Day 1 (Feb 1)

We slept better than expected but not great last night.  Far too excited to finally be starting this epic trek.  Unfortunately we couldn't just walk out of the lodge and be at the mountain, we had to take a 2 1/2 hour car ride down some bumpy dirt roads just to get to Kilimanjaro National Park...and then another 20 minutes up to our starting point at a pretty high altitude of 9,280'.  On the bright side, we finally got to see the mountain!  We've been in Africa for 5 days and hadn't even seen it yet.  It's big.  The other routes up the mountain start a little lower and climb up through a forest zone but we drove through that instead.  This will allow us to take a more scenic and rustic approach up the mountain while still camping out for 7 nights.  It will also allow us to avoid much of the traffic on the mountain as it is not one of the most popular routes due to having to sleep in a tent for 7 nights.  I haven't felt an anxiousness like I felt as we neared the mountain since my bike ride across the country.  It was quite a feeling, kind of like surges of adrenalin and excitement.

When we got to our starting point, we all got our of the car and saw all of the porters already there sorting their gear and our gear.  I guess they were divvying up bags and supplies and deciding which porter would have which trekker's duffle.  The next ten minutes were very odd.  They just seemed very rushed and informal.  We thought there would be some sort of introduction or announcement but there were just quick intros to the assistant guides (we had already met the lead guide at the entrance to the park) and then we were on our way.  I was still taking pictures when we were told to get our bags on and start hiking.  Kind of bizarre.  Almost 3 hours in a car and then we just got out and started the climb.  Anyway, we started off through a vary barren landscape of brush and rocks.  We couldn't see the top of the mountain due to cloud cover but what we could see was still well above us.  We walked for about 45 minutes and then stopped to eat lunch picnic style.  We were given packed lunches at the entrance to the camp and we all found a rock to sit on and eat.  We read in the pre-trek packet that the porters would rush by us at some point and set up camp so it was ready to go when we got there and sure enough, about halfway through lunch, all of the porters started to rush past us carrying big bundles of stuff either on their backs or mostly on their heads.  Quite a sight.

We continued walking after about a 20 minute lunch break and walked for another 1:45 or so until we got to camp.  It was a pretty easy walk as we only went up 2,475' to a camp height of 11,715'.  It was a very gradual incline though until the end going into camp when we had to go down into a ravine and then up the other side.  I was surprised at how winded I was climbing up into camp.  I guess at that elevation, any real climbing or strenuous effort gets you tired and winded real quick.  Makes me think of how hard the summit climb will be.

We walked into camp and everything was indeed already set up.  We signed into the campsite log book and was given a quick tour of the camp and how it would look every day.  There were 4 tents for us and Erik and I would be sharing one.  It fits two comfortably to sleep in but it's a little tough to move around or do anything when we're both in here.  There is also a decent sized "mess tent" which can also be referred to as our dining room as this will be where all of our meals and tea breaks will be.  There is also a private "toilet tent" which is awesome because all of the permanent toilets that are just small wooden enclosures the size of a closet with a hole carved into the floor...and they smell like pure death.  Our toilet tent has a pretty cool actual toilet with a flushing mechanism and everything.  That will probably come in handy as one of the symptoms of altitude sickness is the runs.

Moving on, we got slightly settled in our tent and layed out our sleeping bags and then had some tea and popcorn with the others.  About an hour had gone by since we arrived and we were shocked to hear that one of the others was laying down with a bad headache presumably due to the altitude and everyone, including them, had already felt it necessary to take Diamox, which is a altitude sickness pill.  Two people had already started because they were taking it as a preventative measure but the others were feeling the effect of high altitude and had taken it to alleviate symptoms.  Erik and I both felt perfectly fine.  One of the side effects of Diamox is a tingling sensation, similar to when a body part falls asleep.  I hate that feeling so I'm going to try and avoid that as much as possible.  Erik and I both actually decided against even taking Diamox with us because we thought if we walked slowly we'd be fine but now we're a bit nervous.  Luckily the lead guide has plenty if we need it but fingers crossed we won't.  I think one of the issues with today was driving up to such a high altitude without giving the body time to acclimate properly.  Luckily we both feel fine as I write this.

After tea, Erik and I played golf (the card game) for a couple hours as I thought of ways to get around my daypack and duffle bag issue.  Dinner was at 6:30 and was actually delicious.  I wasn't expecting much since we're on a mountain and everything is being cooked and prepared in a tent but it was quite good.  Our drinking water is coming from a stream just outside of camp and then it is boiled and purified.  We thought about putting in iodine tablets ourselves to be safe but decided against it as it's a bit of a pain with the waiting time and doing it over 7 days would stink so we just drank what they gave us.  So far so good!  Dinner was an onion soup and then fried fish and potatoes.  We even had dessert, but it was fruit.  Still delicious.

We were told at our briefing that we would be woken up at 6:30 with breakfast at 7:15 and leave camp at 8:00.  We are going to play cards for a bit and simply look at the mountain as it is now visible in the dusk and looks amazing.  It's beautiful from this point on the mountain but still looks a bit daunting.  Hard to believe we'll hopefully be standing at the top in 6 days!