Day 1

We got up bright and early after a good night's rest. At eight o'clock Frederick and his team, which inexplicably had grown to 13, came to pick us up in a small bus. With a huge grin on his face, Frederick told us we also needed a waiter.

We reached Kilimanjaro airport after a 50 minute drive and anxiously waited for my bag to appear. Which it did. The lock was missing, however, which made me worry about the contents. Indeed, someone ha rummaged around in the bag and my external phone battery, which I bought specifically for this trip, was missing. This means I'll have to use my phone sparingly if I want to maintain this blog. Luckily my trekking poles and other important gear was still there.

During the almost three hour drive to Marangu we got an occasional glimpse of snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro through breaks in the clouds. I had seen many pictures of Kilimanjaro, but none prepared me for the enormity of this mountain, rising over 4000 m from an otherwise pretty flat plain. It is a very imposing sight. I have never seen a mountain of this enormity.

At Marangu gate we first rearranged our gear, now that we had everything. Frederick weighed our backpacks. Mine was about 13 kg (not counting my camera gear), Marc's weighed 15 kg. This was way more than Frederick wanted us to carry, so we had to transfer things to the duffel bags that would be carried up by the porters. We got them reasonably close to 10 kg; the bags were another 16 kg together.

Next we had to register at the National Park headquarters. As I signed in, I noticed most people climbing the mountain are in their twenties or thirties, although last week a 67-year old made it to the top.

After registering we had lunch near the park entrance. A table was set for the two of us and the cooks put a nice meal together. The civilized lunch was quite a contrast with the rainforest around us.

Then it was time to start the first leg of our journey. Frederick registered the porters and had all of their gear weighed (park regulations prohibit porters from bringing in more than 20 kg and each party has to carry out the same weight as was brought in). Meanwhile Hesbol, Marc and I hiked up the forest path. This first leg is only a bit over 8 km, with a 900 m gain in altitude. The path through the rainforest was relatively easy and smooth. The air was saturated with humidity, the Spanish moss dripping water onto the path. We saw some nice flowers including beautiful orchids and the fiery red impatiens Kilimanjarii. Blue and calibus monkeys frolicked around in the trees. We got some nice close up views of some blue monkeys. Toward the end of the afternoon it started to rain gently.

Around 4 pm we made it to Mandara huts at about 2720 m altitude. The rainforest is thinning out here and there are some 10 huts in a forest clearing. Marc and I got our own four-bed hut. As soon as we settled in one of the porters brought our bags and another one brought two washbasins filled with hot water. We freshened up then put our feet in the hot water. What a nice feeling.

We were invited in the dining room for hot chocolate and some freshly made salty popcorn. In about an hour we will be served dinner and then Marc and I plan to turn in early for the much longer hike to Horombo huts tomorrow.



Lunch at Marangu gate


At Mandara huts

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Location:Marangu to Mandara