DAY 1 - Moshi to Machame Huts

Our base of operations this year was a small town called Moshi, situated very close to the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Moshi means "cloudy" and it actually refers to the mist regularly generated by the mountain during day time. In fact, it was almost like clockwork. The early morning would see an awe-inspiring view of Kili and by mid-morning the mountain would disappear in a fog....to clear up again in the evening.

A view of Kilimanjaro from just ourside Moshi.

It is in Moshi, that we were first introduced to the cultural diversity of Tanzania. The country is comprised of over 100 tribes with different mother tongues and very different lifestyles. In Moshi alone, we were impressed by a cathedral, a large mosque and even a Hindu temple. This diverse people are bound with a common second language: Swahili. Swahili is a tongue spoken in major parts of east-central Africa that derives its origin from Bantu (African) with some Arabic terminology. This shows the early importance of trade between this part of the continent and the Middle East, and of course the influence of Islam in this part of the world.

My arrival in this town happened to be very late on Christmas eave with my son Tristan. Our flight was delayed by over 2 hours in Amsterdam and as such we only arrived at our Hotel by 11:30PM on the 24th of December. It was difficult to get our bearrings in the middle of the night, and the Keys Hotel, normally the hub of activity for teams of aspiring climbers and safari goers, was deathly quiet. However the hotel staff were patiently waiting for us and made it a point to keep the kitchen and the bar open should we be hungry or should we already have a need to quench an African thirst with a local brew (with names like: Kilimanjaro, Tusker or Safari - we have actually returned with bottle labels for all brands).

It was only on the morning of Christmas day that we were first struck by the mountain. From the small restaurant courtyard, a clear view could be had of Kilimanjaro. In fact, Tusker Trail maintains a webcam in this courtyard, providing live images of the volcano: http://www.kilicam.com/

Our first view of Kili from the Keys Hotel in Moshi.

Tristan and I gave ourselves two full days on site before starting out on our trek. We wanted to avoid the disaster that befell us in Spain when all of our climbing gear went missing somewhere between Toronto and Madrid. To keep ourselves occupied we did a round of the town and went as far as Arusha (a larger city west of Moshi) to visit a snake park (I was dying to see a live Black Mamba). Little did I know these diversions for me would cause a questionable start to the entire climb.

Playing with local snakes in Arusha.

On the 26th, after reuniting with the rest of our team (and after all of us regained our luggage - somewhat delayed for Steve since he and Andree went thru Nairobi only to be told afterwards that only 30% of luggage make it at the same time as their passengers!), we met our guides: Saimon, Charles and Liberate....soon to be known as the Man, the Mouth and the Medic.

Three great guys: Charles "the Mouth" (Assistant Guide), Saimon "the Man" (Lead Guide), and Liberate "the Medic" (Assistant Guide).

We were introduced to some of our camping equipment, and a process which would become a twice daily routine (and certainly instilled a lot of confidence): pulse and oxygen saturation measurements ....along with a questionnaire which encompassed everything from ensuring we took our Malarone (Malaria prophylactic) and Diamox (but absolutley nothing else)...along with the details pertaining to our last bowel movements (the source of much joking by the time we completed our climb).

For future reference, it is important to note that the measure of Oxygen saturation in your blood stream should be to the order of 80%. Meanwhile, your heart rate should be as normal as possible although once at altitude we would expect an increase in the pulse rate as our hearts are attempting to make up for the shortfall in available oxygen.

My personnal initial scare began with my initial pulse rate; my reading was 92 (at rest)! This was well above my normal rate. The reality was that by the morning of the 26th, I was not in good shape. Our previous outings somehow exposed me to some gastrointestinal bug...and severe diarrhea. Tristan and I had walked to town that morning (typically a good hour walk), by the time we got there I felt cramps. Needless to say the walk back to the hotel was less than 45 minutes...and I'll save readers from the gory details!

Luckily, I recovered and this problem did not plague me beyond day 1. Others on the team however went thru very similar difficulties...and this is not something you would want to worry about when climbing a mountain.

On the 27th, our team loaded up on an SUV at 8AM, with one destination in mind: the Machame Gate: the park entrance which would mark the start of our journey. The drive from Moshi took a good hour and a half with a good part of it on a very dry and dusty dirt road. At the gate we were greeted by a large group of individuals selling everything from ponchos to T-shirts. We were also greeted by what I would call "the fine print": two large panels extolling warnings in the form of "points to remember".

"Points to Remember" - Warning signs at the Machame Gate.

This is where we are first introduced to the scope of our expedition. Our team of 8 will be guided by 3, but will also be accompanied by no less than 35 porters! We would carry day packs and our porters would carry everything else (to a maximum of 30 lbs/15 kg each). This included tents, all of our sleeping gear, food, water and safety equipment such as oxygen tanks and compression tent. Our porters would accompany us up to our last base camp at an altitude of 4600m. Every day it was an amazing site to see these individuals rapidly climb the slopes with their loads (including fresh eggs) on their back, in their hands, or on their heads.

Once signed into the Park, we were ready for our climb. We left the Machame gate which is at an altitude of just over 1800m, shortly after 10 in the morning. The beginning of this hike was rather easy and actually very pleasant as we passed thru the equivalent of an Alpine rain forest. The vegetation here was rich as it is fed from the waters running down the slopes of the mountain. The forest was incessantly noisy with the call of birds, insects and monkeys.

The trek begins under the most pleasant of circumstances - lush rain forest and a well groomed trail.

As altitude increases, the path narrows and the trees became covered in lichen, giving the forest a foreboding look. Our walk on day one was just over 10 km and we completed it it less than 6 hours (including many stops for munchies and the obligatory picture taking). This is where Saimon gave us our first Swahili term: "pole pole" - slowly slowly. As far as he was concerned, we were going much too fast and he warned us to slow down, otherwise we would never make it to the top.

As we reach the 3000m mark, lush forests give way to an Alpine heather. Here "Kibo", the snowy crater rim of Kilimanjaro, gives us an inviting sneak peak at our ultimate destination.

This is also where Charles "the Mouth" rapidly got his nickname. Leading the team for this first leg, Charles was incessantly talking. In fact, we discovered that this was his entire climbing strategy. As far as Charles was concerned, the more he talked, the less he (or anyone else) paid attention to the streneous climb....easy concept! But we were to find out that for Charles (or anyone else for that matter), talking does not work very well when you approach the peak.

Steve and Tristan at the Machame Huts milestone.

The Machame Huts would be our first camp. It is at an altitude of 3000m meaning that the first day not only covered a 10 km distance, but as well a climb of just over 1200m. At this point, the team was very lucky as we were all able to jump into the tents as a torential downpour came upon us. It did not last long and it would actually be the last time we would see rain during our entire African tour. We were all able to stay dry and were quickly ready for our first hot meal of the day and an early night.

Day 1 completed, we retire to a rain-soaked camp.