyone have comments on the different methods of treatment. Filter, iodine tablets, sodium hypochloride, uv light, boil, or other means.

Thanks in advance

Kansas

I used these:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackingligh...urifier_tablets.html

Did not filter. Just dropped in one tablet per litre. Very light. We had no problems.

Oh, BTW, the water can taste a little funky I guess because of the high mineral content so bring some Gatorade powder or similar for flavoring.

From what I remember the water we got was filtered.

Even in the filter water we used idodine tablets and the some folks used Gatorade and I think even cool aid to mask the taste.

Well I climbed KILI back in 2005 (on the Machame route) and here's what the water situation was like for me - if you are going with porters then for any hot drinks they will boil the water and that will be fine. For you daily drinking water I used iodine tablets and also used neutralising tablets (iodine on their own taste absolutely disgusting!)

It's also worth taking some flavoured energy drink powder - that way you'll have even more energy and you can also mix that with your idodine and neutralised water.

Hope that all helps and have fun - it's simply amazing.

I just did Kili in June (Lemosho route), and the water was boiled by the guides every morning and evening. For myself, I had a PUR hiker filter along as a result of doing Mt. Elgon in Uganda, and also used chlorine tablets for purification primarily because with so many people on the mountain pollution is very likely - and to make absolutely sure I wouldn't get sick on the mountain. I carried a nalgene bottle and camelback bladder; at the start of the trip I filled both, then primarily used the camelback during the day and kept the nalgene for evenings. Because chlorine tablets take ~4hours to work I would fill the camelback in the evening, pop in a couple tablets, and it would be drinkable/safe the next morning - at which point I would fill the nalgene, add a tablet, and would then be ready by the end of the day. Often in the evening I would take leftover boiled water and pour it into the camelback along with a couple tablets - no sense wasting such a precious resource.

Hope this helps, and enjoy the trip - it's well worth the effort!

Chris

They boiled water for us as well, and quite a few just drank that and had no problems. I used silver ion tablets to be sure.

I did get sick though, but I suspect that's because I mindlessly washed my toothbrush in the warm washing water they gave us one morning. Picked up giardia poisoning. Very uncomfortable, particularly having to stop three times for the runs between Karanga and Barafu!

Thankfully I took antibiotics with me, and diarrhoea-stopping pills and I settled it down before summit night.

Thanks for all the help. We summited October 5. I used Potable Aqua tabs for all my drinking water. The cook boiled water for us every night and I drank that without treating, never got sick.

Has anyone actually seen the porters getting water? On the way down, I saw one location for water. The tp in the weeds next to the water was somewhat disturbing.

Yeah, some of the spots were pretty precarious for them too. And some were a fair walk from camp.

Can't speak highly enough of the work the porters did for us.