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After 4 hours sleep we got up at 5.30 to get our transfer flight. Again we checked in with plenty of time and had our second full English setting us up ready for the day!
From the tiny plane we got our first glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro- it was as the pictures in our guide books had depicted it, a single imposing snow-capped mountain rising above the clouds.
After a 45 minute flight we were met at the airport by our guide- Charles. Charles was in his mid-fifties and had a reasonable sized belly on him, we felt confident if he could climb the mountain once every month then we would surely be fine doing it! He spoke very good English and was able to answer all our questions at length. We instantly warmed to him and quickly trusted him totally to get us to the top of the mountain.
We met Frank (who we had booked the trip with) on the side of the road near a bank, were we settled the bill, handing over large volumes of cash and using a very slow card machine, it was certainly a different way of doing business than the UK!
As we drove to the mountain I was struck by the landscape, it was very barren, there were skinny goats and cows being herded by young children and tall thin men with thumb sticks. Women wore brightly coloured cloths and had small children on their backs.
We arrived at the gate of Kilimanjaro within an hour. We were keen to start walking but Charles reassured us we had plenty of time. We sorted out our bags, put on our sun cream and had a hefty lunch that came in individual cardboard boxes comprising chicken legs, eggs, samosa's, fruit, cakes and a mango juice (a lunch we would become very familiar with over the time of our trip).
We then headed off. The path started as a road and was very easy going but soon the path became thinner and steeper. We started off fast, marvelling at the surrounding jungle and chatting away. After 2 hours we stopped to have a break and Charles explained to us that we must slow our pace and must always be behind the guide so they could set our pace. We continued up, all singing songs to keep motivation up (well all except Jack) and soon we had reached our first camp at 1800 meters.
We were greeted at camp but Nasuru who was our waiter for the trip, he brought us hot water to wash with. Tea and popcorn were waiting for us in the mess tent causing Tarryn to get very excited. The camp had already been set up by the porters (despite them leaving after us). We had a meeting with Charles and his 2 assistant guides, Paul and Richard. Their English was not as good a Charles but were both very pleasant. They explained that every evening and morning we would have health check were they would ask us questions around our bodily functions, check our saturations and heart rate and listen to our lungs. It was odd to be at the other end of personal questions that I ask daily to my patients and to discuss bowel motions in front of each other (although by day 2 bowel movements seemed to become our most visited conversation.)
It was much colder than we expected at this altitude when the sun went down and those of us that had them were already needing our down jackets. Ruth was very upset to have left hers at home (maybe on Matt's advice).
We had a great dinner of cucumber soup, fried fish and potatoes.
The stars here are absolutely amazing, I have never seen so many or felt so surrounded by them.
We went to bed all feeling upbeat and ready for a harder day tomorrow and a 6.30 start.
- comments
Nicky Holly, I so enjoyed this & look forward to the next instalment.