Climbing Kilimanjaro: Day 1 from Machame Gate to Machame Camp

     After an early breakfast, we loaded our gear on a bus and drove west from the city of Moshi to Machame Gate at Kilimanjaro National Park.  There are several different routes on Kilimanjaro, but our trekking group was taking a 6-day adventure on the Machame Trail, a scenic trail that has a good success rate for summiting the mountain.  While the guides got us checked in and the porters organized and weighed bags, we relaxed in a covered shelter area and waited. 

Machame Gate - clean clothes and fresh legs

The wait turned to a couple of hours and we ate a 'box lunch' of fried chicken, vegetable samosa, cookies and mango juice.  I elected not to eat the donut, which was later grabbed out of the refuse bin by a hungry and inquisitive monkey.

     We finally got onto the trail and it was good to feel the weight of my rucksack on my back and the dig of my trekking poles into the trail after several days of travel and months of training.  The trail was well-maintained and gradually climbed up through the rainforest.  However, about half an hour up the trail, it started to rain.  Makes sense, right?  Raining in a rainforest shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was still relatively warm, so we threw on some light raingear and continued at a nice pace. 

On the trail to Machame Camp

 



     We continued on through the afternoon, enjoying the green environment and learning about each other.  When you spend lots of hours each day hiking, there is plenty of time to tell stories, ask questions and start to bond as a trekking group.  The rain tapered off about 3:45pm and we walked into Machame Camp about 5pm.  The day had been fairly easy - about 7 miles with a ~4,000ft elevation gain.

 

Walking into Machame Camp



 



      The guides were helpful and the G Adventures team was great.  Our tents were set up and our bags were already in the tent.  We dropped off our rucksacks and headed over to a large dining tent for hot drinks and snacks.  With a table and chairs, this was a nice way to do a trek.  Dinner was served about 6:45pm - potato and leek soup, spaghetti and fresh avocado slices.  A group camped next to us was outside doing the 'welcome to the mountain' event with singing and dancing (our event was planned for Day 2) and it was nice to sit back and relax.

     Our guides gave us a briefing after dinner for the Day 2 events and we all were checked for pulse and pulse ox (the amount of oxygen in one's blood).  I wasn't feeling any effects of altitude and the day's effort had been fairly easy.  The plan for the next day was a wake up at 7am, breakfast at 7:15am and a start time of 8am for the hike from Machame Camp to Shira Camp.

     The sun set while we were eating dinner, and the skies had cleared of clouds, so we were greeted with an amazing night sky full of stars, with the Milky Way spread in a hazy line across the heavens.  Being in the southern hemisphere, the only constellation I recognized was Scorpio.  After staring up for a while, I went to the tent, read a little bit using my headlamp and was asleep about 10pm.

     Next up: A short, steep hike up to Shira Camp.