Hike - Days 1 & 2
Oct 11th - day 1
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Finally rolled out of bed at 6AM to take that last hot shower (again). This room/tent was an open concept all through and through, so one person had to step out while the other used the facilities. Repacked my duffel and backpack and took it out to weigh them one last time after filling the camelback with 3 liters of water. My backpack now with water was around 21 lbs., a good weight for me to carry around the whole day on a hike.
My backpack had leg gaiters, inner gloves, fleece jacket, rain jacket, poncho, outer shell pants, camelback with 3 litres of water, 1 nalgene bottle with 0.5 litres of water, walking poles, headlamp, sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, snacks, wipe cloth and my passport & wallet.
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There was hot coffee waiting for us at the dining tent, and it was strong stuff and tasted very different. I wanted more of it :), so 2 cups for me before anybody else even showed up. I learned later it was due to the beans being cultivated on volcanic soil. There was so much chicory in that coffee you could actually see it at the bottom of the cup.
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More charging, even that last 1% was so crucial, since we did not know how cold it would really get and how fast we would lose battery both on our phones and in the chargers we were carrying. Breakfast was eggs made to order, fresh fruit, toast, yogurt and potato crepes. That was a lot for someone who just drinks coffee in the morning on a regular day.
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After breakfast I went back for another shower. We loaded up into the van at 9:30AM and were off to the Londorossi gate, which is located on the western base of the mountain. It was a 2-hour drive through unpaved roads. There were giraffes almost everywhere, just standing in the middle of farming land. It was like watching cows back home in India.
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After we entered the main gate the surrounding immediately changed to forest land. It was lush green with overgrowth all over the rolling hills. We ran across a few long black-and-white tailed Colobus monkeys enroute. There were plenty of planned pine tree cultivation areas, some were in their infancy, some more mature and some areas that were cut down, waiting to be replanted again.
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We finally arrived at the trailhead around 11:30PM and were greeted by some other groups that were already there and a sea of porters and staff getting ready for the hike. I was skeptical about a late start, but it looked like that’s what most groups do on day-1 of the hike. We were introduced to our 3 guides (head guides were Edward, Pablo and Ahi or otherwise known as ‘Big Tuna’), the cook, waiter & toilet crew. All-in-all we had a total of 47 support staff, for just 7 of us hikers. That was a LOT!
After signing in at the rangers station we sat down for some boxed lunch before starting on the hike from the trailhead at around 1PM through Zone-1 (The Rainforest). The trail was wet since the area is almost constantly raining, but well paved and completely covered on both sides and overhead with tall trees with extremely thick foliage. It was green all the way and we ran across those familiar Colobus monkeys again.
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Since the trail was narrow and it was used by both the hikers and the staff/porters we had to stick to the left side of the trail as the porters carrying all the supplies on the head and back were just shooting past us. It was just amazing to see them balance these huge baskets, buckets, bags among other things on their head with no support at all.
We passed the Lemosha gate marker (6,890 feet) along the way, which is the official start of the trail. We gained about 1,800 feet and hiked about 5 miles that day and as we entered our first campsite, Forrest Camp (Mkubwa Camp - 8,695 feet) we were greeted by multi-colored tents and an extremely busy campsite.
The tents were pitched in close quarters between all the trees. It was like a sea of colored streamers decorating the forest. As soon as we reached our designated camp area we were greeted by a song and dance performance by our porters led by Pablo. It was a very lively and upbeat affair. They even made us part of it by asking us to join in on the dance.
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Our first briefing was on how to use our toilets. Basically, they were these one-man stool sized toilets that came with a hand pump for a flush and a little collection at the bottom that we had to open before use and close after. We had 2 such toilets set up for us in 2 separate small sized tents. More luxury than I’m generally used to on treks.
After we got sorted out and organized inside our tents, we went over to the dining tent for some hot ginger tea and biscuits. We would all soon come to long and love that ginger tea every day after our hike, we just didn’t know it yet. We had our vitals checked again (O2 – 96; Heartrate – 83). We got some time to ourselves till 7:30PM when dinner was served. It was vegetable soup with beef and vegetable lasagna and souffle. I guess its fancier on day-1 since it could be prepared at the base and carried up.
