I am the type of person who is really attached to my phone. My phone is my world. Camera, messaging, coolness and Facebook. Naturally, I was worried that I could not use my phone on top of the world. But a lot of people say that there is very good signal on the roof of Africa!
When I started this whole journey may aim was to let everybody know what was going on. I planned it all out. I would post on Facebook as much as possible - or as long as my battery would last. I bought a solar panel to charge my phone and camera. I even got a chargeable battery in case there was not enough light to charge directly from the solar panel.
When arriving in Moshi I took a stroll to the nearest cell phone (mobile) shop. I purchased a pay-as-you-go sim card which was valid for a month. It had unlimited data and an amount for calls and text pre-loaded. I think it cost around R100 or something.
My plan was to write an update each day and post on Facebook and send updates via WhatsApp. It turned out that sending stuff home via WhatsApp and asking them to post on Facebook was much quicker. So tip number one I would say is to consider the posting carefully :)
Once we started our journey up the mountain I felt like I had to document each moment. Subsequently, I probably missed out on a few things... In most of the pics, I am standing with the stupid cell phone in my hand!!
Tip number 2 would be to put my phone on aeroplane mode and only switch the aeroplane mode off once in camp. It saves on battery life while making it possible to take pics and make notes.
Once we got to the summit the only thing that still worked was my phone. Probably because it was close to my body. The GoPro died just after the summit - so I could at least make a short video clip with that.
The solar panel worked very well. It was compact and light weight. Just a pity that more people used it than I did. My suggestion is to ban all cell phones in your group and just have 1 person doing the documentation.
Bottom line, signal is ok. Not great but ok. It's very easy to get a local sim card. Data is cheap. If you wanted to you could make a call on the roof of Africa. Leave your expensive stuff at home - they are bound to get damaged. My poor chargeable battery got knocked around by somebody or something.
The professional cameras are hard to charge. They have specific batteries. Small digital cameras charge easier. I would say leave all of that (unless you are a professional photographer and you have a few extra external batteries) and use your smartphone. It will take great pictures and you can keep it close to your body, making it last up to the summit. According to the experts, it is the cold that makes the battery die.
When I go again in 2016, I will definitely not be posting each and every day. I will make notes in the evening before bed and I will rather focus on taking more awesome pictures.
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