It is a 7 O'Clock breakfast start this morning, although the dawn chorus of birds means its more like a 5 O'Clock start. It is a drawback of staying in jungle lodges that the sounds of the jungle are quite loud at night. So not everyone got a great nights sleep. I did, although I did hear the disco from somewhere down the valley that seemed to go on until 4am - I'm fairly sure I heard Guns N' Roses, but disappointingly not Welcome to the Jungle, I think it was Paradise City. Others also complained that the birds jumping on their rooftops kept them awake, I had to point out that they weren't birds but monkeys. When asked how could I know I had to say it wasn't the first time I'd stayed in a jungle lodge with monkeys dancing on the roof.
After breakfast we headed off in the minibus for the 2 hour trip to Machame gate where we would begin our ascent of Kilimanjaro. It takes us all the way back to the airport, and then on to the far side. Just after that we reach a little supermarket which is very well stocked, and just as well as I had one thing I had to get, some toilet paper. It was just too bulky to pack my own one in London, and I knew that you would be able to buy them in single packets out here.
Not too long after that we turn off the main road onto a side road and we head up through Machame village. Each route up Kilimanjaro (there are 6 main ones up, and one other descent route) is named after the village at the end of the route. Machame village is interesting because every house seems to have half a cow hanging up outside it. This seems to remind our guide that he needs to buy some beef for the porters to eat, and he jumps out to get some. This explains the mystery of why its all hanging out, its all for sale. Here we also get our first view of the mountain as the cloud breaks, and we get a few seconds to glimpse the snow capped peak.
At about 10 we get to the Machame gate where we will register with the Kilimanjaro National Park authorities. Its the usual minor chaos where we all eventually get into a queue and put our names, addresses and passport numbers. Funnily some people express concern about giving this information to a government agency when they all probably have facebook accounts with more information available on them to the whole wide world. Anyway after we sign in we get given 3 litres of water, and a lunch box. The lunch box is pretty well stocked, so is heavy and big. The first panic ensues as some people realise that their day pack isn't going to fit the box. Luckily mine does. Anyway the first note to future trekkers is make sure you have spare capacity in your day pack for any extra food your guide gives you to carry.
My only problem was that the bag was now a lot heavier with 3 litres of water and the lunch in it. Nothing else to do but start drinking the water. Its the best way. We eventually start walking at about 11 and it is a fairly nice walk through the jungle. The path is quite wide, we are doing one of the busier routes up the mountain, so there has bee a fair amount of traffic to widen it and it means we can walk two abreast and chat with each other. Of course we still sometimes have to make way for the porters who come walking past us at about twice our speed (and 5 times the pack).
The guide book I have has a lot of nice pictures of flowers in it, but the jungle is amazingly monotone, with green being the only colour most of the time. We do get a few red impatiens, which are the flower symbol of Kilimanjaro according to our guide, but mostly it is green. Our guide (actually our assistant guide, the main guide has to stay back at the gate to sort out the porters) maintains a fairly slow and steady pace. This is the key to climbing Kilimanjaro, and it is called Pole Pole, which is the Swahili for slower. It stops us from racing off up the mountain, and this is a good thing. The walk today is only 10k, but it is from 1800m to 3000m. Now to put that in context, it is more than climbing Snowdon in Wales, and you are starting from almost twice its height.
The initial 3 hours of walking are not too steep, and then we reach a lunch break site, where we begin to appreciate the contents of our lunch boxes. Its nothing special, a sandwich, banana, some crisps, a bun and some mango juice, but it is needed. Eating is relieves some of the weight, as does drinking the water, which is just as well as once we leave our lunch spot the path turns into steep steps. The only good thing about the steps are that it does seems to take less time to gain 100m altitude on steps than it does on slope. We are of course climbing the equivalent of an Empire States building worth of steps after lunch. This stage of the walk is a bit more interesting as we seem to be walking along a ridge that has steep valleys on both sides. As we are ascending faster we notice that the trees are thinning out and getting smaller.
This is a sign that we are nearing our first nights campsite which is just at the tree line. In fact we reach it just as the path below us turns dry and dusty (the dirt was more damp in the rainforest) and we get covered in dirt. Still we are glad to walk to the 3000m marker and the rangers hut where we sign in to show we completed the first day. It has taken about 5 hours to walk 10k, that is 2kph.
After signing in we walk back down to our camp site, which is about 50m below the ranger hut. It seems strange, we are the lowest camping group of the 20 or so groups there (there are probably 120 or so people doing our route on our day - September is a busy month). It seems a bit stupid, as we are looking at having to go back up the next day, but I soon remember the old adage walk high, sleep low. Even though the route today can't facilitate us camping too far below our high point of the day, our guides have tried to ensure that we get some help from their choice of camping location.
When we get to our little glade we get to meet our porters who carried our bags, and they show us our tents. The tents look pretty good. Pity the same can't be said for the toilets. They are pretty bad, long drop (aka a hole in the bottom of a shed) but that's not the problem, its the fact that most people can't aim properly. Anyway tonight the guys don't have to worry about it, as we are back down in the trees we have an al fresco toilet. We also have an al fresco shower, as we first try to wash off the daily grime using our baby wipes, anti bacterial gels, and deodorants.
As the sun is going down, and as we are back down in the trees, I suggest we head back up to the rangers hut to see if we can get a good view of sunset. And it is worth it. The mountain goes through a whole range of colours as the sun sets, and as we are on the equator the sun sets very quickly, so you can actually see the changing colours. It is pretty spectacular, and our first real long view of the top of the mountain.
Then it is back to the mess tent to have our dinner, which is a very good meal of fish and potatoes. To be honest after jungle and mountain trips in South America I am no longer surprised by the quality of the cooking on these trips. After dinner we notice that we have our first casualties of the trip, one person with a real stomach problem, and one with altitude sickness. Ironically one of these is one of the two doctors on the trip. Anyway I have spare Diamox, the altitude sickness tablet, so I can give her some. This leads the other doctor to tell us all off for having Diamox and not using it. Most people had, like me, brought it to use if needed, but he said you should take if you had it (and also said don't bother with the Malaria tablets at this altitude either - but I hadn't anyway). So I am on Diamox.
After a small amount of cards it was time for bed, at about 8.30. There isn't much else to do, and yes, despite the fact that all we did was walk for 10k, I was pretty tired.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamox
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