Climbing the highest mountains in Africa

@ Leisure
Climbing the highest
mountains in Africa
position to judge people for the measures they take to stay safe in very
remote areas.
I am passionate about Africa, prefer to use local transport and I feel
privileged to have seen things few tourists experience. Being a woman,
some of these experiences were even more exceptional. In the Sahara,
the Toubou tribe do not allow women to mix with the men. Although I
was not allowed to eat with them, I was allowed into their huts and could
experience the interaction between the men. The fact that I was unable
to use a drop of water to wash during the ten-day trip into Northern
Chad was not a deterrent at all.
Bikku Bitti is located on the Dohone spur of the Tibesti Mountains in
Southern Libya. From driving along the spur with views that could be
out of the Avatar movie, to seeing the gentle locals in Chad praying in
by Karen Hauptfleisch
the desert with the sun setting behind them, no picture would ever able
to genuinely capture the highlights of my travels. Watching the millions
T
of stars every night and even the constant wind across the desert left a
he highest mountain in Libya, Bikku Bitti, is in
going – after travelling for hours through a desert
one of the most remote, least accessible and
with little or no landmarks.
least known parts of the Sahara Desert. This
region was selected by NASA as the earthly region
most similar to conditions on Mars. The area is unfit
for human habitation and there are periods of 20
to 30 years with no rainfall. There is no permanent
human habitation, no roads and no tracks – just the
great open void.
To navigate through the desert and locate the
highest peaks, I relied on GPS equipment sponsored
by NavWorld, who supplied two Garmin Dakota
GPS units for the trip. These units became very
important when our team was split up due to a
vehicle failure and the serviceable vehicle had
to head back 180 km though the desert to the
Wars and conflicts have also played their part in
nearest town for spares. This vehicle was then able
keeping people away. Although Libya has recently
to navigate back to the rest of our team stranded
started opening up,
in the desert based
southern Libya is still
on coordinates. The
off limits, as is the
Tibesti in northern
Chad. This has created
one of the biggest
areas in
Africa that foreigners
are not officially
allowed to visit.
My lifelong ambition is
Follow your heart –
even if your
adventure does
not make sense
to anyone else.
to summit the highest
peak in each of the
units were also very
valuable in mapping
the location of water
resources and water
rations which were
left at strategic places
and ensured that
we could go back to
lasting impression, and equally as beautiful was the experience of waking
up in the desert to a breathtaking sunrise.
I have climbed the highest mountains in 31 African countries so far, and I
normally get the guides involved with clean-ups of the mountains. In the
desert, it was something else – burying the litter was not an option so
I started collecting rubbish and handing it to the guide to burn after we
had eaten. It took them five weeks to realise that the “crazy lady” would
only get in the vehicle once all the rubbish in the campsite had been
picked up and burned.
One of the scariest moments was when I was detained by the security
police at the airport after they noticed that I was using a satellite phone
– something that is illegal in Chad. Eventually the head of security, who
could not speak a word of English, dropped me off at my hotel. Whilst
driving there, he swerved left and right whilst showing me pictures of
himself with VIPs on his camera. I thought it would be really tragic to
die in a car accident in Chad before the seriously dangerous bit of the
adventure started. Once we were on our way up Emi Koussi, the highest
peak in Chad, I was convinced my porter was going to die. Mahadi had a
heart condition and we hiked alone for quite a bit. He was very stubborn
and insisted on going to the top. I was petrified that he would have a
heart attack while it was just the two of us.
known sources of
Something that I have learned from my travels is
water when necessary.
that if you want to live your dream, you sometimes
Any serious
have to let go of your own ego. I met the kindest
people, but learned that not everyone shares the
54 African countries. I recently travelled 3615 km
mechanical breakdown of both our vehicles would
through the Sahara Desert, one of the harshest
have left us stranded, so we carried basic spares
environments where water is always scarce, to
and repair items for the vehicles, 600 ℓ of water as
Contact Karen Hauptfleisch,
become the first woman to summit this remote
well as extra food rations to last two weeks, since
Tel 083 975-2700, [email protected]
mountain. I was also the first African woman to
surviving a walk to the nearest population would
summit Emi Koussi, the highest peak in Chad.
have been extremely unlikely. If something went
The two mountains visited can easily be classified
help from N’djamena to reach us by land.
as some of the most difficult mountains to reach
in Africa. There is very little infrastructure in Chad,
communication is extremely difficult, and tourism
is almost nonexistent, but I managed to get the
necessary permits to travel to the north with the
wrong, it would have taken up to two weeks for
Because of my love for the mountains, I started a
non-profit organisation in 2006 called Sunrise on
Africa’s Peaks. The aim is to create environmental
awareness amongst the vulnerable children in
assistance of a local guide.
Africa. Amongst other things, the organisation
We encountered several minefields, unexploded
spiders, bats and scorpions, so I objected strongly
teaches children not to kill animals such as snakes,
weaponry, snakes and scorpions on our way to the
after a local killed a scorpion. But in Chad more
mountains. There are no roads in this part of the
people die from scorpion bites than from malaria,
desert and of course, the locals do not use GPS
and I realised afterwards that many in the western
equipment but always seem to know where they are
world are close to medical help, and are not in a
same value system.