Day 1: January 16

Machame Gate to Machame Hut

Elevation Change: 5,363 ft to 9,300 ft (+3,937 ft)
Estimated distance: 10km/6.21 miles

We had a buffet breakfast at the Impala around 7:30 AM. Nothing spectacular but it did contain a few things I would become very familiar with over the next few days – very dry mini-muffins, miniature bananas and hard boiled eggs. I’d like to say something ominous here like: “Little did we know that this would be the last edible food we would eat for the next week…” or something like that. But as you’ll read on in this blog, this was SOOOOO far from the truth.

We were met down in the lobby by Amani and Roderick from Good Earth Tours. Amani would be our guide for the hike, while Roderick would be his assistant. Both looked really young. After leaving our safari gear in storage at the hotel, we were loaded up into a little Toyota mini-van and we were on our way. Not only was all of our stuff in the van (like tents and clothing), but also everything for our guides and our porters, including food for everyone. I could see the eggs perched precariously on the arm rest next to Amani, and with every bump on the road, I grew concerned that it may cause one less dinner near the end of the hike.

We drove for about two hours, and got our first look at Kilimanjaro along the way, the clouds parting briefly for a quick glimpse – gulp, it looks a little bit higher than a typical 14er in Colorado. We made several stops, picking up many of our porters and some extra food from a grocery store. By the time we reached Machame Gate, and the entrance to Kilimanjaro National Park, we had a very full vehicle.

The gate area had a parking lot where all of the guides and porters for all of the different groups were assembled. All of the gear was separated and put into different packs so that the porters were carrying somewhat equal loads. In addition to Amani and Roderick, we would be accompanied by six other individuals – Braison, Dao, Alfred, Erastos, Gervas and August. They would carry our tent, plus two other tents for themselves, a separate bathroom tent (to be explained later), all of the food, all of our clothes (except any layers we may carry in our own packs for the day), and all of their own clothes. Unbelievable. Here are some rules to follow.We filled out all of the appropriate paperwork for our permits (you cannot hike Kili without a permit), took a last bathroom break and were ready to go. James and I stopped for the following photograph after we had hiked about six feet. As you can see, we look refreshed, fit, and none the worse for wear after our initial two yard ordeal. Temperature was in the low 80’s, so t-shirt and shorts were definitely the way to go. The initial trail was a park road that climbed steadily – we followed this for about the first hour until the trail narrowed and became steeper. It was extremely well-maintained – wood logs protected each step and also provided gutters for drainage, should it rain.

We had been given packed lunches before we started, and at about 1:00PM, we stopped to dig in. Pretty substantial, actually – a piece of fried chicken, cookies, chocolate, bread and butter, apple juice and a mini-banana. Wolfed it all down, and just as we finished, it began to pour. Put on the waterproof gear (no waterproof pants – oops, I knew I forgot something) – jacket and cover for the backpack (this is definitely a good thing to have – cost about 10 bucks but keeps your pack dry). The photo below is James with Roderick and Amani, taking a break in the rain.The trail got even steeper and in many places, wooden stairs had been built to maintain the integrity of the trail through the frequent rains. Quite a feat of construction actually.It felt like we were doing well, and at about 3:30PM, we wandered into the Machame Camp, and signed the Machame ranger book in the Machame Hut. After putting down our Machame backpacks, I was very happy to take a Machame rest, after relieving myself with a good Machame pee…

It seems that we got up the first leg of the hike so fast that we beat our porters to the camp so our tents were not ready yet. Second note to self – I should have put an extra shirt in my back pack. It pretty much poured from lunch onwards, and while I did have a rain jacket, I still got a bit wet (more from sweat than anything). Now, as we sat at Machame Hut, it got very chilly in the late afternoon. James and I sat down on a nearby bench and played a few games of backgammon (wow, I am out of practice as I got my butt kicked by James). We stood up for a second to take a break, and right out from underneath us, our seats were taken by three Germans, a Dad and his two sons (who I will call Klaus and Uwe – Ooffay), much like a German tourist would snatch a sun lounger from an unsuspecting Brit on the Spanish Riviera. Not a smile between the three of them, although judging by their looks, plenty a steroid or human growth hormone. I termed them the “dour” Germans and we would see them periodically over the rest of the hike.

Amani came by to get us, and we got a first look at our tent. It was in a grove of trees, and the most surprising thing was how many other tents were nearby. When you think about hiking Kilimanjaro, you think of this remote mountain in the heart of Africa – just you and the mountain as you struggle to the top. In reality, it’s you, the mountain and several hundred of your closest British, Australian, French, German and American friends, along with their own entourage (entourages?) of guides and porters. Our tent was a good size, so that we could store our backpacks and clothes next to us, without getting them wet on the sides of the tent. I was glad I brought a thermorest, however, as the floor was extremely hard, even with the Styrofoam mat supplied by Good Earth.

We met some our fellow travelers. There was a group of French hikers next to us, about six guys and two women. I got to talking with Christophe who seemed to be the leader of their group – turns out several of them were very serious climbers, having summitted Everest and Mont Blanc, among other hills. Christophe was quite friendly, as was another guy (I can't remember his name so I'll call him Pierre) who'd brought a huge camera with him - not sure I'd want to lug that thing all the way to the top. They were also notable in that one of the women in the group was incredibly hot (we've only been away from civilization for a day at this point so I wasn't dreaming) - blonde, five four, very fit...sigh. Back to the story, apart from Christophe, most of the French group did not speak English very well so I would actually get to speak a lot of French with them over the course of the hike.

We settled down to dinner. The routine would be that Dao, one of the porters, would come over to our tent and yell “Hello” a few times. Depending upon the weather and the temperature, we’d either have dinner inside the tent, or just out front. I have to say that the food was incredible – maybe I had really low expectations but this was fantastic – we got a thermos of boiled water, which we could use to make hot chocolate, instant coffee, tea or an Energy drink. Next came soup (on this day, it was chicken) with some bread to go along with it. The soup was fantastic – just the right consistency and temperature. Then a main course followed, with spaghetti, fried fish, potatoes and a vegetable sauce – way more was given to us than we could eat, but we learned that anything that we didn’t serve ourselves was eaten by the porters afterwards. Dao came by and cleared up all the plates – he also brought extra boiled water that James and I used to fill up our camelback and Nalgene bottles. I had brought water purification tablets, but with the water being boiled each night, it didn’t seem necessary (maybe I’ll have a huge tapeworm pulled from my stomach in a few years, we’ll see). The porters got the water from nearby glacier streams.

Amani came by after dinner and gave us an overview of the next day. We would come to appreciate very much Amani’s organizational skills – he had us well prepared for everything that would come on each day. I think he also was evaluating us, and getting an idea of how quickly we could climb, and whether we would have issues later on. James adopted a “What would Amani do?” attitude for the rest of the hike. Basically, whatever Amani was wearing, James would try and duplicate it – it was a pretty good strategy, as Amani seemed to have an inside source as to what conditions would be like each day.

We crashed about 9:30. Unfortunately, some of our fellow hikers (we think it was the dour Germans we identified before) were not so quiet, and were talking until the wee hours of the morning. James and I immediately began plotting what we could do to sabotage their tent. His national guard training would give him special skills to do a quick in and out, “cut the tent rope before they knew what hit them” mission. Luckily for Klaus and Uwe, we did manage to finally drop off, and got about six hours sleep.

Read the next post: Day 2: January 17