“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery of why we climb.”

(Greg Child)

July 10, 2017: Day 1 

My second night in Africa did not go so well.  Although I had a beautiful room and comfortable bed, I did not sleep well at all.  Gnats aggravated me all night long.  I kept waking up throughout the night with gnats crawling in my ear and even my mouth.  It drove me nuts.  The tent was nice, but it failed to have a mosquito net to help prevent the bugs from getting into my sleeping area.  In all, I only got a few hours of sleep which was not ideal for the night before I started my tough climb.

Fortunately, the bites did not hurt or itch.  They only left me with visible spots on my face and hand.  Of course, this bothered me at first, but after a while, I really did not worry about it.

After finishing a good breakfast I finished packing, and soon after I made my way to the front gate of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park.  The ride from Ndarakwai Ranch to Londorosi Gate of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park lasted about an hour.

Once I arrived at the gate, the park officials weighed my duffel bags.  Although I had a daypack that I would carry with me on my hike at all times, a porter would carry my duffel with the rest of my personal belongings.  I also had one general porter that would carry one of my duffel bags that contained my camping supplies, such as my tent. The general porter would always leave each camp before I did so when I arrived at the next camp the porter would already have my tent up prepared for my arrival.  My personal porter would also hike with me and my group at all times.

My main duffel that the general porter carried could not weigh more than 16 kilograms, and the duffel that my personal porter carried could not weigh more than 15 kilograms. If either of my duffel bags were over the weight limit then I would have to carry the excess weight myself in my daypack or leave it behind.  However, both of my bags weighed under the weight limits.  After registering at the park rangers station and had my bags weighed, I was back on the road heading to Lemosho Gate.

Once I finally arrived a at Lemosho Gate (trail head) I grew really excited.

The  picture above shows the current elevation of my location, and how long it is estimated to  climb from Lemosho Gate to the next camp, and so forth, with the hours accumulating from Lemosho Gate to each camp.

Shown from left to right (clockwise): Laura, Matt, Marc, Stephen, Edward, Mark, Eric, Jim, and Sawsan

But before we began our epic adventure, we ate an amazing lunch.  The picture above was taken during our lunch right before we hit the trail.

Standing at the trail head of Mount Kilimanjaro was a surreal experience.  I felt a mix of emotions.  I remember thinking, Wow, this is for real. I am about to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.  My other thought was, HOLY CRAP! I’m about to climb Mount Kilimanjaro!  My nerves were out of control.  After a final gear check and briefing, the seven other members of my group and I finally started our ascent to the roof of Africa.

DAY 1: MY ADVENTURE BEGINS

The first day of our climb began at the Lemosho Gate and ended at Mkubwa Camp (Camp 1).  Everyone was quiet at the beginning of our climb.  Few words were spoken during the first couple of hours.  Edward, our guide, informed us it was very important to move slowly up the mountain in order to prevent altitude sickness.  Therefore, we moved at a slow and steady pace.  During the climb, our guides would shout, “Pole, Pole,” which in Swahili means, “Slowly, Slowly.”  I did not have a problem going the slow pace;  I was enjoying the moment.

During my climb, I saw an abundance of unique plants and trees.  I also saw several monkeys climbing above my head and near the trail throughout the day.  I heard the monkeys yelling before I could see them.  Other monkeys were quiet and sleeping while hanging from trees.  Like I mentioned earlier, it was such a surreal experience seeing all of these wild animals in their natural habitat.

I finally made it to  Mt. Mkubwa Camp (Camp 1) after a challenging three to four-hour hike through the forest.  It was nice to be done for the day.  It was not easy hiking in the hot African forest with a twenty-five pound pack on my back.  Once I arrived at Mt. MKubwa Camp, I had to sign in at the Park Ranger’s station.  All climbers were required to sign in so that the Park Ranger knew who had finished hiking the trail.  After I signed in, I went straight to my tent to put my daypack down and finally relax.

My tent was nice, and I was glad to have a soft mat to sit on while taking off my hiking boots.  It felt good taking off my boots and putting on my old, comfy sneakers to wear around camp.  My back thanked me for finally taking off my daypack.  Below are a few pictures of the different tents at the camp.  The black and orange striped tent was our dining tent.  My tent was the yellow and gray tent.

  Below is a video of  Camp 1.

Unfortunately, I was not able to have much down time on this particular evening.  Once I settled in comfortably I washed up and headed to dinner around 7:00 p.m.  I always enjoyed our meal time on the mountain, because it gave all of the group members an opportunity to unwind, and share thoughts and experiences about the day.   The best opportunity to talk to my fellow climbing group members was breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I quickly grew close with many members of the group.  They were interesting people and from all over the world.  After just a few days on the mountain I felt like we were a family.

Although dinner was great, I was extremely tired.  My first day on the mount conquered me instead of me conquering the mountain.  I did my best to stay awake until everyone was done with dinner, but I failed miserably.  I have Matt to thank for the following picture. 

Soon after dinner, I went straight to my tent and fell asleep around 8:00 p.m.  However, falling asleep this early totally interfered with my idealistic plan of sitting in my tent and writing a literary masterpiece in my journal.  But, after sleeping for just a few hours, I woke up in the middle of the night unable to immediately fall back asleep.  Therefore, I decided to write a short journal entry about my experience of my first day on the mountain.

Journal Entry on July 11, 2017 at 2:37 a.m.

This trip has been an amazing experience thus far.  The flight was long, about 27 hours long, but well worth it.  The people hiking with me are wonderful people.  They are from all walks of life and are enjoying the trip as well.  On Sunday we went on a 2 hour nature walk.  We saw elephants, African Deer, gazelles, zebras, and other animals.  The landscape was beautiful.

Earlier yesterday we started our hike.  It was an amazing hike.  We hiked through the African Jungle for about 3 hours.  We saw monkeys and several unique plants.  I really enjoyed it.  It was also very challenging.  We climbed uphill a lot.

Dinner was great.  We had pasta and soup.  We had hot tea to drink.  Day 1 was amazing.  I look forward for tomorrow.  Right now at camp 1 we are over 9,000 feet in elevation.  I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Shortly after I wrote in my journal I decided to make a video to document my thoughts and experiences about my first day on the mountain.  Below is the video I recorded while half awake in the middle of the night. (I am talking quietly because other climbers were sleeping at the time and our tents were literally right beside each other).

Soon after I recorded this video, I went back to bed to try to get as much rest as possible in order to be rested for the long day of climbing ahead.