Today, after an early breakfast, we got ourselves ready to head over to Kilimanjaro to begin our climb. The folks at the Impala had a room by the office ready for us to store the luggage that we weren’t taking with us to the mountain, so all that we had to do was pack our duffel bags for the porters to carry, and our day packs for us to carry.
We were scheduled to depart at 8am. Between the bus arriving late, getting everyone situated, and getting our gear secured on top of the bus, we ended up departing from the Impala at closer to 10am.
It was a scenic drive, through forested countryside with villages here and there, some with bustling markets. The banana trees and the occasional baobab were a reminder that we weren’t in Washington.
We stopped at Marangu Gate and waited while Good Luck got our national park passes sorted out, paid our fees, and arranged out porters for the trip. What we though would be a brief visit ended up being a pause of several hours, so we had time to wander about and do a bit of shopping. Several street vendors started hawking their wares, mostly small art pieces similar to what we had seen in Moshi Town, and of course haggling with us. A few of the folks in our group were getting quite good at haggling.
Though it took a while, we were back underway by around noon. It was another 90 minutes or so to the Rongai gate and the trailhead where the real adventure was to begin.
The porters started unloading our gear from the truck while we got ready start hiking.
They set up some folding tables in the tourist shelter and laid out a light lunch for us (complete with fresh bananas and avocados), and we were off on our journey. Most of our porters headed out on a short cut so that they would beat us to the camp site.
Spirits were high for the most part on this leg of the trip; we were excited, just getting started, and still at relatively low elevation. The challenge today wasn’t to finish the hike, it was learning “pole pole” Kiswahili for “slowly, slowly” — the way to reach the summit was to maintain a slow and relaxed pace. While Good Luck brought up the rear, Moses lead, and kept us on a sedate pace that had us gaining elevation quite slowly, and conserving our energy so that we’d be able to do it again the next day.
In addition to “pole pole” there were a lot of calls of “Jambo” (welcome) as porters passed us — which happened frequently. Some carried packs, some carried stuff sacks on their heads, and some carried both. They made the trip look easy, passing us constantly. Everyone cleared the way for them to let them pass.
At these moderate elevations, we were traveling through forest not much different from the forests of Washington, lush and verdant. Signs indicated that there were something like 20 different species of trees in the “erica” family along the route. The children walking through the forest were a bit of a surprise; Moses told us that there was a school nearby, and the children were walking home from there. They followed the trail asking for chocolate, and occasionally getting photographed.
One of the highlights of our first day was sighting several monkeys, native to Kilimanjaro, leaping among the trees. We stopped for almost fifteen minutes watching them, and attempting to photograph them.
They weren’t easy subjects; they were pretty far away, moved pretty quickly, and didn’t stay still for long. It was worth it just to see them, though.
We gained nearly 3000 feet in elevation, bringing us to the transition zone, as we passed from rain forest to moorland. The clouds hadn’t parted much yet, so we still hadn’t gotten any clear views of Kibo or Mawenzi, even though they were towering above us the entire time. The silver lining is that it was much less hot than it would have been had the sky been clear, and the tropical sun beating down on us.
The weather and the foliage both changed as we neared our first camp. The temperature dropped and the clouds rolled in. The thick clouds swallowed up the setting sun, and not long after we reached camp and sat down to dinner, the rain began — and lasted all night.
The porters had already set up our tents when we arrived, along with a mess tent. They provided us with a multi-course dinner; complete with fish and chips and a wonderful vegetable stew. It was quite a meal, and a good way to end our first day of hiking on the Mount Kilimanjaro.
