Day 1: Machame Gate to Machame Camp

I know it's been a few months since we returned from Africa, but I've finally gotten around to putting together my daily video logs from our hike up Mount Kilimanjaro. Each night, I tried to review the day's route, the highs and lows, as well as any observations from the trail that I found interesting. You'll have to excuse the poor lighting the first couple of days, but I was little tired and cold those nights as I adjusted to the mountain life! Oh yes, and my hair just gets worse as the week goes along.

The local butcher

Anyway, the first day saw us trek from Machame gate at 5,400 feet to Machame camp at 9,400 feet. The day began at our hotel in Moshi with out team of porters and guides picking us and our gear up. The drive from the hotel to the gate took about one hour. On the way, we stopped at a local butcher and market to get our fresh meat and vegetables for the climb. After that, we proceeded to the gate.

Once at the gate, our porters had to weigh-in-- each porter is only allowed to carry 45 kgs up the mountain for safety reasons. Meanwhile, Dad, Rich and I had to check in with the park service with our passports. I was surprised at how organized the system was the whole way up the mountain-- they collected our name, age, occupation and hometown at each camp at night. Just in case.

Sign at the gate warning hikers

After check in process and a quick picture at the gate, it was finally time to begin the adventure I'd dreamed about since I was a little girl! The first day's trek was beautiful and quite mild, despite being 11 km long (about 7 miles...something I had incorrect in the video!). We climbed through the rainforest, with African violets and orchids growing naturally alongside us. As we got towards the end of the day, the foliage changed into a heath-type growth. The soil became much more dusty and the plants turned into shrubs and bushes rather than the large rainforest trees we'd grown accustomed to during our hike.

We finished day 1! With our guide Mosha

As we walked into camp, we posed for our "we finished day 1" picture and headed to the hut to sign in. Afterwards we went to check out what our camp looked like. Each day, our porters get to camp ahead of us and set up our two tents, one for Dad and one for Rich and I, as well as our mess tent. They also setup their own tents for sleeping and dining a bit aside from ours.

Once at camp, our porters brought us a basin of water to rinse our faces, hands and feet before dinner. This became extremely important and I found myself looking forward to the "daily wash" each night at camp as the days wore on. After washing, we sat down for dinner, which started with a warm soup each night. Dinner was one of the highlights of the day, as our cook was fantastic. It's amazing that he could make a full meal each night using one propane tank--especially as the altitude started to increase.

After dinner, we usually had a brief on the next day from our guides and then headed to bed. That first night I didn't get a terrific sleep. We drank about 3 liters of water per day on the mountain, and I had to get up multiple times during the night to use the bathroom. Thankfully, it wasn't too far from camp, so it was a quick, cold trip. My sleeping bag and mat worked out incredibly well, as did my blow-up pillow from REI. Overall, once I got passed the first night, I was able to sleep quite well in my bag. The only problem I found as we progressed was that although I'd sleep the whole night, I would wake up not feeling rested. This was definitely one of the side effects of the altitude, even with taking dyamox.

Looking forward to sharing about Day 2 and my video blog for the day with you all soon!