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At dinner we got a little history lesson on the Maasai tribe that our guides originate from. They are made up of 3 types of people, the Pastoral, Samburu and Kwafi. I can’t remember it all but what stuck out to me was how the men have life stages; broken out into junior to senior warriors and then junior elders to senior elders, while the women do not; and, how the young men roam the land and live on the same land alongside the wild animals. The most interesting of all was how the young boys walked about with a spear sticking up on their back, so that if a lion pounces on them, they get stuck with it.
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We were off to bed by 8:30PM. To my surprise I slept well. The tents were lined with a thin foam pad, and the sleeping bag was plenty comfortable. It was a shared tent, so I did with my friend. A full 6 hours of bedtime even though monkeys were roaring outside, and some other animals were shouting away.
Oct 12th - day 2
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​We were up by 5:30AM to start rolling up the sleeping bag and packing up the duffel bag as well as change my hiking shirt. Both our duffel bags and the backpack were inside the tent so that made things a bit easy. By 5:45AM we got our coffee served to us in our tent followed by “washy-washy” as they called it, which was a bowl of warm water to get cleaned up. Basically, washing your face and brushing your teeth is all you can really do with it. It wasn’t too cold yet at this elevation, so a light jacket was good enough to start the day. Breakfast was served at 6:30AM as they started to break down the tents. We had eggs, sausage, banana bread and after filling our camelbacks with water that was collected from a nearby source and filtered we started off at around 7:30AM with a Swahili chant ‘Tuna pandamilima Kilimanjaro juu juu juu’ which roughly translates to ‘We have a mountain called Kilimanjaro and we go up up up’.
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We hiked through the thick rainforest for 2 hours. It was a lot denser, greener and a lot damper today, with beautiful sightings of Spanish moss hanging off tree branches and clinging onto dead wood on the ground. As we climbed higher the surroundings suddenly changed from tall trees to shorter ones, about 8 – 12 feet high with thinner trunks and bristlier leaves. We were now entering Zone-2, or the Heath region of the mountain. It was still cloudy, so the loss of cover did not have much of an impact.
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There was a lot of up and down today, with steep climbs in some sections so we kept a steady pace for the next 3 hours. Our guides kept saying ‘pole pole’ or in other words ‘slowly slowly’. They kept insisting on a slow pace to make sure we left gas in our tank to survive all the way up to the summit and back down over the next few days.​​​​
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As we broke into higher elevation the views were breathtaking. We could see out into vast expanses on both sides of sublimely green hills and valleys which were further accentuated by the dampness and the floating mist that constantly lingered.
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We stopped for lunch on top of a ridge, with equally crazy views. We were well fed again with bread, ham, spaghetti, papaya and cheese. The next section was not as steep, but still uphill. After another 2 hours the terrain changed again to shorter trees and then after a bit more to bushes no higher than our knees. All signs that we were starting to gain some elevation.
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The final path to the campsite was just a vast open expanse of bushes, enveloped in mist. With the rain starting to spray, we had just enough visibility to keep going, but not enough to see beyond 50 meters. That section of the hike to me was surreal as it was the perfect mix of tranquility and awed beauty you can find even in the most barren of places.
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30 minutes more and we could see the camp where we got some washy-washy (warm water) to clean up and ginger tea. Our vitals were recorded again (O2 – 94; Heartrate – 84). There was nothing more to do the rest of the evening, so we just relaxed, had dinner and went to bed early. This time I switched things around and used my wipes to clean up and change my hiking shirt and socks for the next day before bed to make the morning routine a bit easier. This way I would just need to pack up and leave in the morning.
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We reached Shira Camp-I which was at 3,610 meters (11,844 feet), which was about 6 miles of hiking, and an elevation gain of 3,150 feet. A very different setting here compared to the previous camp that was nestled in between thick vegetation, we were now out in the open, with the mist and rain and wind constantly in the air. It was also getting colder.
