12 Omanis Scale Mt Kilimanjaro in Celebration of Renaissance Day

To celebrate sultanate’s Renaissance Day, a group of 12 Omanis has successfully completed a trek to Mt Kilimanjaro peak after walking for up to eight hours a day for five days.

Atop the mountain, the group was delighted and raised the Omani flag while wearing Omani dishdashas.

Mt Kilimanjaro (5,895m) is located in Tanzania and is the highest peak in Africa.

Speaking to Muscat Daily, Abdullah al Naamani, group spokesman, said that it had been the group’s dream for a long time and he was glad that it came true at the time when Oman celebrated its Renaissance Day.

“My wife had a dream to climb the mountain since she was young and I was inspired too. In February, we started planning and we had some references of the people who had visited the mountain last year. We started training which included four times going up at Jebel Saal in Ghala which has 626 steps till you reach the top, and also hiking at Jebel Shams height at 3,000m. During weekends, we used to walk for 8km,” Naamani said.

The group, which also had an Egyptian male doctor and one Bahraini female doctor, reached the Uhuru Peak on July 26 after five days of walking, every day for 4-8 hours.

“We took five days to reach the top and another two days to descend to the Mweka Gate. It was a challenging experience due to cold weather, altitude sickness, long walking during the day, less sleep and no bath. We feel so great after conquering the highest peak in Africa.”
June to August is the best time to climb the mountain because it is the driest season.

Naamani said stamina training was an essential part of preparations for the hike as extreme weather conditions such as rain, high winds, low pressure and thin air could be encountered.

“It was a dream come true for us even after suffering from discomfort, shortness of breath and headaches in addition to altitude sickness,” Naamani said.

Mt Kilimanjaro is the fourth highest mountain among the Seven Summits, which are the highest mountains in each continent, with Mt Everest topping the list.