ON TO KILIMANJARO
Now it is on to Kili. We left our camp at 8:30 in the morning and arrived at the end of the jeep ride at noon. It was then determined the Range Rover couldn’t drive all the way to the trailhead because it was too muddy – so instead we hiked in the mud. Now as I said, “I’m not a hiker” and at the end of the first day, then I arrived with “my guide” Sam into camp a couple of hours behind the other HIKERS, I truly wondered what I was doing on that mountain. I had never hiked in mud before, not surprising as we live in the desert. When Dave said, “hard hiking today” relief flooded through me…I thought it was just me!
Kilimajaro
Rules for the "Road"
The rules!
Thankfully sleeping in caves had been abolished or I’m certain my adventure seeking husband would have figured out how to work that in.
The start of the hike – there were 4 of us hiking. We had 3 guides, Bonaventure, Mhina (Sam) and Boniface. Bonaventre called me “Mama Julianna” the entire trip. He tried calling me “Jean” the first day and then said, “I just cannot call a mother by her first name. What is the name of your oldest child?” I
answered “Julianna”. He called me Mama Julianna the remainder of the trip. In Tanzania, when a woman has her first child, she goes by “Mama” and the name of the first born. My sister-law joined us after the trip and she was “Mama David”.
I still haven’t filled in my certificate for hiking Kilimanjaro – I’m not certain if I should use “Jean” or “Mama Julianna”.
So the three guides – for 4 trekkers and then the amazing porters – 39 to carry our gear and food. The porters all carried about 40 pounds of gear and were ALWAYS in the lead. When we were about 20 minutes out of camp our personal porters came to carry in our backpacks. Each one of them said, “good job” – and knuckles of the porter and trekker met. Sweet sounds after a day of hiking.
Map of our trail
Hike to Forest Camp, altitude 9000 ft. So from the trailhead to the camp the projected hiking time 3 to 4 hours (actual 5.25, in part because they could not drive to the trailhead and we had to hike in). This part of the trail is in the rainforest, so the vegetation is lush with lots of beautiful flowers. Sam, my personal guide, educated me on the plants, the history of Tanzania and so much more on the first two days of hiking. In the rainforest we wild gladiolas, protea and saw St. John’s wart growing,
Our trail, guides ahead
The guides load
Left picture below: my shoes after Day 1 of the hike
Right picture below: my hotel room for the remainder of the hike. Thankfully the tent had a number on it so I could find it in the middle of the night – all the tents looked alike to me.
On the trail
Flowers along the trail
my shoes after Day 1
Hotel at Forest Camp