Kili Day 1

Kilimanjaro Day 1

We met our Kili guide last night at the hostel, Antipas is his unusual name and we'll have him, an assistant, a cook and 6 porters accompanying us on the mountain. When I say 'us' I include Mick, a retired firefighter from London who is joining me. If nothing else it saves money and gives me someone to talk to.

The hostel is predominantly full of long term visitors who are volunteering around Moshi, generally people in their 20's but a few older and from all over the world. As a result there's a lot of drinking but the atmosphere is incredibly friendly and everyone comes to say hello and introduce themselves. Shawn, Michael, Ali and Paddy are just some of the names I can remember.

So on a coolish Saturday morning a minivan loaded with supplies, our guides and a few porters collects us for the 45 minute drive to the Machame gate, one of the closer entry points to Moshi. Despite the hostel forwarding our details in advance, it still takes Antipas a good while to sort our permits and all the bureaucracy. Our assistant guide is Juma and we start the trail with him whilst Antipas sorts out whatever he has to do. The first hour or so is following a dirt road through the first before this turns into a walking track. It's very well defined and frankly a bit dull at times as we ascend through the rainforest, it's very similar to a forest walk anywhere in Europe except the "poly poly" pace which is at times painfully slow. There's good reason for it though, to make sure we don't over do it from the off and have time to acclimatise. It's hard to imagine we're ascending 1200m today. The trail head is at 1800 and camp at about 3000 so a decent change.

The forecast for today isn't too amazing and indeed just after lunch we get hit by a tropical downpour. This eases but stays with us most the afternoon, drying just as we arrive in camp at about 1615. So quite a short walking day, about 5 hours in all but a decent amount of ascent. Physically I found it really straight forward probably because of the incredibly slow pace. I need to make sure I drink more though, only a litre or so whilst walking today which isn't enough really. Shame I couldn't pick up any squash or cordial before leaving Moshi so plain water it is.

The camp is pretty expansive and we have a pretty decent Coleman X3 each so plenty of room. As I write this a porter brings some water to have a wash and I think they're just making some popcorn as a pre dinner appetiser. I hate popcorn aha.