Woke up at 7 am in temporary new hotel in my temporary new town in my temporary new country. Got some breakfast which was largely an omlete, some toast and a sausage with juice, and was ready and waiting at 8:15 am for my pick-up call.



At 8:30 on the dot, got a call from the lobby. Daniel from Tro-Peak was ready and waiting to pick me up. We got out of the hotel in Moshi town at 8:35 and were well and truly underway for my little adventure on the world’s highest free standing mountain – and the highest in Africa.
 

It was a cloudy morning and as we drove up to the base of the mountain, the lack of water proof trousers kept coming to mind as I wondered how much the poncho I was carrying would suffice. A drizzle set in and stayed right until we got through the park gates. I stood in line behind a rather large group of students and other enthusiasts who were waiting in line at the registration office. It took a good half hour with just two windows servicing over a hundred people in the morning.

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Frankly, I was taken aback to see the kind of crowd i saw. It was like a carnival.

Post that there was a holding area where I waited and my guide decided to unload and make arrangements and get the permit to climb. If for each person on the mountain we took an average of 3 porters, there were over 300 porters weighing in with their load to be allowed through the gates of the Machame Route. Finally Thomas (also from Tro-Peaks) gave me the ‘go ahead’ to walk on through the gate and said that Daniel (my guide) would catch up after completing some more formalities. I started at 11.
 

As I walked through the gates, the path started with a dirt track, both wide and smooth. Right off the start began a green canopy of trees and this continued for a couple of kilometres. Finally at a point, this changed to less than half the width, with logs put in place to make steps of sorts and to perhaps stop the soil from washing away during the rains.

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An uneventful and cool first half, the light drizzle was quickly replaced with a mist and we took a break for lunch at the 5 km mark. A small table was laid in side at what seemed a planned stop, and with a little red and white checked table cloth to go with it, i waited to see what my first meal would be like – soup, bread, butter, fruits and a beef based vegetable curry on rice was what was in store. And this was roughly to be the mix each day from there on in with an interchanging preparation for the main dish. Michael (cook) would continue to stuff me with food throughout the trip and the food kind of grew on me.

We finished in about 45 mins and began our little trek again, and from here, it was almost a continus slope upward. This leg of the trek took the better part of 2 hours to complete and the great part was that just when I began to rethink what I had gotten myself into, Daniel informed me that the climb up was the last bit for the day. And he was right. The upslope finally tapered off and couple of gentle slopes later we arrived at our first pitstop – Machame Hut at 3000msl.
 

While the snowed-out Mt. Kili looked just a tad bit less far, the tone was set. This would be no cake walk. It would take some work to get closer, leave alone the top.
 

We reached at 3:45pm and as I would see at each pitstop from here on in, we would have to sign in at a reception created at every point to record our stay and arrival there.
 

I was guided to my mobile home (tent) just off the main track and later served popcorn at 5:30 with some tea. What I found interesting was the fact there were pre-erected ‘Indian’or’ Long drop’ toilets at the camp site. I was expecting an ‘out in the nature’ sort of arrangement, but after giving it some thought figured that with the traffic in season, it would take a mere couple of days for the place to be literally covered in shit if the toilets had not been in place. But beware, these are completely make-shift areas with very little maintenance and some doors missing even!

We had dinner at 8pm. And I was in my sleeping bag by 9. There was a niggle of pain in my left upper leg joint but I figured it would pass with some rest by morning.

Day 1: Machame Gate to Machame Hut

• Route: Machame Entrance to Machame Gate
• Distance: 17900 steps (9.18 Km)
• Altitude: 1800msl to 3000msl
• Time: 11am – 3:45pm (4 hours)