Day One, Lemosho Glades (7,838ft) to Big Tree (Mount Mkubwa) Camp (9,137ft)
I’m sitting writing this at the end of day one sitting under one of the ‘Big Trees’ of Big Tree camp with Colobus monkeys playing in the trees above me. Backtracking- Yesterday I landed at Kilimanjaro international airport and was by met Joshua our Exodus/Africa Walking Company team leader and lead guide for the next eight days. A baking hot journey in a Land Cruiser (no air con) to the hotel followed and when we arrived we were greeted with hot towels to freshen up and wipe off the red soil that had been kicked up and deposited itself on our hands and faces on the journey, like we were being welcomed by the Red Earth of Africa itself.
The journey was a reminder, if one was needed that Africa is, not unsurprisingly pretty hot and it will be important to keep covered and keep re-hydrated. We had a bit of time to relax and unpack before the afternoon briefing. The team/safety briefing was led by Joshua who is a man who clearly knows what he is talking about and I also got to meet up with the other five people who will be making up the ‘A’ team trek to the Roof of Africa! I had already sat next to Dave on the plane from Addis Ababa and will be sharing a tent with him for the next eight days. The rest of the team are all girls. Hannah from the U.K., Sayeeda and Heather from Canada and Lisa From Australia make up a nice group of international trekkers. This morning after much sorting of what gear was going in the rucksack and kit bag we jumped in the Land Cruisers and drove the three odd hours to the Kilimanjaro National Park reception gate at Londorossi. About twenty kilometres out I got my first view of the mountain, far away in the distance and unclear through the heat haze. We also saw some Zebras but little else by way of wildlife on the way.
At Londorossi Gate everything gets unloaded, weighed and checked by the Park Rangers before it is packed back onto the vehicles ready for the short drive to the start proper at Lemosho Glades. The main purpose of this is the protection of the porters who are only allowed/supposed to carry 15kg. It all seems very efficient and organised but with a number of groups all doing the same thing and trying to get on the trail it does mean a bit of hanging around.
There is always paperwork and we all dutifully sign in the ‘going up’ book at the start, something that will become a daily routine. The rules of the park are also displayed prominently for all to see. After the short but bumpy ride to Lemosho Glades we have the obligatory team photo at the sign post and that’s it, we are off and taking our first steps up the mountain. A short but interesting day, really just finding our walking legs, checking the kit is comfortable and getting to know each other a bit.
The walking was almost all through the rain forest on a good red soil path with the crickets in fine tune and the Sun dappling through the leaves. After a busy 24 hours it was good to finally get on the trail and the peace of the forest was a tonic.
A steady pace was set by Richard one of our three lead guides and we stopped to eat our packed lunches after about an hour or so in a little clearing in the forest. Our arrival at Big Tree Camp was met with a traditional African song of greeting from the guys who are going to be looking after us. Twenty eight guys looking after six foreigners on a journey to the highest point in Africa. I suspect we’ll get to know each other pretty well over the next eight days. Being practically right on the equator the sun goes down at six and after dinner it’s lights out at 8pm ready for a 6.30am start.
For map and route of this walk click on ‘learn more’ below.
