Mon 1st Aug '16 - Day 3

Arusha – Mount Kilimanjaro

Day One              11km     Machame Gate 1,800m – Machame Camp 2,835m, 5 hours

Breakfast eaten, bags packed, water boiled, ready to go. A well-used bus rolls in to the courtyard carpark with heaped luggage under blue tarpaulin on the roof and at least 10 porters sat in the back eyeing up their next bunch of Westerners. As our bags are added to organised mess on the roof, everyone’s head is in their phone grabbing the last of the Wi-Fi to send a final message home.

We set off along the dusty dead straight road, slowing a couple of times for the door to be slung open and more porters to jump on board. One sits next to Sean because all the other seats are taken but a sharp word from Remi sends him to the back to share a seat with another porter. The tourists must not be inconvenienced it seems.

As we inspect each other’s photographing ability (proper DLSR camera vs Go-Pro vs Iphone) there is much roundabout discussion about how many photos each device can hold. Depends on the size of the memory card. These kind of jokes, picking up someone’s slip of the tongue and repeating it for the next 24 or 48 hours is a trend that remains all holiday.

During the 2 ½ hour drive to the bottom of the mountain we pull in to a service station which has a car park filled with carbon copy busses to our own, replete with either clean tourists on their way to their trek or scruffier tourists on their way back. We pick up some more water and get back on the road and off to our left we finally spot Mount Kilimanjaro rising majestically out of the clouds the snow cap seemingly a world away and at the point the size of our tasks becomes apparent (Sean “It’s much bigger than I expected”).

We arrive at Machame Gate (start of the Machame Route; our chosen path up the mountain) marked by a large wooden framed triangular gate spanning the road. It’s a busy departure day so we loiter for a couple of hours in the fresh sunshine as every group is signed in during which time the porters take our duffel bags, stuff them in larger green bags and then add their own stuff on top. So they are each carrying up to 20kg whilst we will carry our 5-7kg day pack/backpack. Our group of porters grows as each one adds a friend to the group so in the end there about 25 in total – enough to carry our bags, food & drink, cooking equipment, 8 tents, chairs, table, crockery and more. Indeed, as we walk with porters it never ceases to amaze what and how they carry; bag perhaps balanced on their head wearing jeans, t-shirt and Puma trainers. In contrast we had each deliberated for hours in Australia/America – will these boots have enough ankle support? Are they water proof enough?

Whilst waiting to start we sample our first fare – a heaped mound of spaghetti and vegetable sauce which is wolfed down by all except David who suffers a gag reflex on his first mouthful and empties his stomach on the grass behind us. A couple of local monkeys take on an over-sized crow for scraps.

Just after 13:00 we finally start heading for Machame Camp, 11km and 5 hours away. Despite repeated calls of “Pole Pole” from John our differing natural paces break the group up as we walk up the mountain. Though it doesn’t feel like a mountain (yet), more like a trek through a Queensland rainforest.

We spot a few large Columbus monkeys “their white tails look like toilet brushes” (Clem) but not much birdlife – John tells us that this is because they’re migratory and this is out of season.

The speckled shady path lined by branches is well prepared with drainage channels to the side which regularly cross the track. Tourism a major source of revenue in Tanzania so this path needs to be kept open.

The group chatter lessens as we concentrate on not tripping on loose stones or exposed tree roots. There are occasional glimpses of the mountain peak off to the right through the dense undergrowth but we don’t seem to be making much of a dent in the overall ascent to the top. Today we climb from 1,800m at the gate to 2,900m and as the afternoon wears on there are a few comments about shortness of breath as the air starts to thin out. The fresh alpine temperature allows everyone to be walking in t-shirts and shorts, although the pristine air is ruined if you get trapped behind Clem on the path.

After 4 hours including a couple of 5 minute breaks the height of the trees lessens and then within the space of 100m heather appears beside us, the track turns from packed stone to dusty ground and suddenly we’re seemingly out of the rainforest.

We can hear the buzz and activity of the campsite being set up behind the undergrowth and we arrive to a dustbowl filled with multiple tours’ tents littering the landscape. After signing in in a wooden hut with a man surprisingly and unnervingly (and indeed unnecessarily?) with an assault rifle – John leads us another few hundred metres up a very narrow steep rocky path which is actually the start of tomorrow’s route.

On this short addition the polite John agrees that the over-confident, condescending (“what do you do if you get to hot? That’s right stop and take off a layer. Now what about if you’re too cold?” and so on) American guide we’ve seen several times today is in fact an idiot.

Following a few group selfies overlooking the campsite and setting sun we head back down to the camp – Clem slipping and suffering the first injury of the tour – a gash down the shin – and to our four two man tents surrounding the canteen. (Canteen is my name for the larger tent which holds a table large enough to seat and 8 and in which we receive all our meals).

In here we sit civilised around the large candle-lit table and enjoy popcorn and coffee. Then fresh cucumber soup, Tilapia fish, vegetable curry, herbed potatoes and beans. We all agree this food is heaps better than we had expected and far superior to the hotel offering.

Jason is almost falling asleep in his soup and soon departs for bed whilst the rest of us play a few rounds of Spy Master to round off a successful first day.