Our First Day on Kilimanjaro

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2009 Time: 8:30pm Tanzania, 1:30pm East Coast, 10:30am West Coast Location: Nalemaru (Rongai) Route Altitude: Start: 6500 ft Camp: 8500 ft (2100m) Hiking Time: 3 hours 20 minutes Today was our first day on Mount Kilimanjaro. Spirits are high for our team despite our nervousness facing what has been described by many as the "toughest challenge of their lives, both physically and mentally!". We left the Hotel Marangu where we have been staying. The Hotel also runs the ascent program we are on. Our team of 8 is supported by a chief guide, 4 assistant guides and 26 porters, cooks and others who take a moving camp day by day to support us. Also, we very lucky to have 1 of the owners of the Marngu Hotel with us.Seamus is very knowlegeable and experieced (23rd trip to the top of Kili) hiker. We travelled 2 1/2 hours by large truck busses on a very dusty road under construction. We were wearing face masks or bandanas to keep the dust out. After this eventful ride we checked in for the beginning of our 7 day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. Our first hour of hiking was extremely dusty, up to 6 inches (15 cm) of dust on the trail - we are talking real dusty! Once we got through the first hour the trail lead us into the woods and then the sub-alpine vegetation. Our trip ended at Simba Camp where our porters had already prepared our camp site. We had tea in the kitchen tent followed by a delicious dinner. Overall it was a relativelly easy start to our ascent. Our chief guide - Frederick is very experienced in completing ascents to the top of Kili - can you guess how many times do you think he has done it (make a Comment)?