Kilimanjaro Part 1: Moshi, and the hike begins

Well, that was certainly an experience. I have just returned from climbing Kilimanjaro with my friend Luke. I’m going to try to control my natural verboseness in writing about the trip, but if you want the no-words-at-all version, the pictures are available here: Brooks’ Kilimanjaro pics. Or, if you want the full verbosity, read on.

I met Luke in Seattle and we headed off on KLM. After about 24 hours of traveling, we landed at Kilimanjaro airport (JRO) at about 9pm local on Thursday night. The airport is about halfway between Arusha and Moshi. Our trek was leaving from Moshi, and we had one day of scheduled travel rest and Africa-acclimatization before starting the climb. After getting some sleep, Luke and I headed out into Moshi to see the town. That evening we met with our guide, Peter, and went over our equipment to make sure everything was in order.

When Saturday morning rolled around, Peter and our porters picked us up in one of Tanzania’s ubiquitous Land Rovers, in which we would drive the 90 minutes or so to the Londrossi gate of Kilimanjaro National Park. The drive itself was mesmerizing, with a fascinating and unfamiliar landscape… and of course the huge mountain looming over us.

Along the way we stopped at Sanya Juu to pick up supplies. Sanya was just a tiny town on the road from Moshi to Kilimanjaro, but it was bustling with commerce. Spread across a half mile or so of road/market, we saw everything from crops and livestock to a stationary store (!). It was amazing seeing the huge variety of people, from local farmers to city people to tourists like us.

After Sanya Juu, we continued driving to the Londrossi gate, where we registered with the park and Peter dealt with permits. There was some confusion here, as the park sets limits on the maximum weight porters can carry, and we were apparently overweight. Since the discussion was in Swahili, Luke and I wandered off and looked at the entertaining warning signs while Peter dealt with the weight issue. As we waited, several other groups appeared and made their own preparations.

Once the weight and permits were sorted out, we hopped back in the Land Rover and headed to the Lemosho trail head. As it turns out, the road was in pretty poor shape and very muddy, so we ended up starting our hike about a half mile before the start of the trail. Once we got to the trail head it was a quick ascent into an absolutely gorgeous rain forest. During this first bit of the hike, Luke and I tried to learn some rudimentary Swahili from Peter.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but the first couple of hours were very difficult for me. We were only at 8000 feet, but the trail was somewhat steep and it was pretty darned hot. And, of course, I had utterly failed to do any hiking in the weeks before heading to Kilimanjaro. So, for a variety of reasons, I found myself thinking “what have I gotten myself into?” and wondering if I’d actually be able to complete the trip.

But I did manage to get through the first day’s hike. After a couple of tough hours we made it to our first camp, Mti Mkubwa (”Big Tree” in Swahili). There was only one other group there, and we had several hours to enjoy the setting before dinner. Several Colobus monkeys were hanging out in the trees, and it was entertaining to watch them as they ate, jumped between trees, and watched us.

We finally sat down to a remarkably tasty and generous dinner. We knew that we would have a cook along with us, but we had no idea of either the quantity or quality of the food we’d see. Luke and I had been prepared to subsist entirely on the massive amounts of beef jerky, trail mix, and other snacks that we had brought. The first night’s dinner, which included an appetizer of popcorn and tea followed by cucumber soup (yum!) and potatoes, was our first indication that perhaps we had overpacked on the snack front.

After dinner it started getting dark around 7pm, and we headed off to sleep. As tough as the first day had been, I knew that it was only going to get more challenging.

Tagged as: hiking, kilimanjaro