Day 1 - Big Tree Camp

So, after a long journey and a final night of luxury we were ready to set off on our first day's trek.

First there was the small matter of a three hour trip in the land cruiser round the mountain to the Londorosi entrance gate, to check in.  Kilimanjaro, despite the vast open landscapes is a tightly controlled park area, and every guest must be checked in, not once.... but every day, and at every camp!!  

Most of the time, Dominic, our Action Challenge guide looked after this admin, but for the first day we all signed in for ourselves.  You cannot climb this mountain independently, every group must have a guide, and porters.   Probably a way of ensuring the economy in Tanzania gets a boost, but actually as the week goes on and you see just how much work these guys get through, you'll be delighted for the support.

Along the route to the Londorosi gate, it's clear that Tanzania is a country with a rich farming land.  Fields of coffee, banana, and Sunflowers provide rich colours alongside the roadways. 

At the camp our bags are sorted, porters chosen, and a never ending supply of sacks are weighed for the journey ahead.  Each porter is allowed to carry up to 25kgs!!!  of which 15kgs is the maximum allowed in our overnight bags.  (Mine was 13kg).  All the bags are weighed, and porters have their kit checked to ensure that they have suitable coat, boots etc for the trip themselves.   It may be a well paid job in this environment, but there is no doubt, this is a tough life!!  

From the Londorosi gate we were off again in the 4x4 to the start point about an hour further up the way, very much off road now, our trucks bounced us off the walls, the roof, and almost the trees too as the driver skillfully negotiated a rugged, and very rutted route, which had been flooded just days earlier up into the forest. 

Even so, despite driving like a world rally champion, our driver could not make it up quite as far as he would have planned.  One group following us tried, and within 100 meters were completely beached in the mud, and water.

Nelson, our head guide is now on his 121st trip up Kilimanjaro quickly get us on our way. Like most of the porters and guides, he could very well run up this mountain, with the minimum of effort, but sets off Pole Pole, a speed we will appreciate as the days go by!!

Todays trek will take us up through the lower reaches of Kilimanjaro, and the first of 4 very distinct climate zones.  We'll be walking through deep rainforest, huge trees, and colourful plants, the scale of which you could only imagine block our path, but we wind on through a muddy path, steadily upwards from 2100m to our final target of 2700m.

Not much in the expected wildlife on the way, the closest we came to spotting some life in the forest other than ourselves was some elephant dung, although the sounds, and noise from thousands of hidden crickets and bees was deafening at times.   It's a slippy path in places, and I chose the first day to entertain most of our group by twice slipping over in the muck, (not the elephant variety) leaving what would be my signature dirty mark on my trousers for the rest of the journey!!

 

The porters were treated to some additional entertainment, as poor Hannah discovered that they tend to follow you up the mountain much quicker than expected!!  (Note to self.... if you need the loo, make sure you go deeper into the bushes than just a few feet off the path!!)  I think he may have come through

cheering!!

It was amazingly hot, and humid in the rainforest, and I had a bit of a headache today on the way up.  We actually only covered about 5km before arriving at Big Tree Camp, our first stop under canvas for the week.  Despite this, it took almost 5 hours on the route, which undulated wildly, and even on the first day was a physical challenge.   (A bit later, the heat and humidity had the undesired effect of causing me to be sick, for the first, and only time of the week). 

Our camp, in a cutting within the forest was beautiful, and before dinner our porters entertained us with some songs to welcome us on our Kilimanjaro adventure.  

Jambo, Jambo Bwana (Hello, Hello Sir)

Habari gani (How are you?)

Nzuri sana (Very good)   

Wageni, mwakaribishwa (Visitors, you're welcome)

Kilimanjaro yetu (to Kilimanjaro) 

Hakuna matata (thers no problem)

Dinner, of Soup, followed by rice,spinnach, peas & beef followed before we got ready for our first night under the stars... Tired and happy :-)