Tanzania - Day 1 of Kili Hike

Londorossi Gate (7,838 ft) to Mkubwa/Big Tree Camp (9,137 ft) Distance: ~3 miles

Malisa picked us up at the hotel at 8am to head to the Londorossi Gate where we met with our entire group of guides and porters (23 in all).  There is a limit on how much each porter can carry so everything we brought on the trip was carefully weighed.  We also signed in for the first time - it made the start of the climb official!

From the Londorossi Gate, we actually drove to the trailhead.  The last 10 minutes of the drive might have been the most exciting part of the day.  It had rained the night before so the road was muddy and really just made up of two ruts that Malisa kept the tires in.  The small van with the porters made it as far as it could, but had to stop a good 20-30 minutes behind us.  Once they were done, Iddy jumped in with us to try to get us as close to the trailhead as possible.  The rest of the guides and porters would have to walk the remaining distance.  We later learned that after Malisa dropped us off, he went back and helped shuttle gear and porters up to where we stopped.  Iddy commented that not every company/driver would do that - so bonus points to Calabash and Malisa for taking care of our porters!

Every once in a while, the tires would slip and the Land Cruiser would be rammed into the side of the road.  Apparently this wasn't an issue because Malisa just kept on driving.  There was one point where we all thought we were done - after three tries on the left side of the road, we just couldn't get through.  Malisa and Iddy got out and assessed the right side.  Malisa got back in, told us to close the windows (so we didn't get mud splattered everywhere), and drove through an enormous mud puddle.  It was so fun - we were all cheering him on!

We eventually made it to a mud puddle we couldn't get through, so that designated the start of our hike!  We had a boxed lunch at our makeshift trailhead while waiting for some of the assistant guides to catch up since Iddy needed to stay behind to get the porters and gear organized.  Nass and Issa were the two assistant guides that led us on the first day.

Once we got underway, we discovered that we were only a 5 minute walk from the real trailhead, so there wasn't much distance added to our hike.  This hike took us just under 3 hours.  We stopped a lot to take pictures and even saw a monkey!  There were parts of the trail that was quite steep, so we were able to make sure all of our limbs were in working order and ready to take on Mt. Kilimanjaro.  :)

Once we got to camp, we found our tents and met Adam.  He was our server for the week - responsible for getting us up in the morning, bringing us a bowl of hot water every morning and night, served our food, telling us when we should go to bed, etc.  After a long hike, a bowl of hot water to wash your hands and face feels like quite a luxury!

Another luxury we must mention is our toilet tent.  It was a tent, maybe 4' x 4', with a toilet in it.  The best way we've figured to describe the toilet is an adult sized training potty (like what you'd use to potty train a toddler).  It was equipped with a small reservoir of water so you could "flush".  Yes, we paid extra to have it so we didn't have to use the public pit toilets.  Yes, it was totally worth the money (read about the one night we didn't have it in Barafu...oh, we missed our toilet tent that night!).  And, yes, the porter responsible for the toilet tent and emptying out the toilet every morning got a bigger tip.



We talked to Iddy about our next day.  Initially we were supposed to go to the Shira I camp, which made Day 2 a shorter day, but made Day 5 long.  We discussed the idea of skipping Shira I, going straight to Shira II, and adding an overnight at the Karanga Valley.  Iddy was all for this idea - he thought we were nuts to want to stop at Shira I!  Having the two days before summit be shorter was a much better idea.  So, we went to sleep knowing that the next day was going to be a long one.