Kili Day 1 to 3

Posted on September 1, 2010

Day 1 – Monday

After breakfast at 6.30, we took a bus at 7. An hour later we arrived at Machame Gate.  We are going up to Machame Route (look at a Kili website for details). The porters weighed our kit, we collected our permits and we set off walking around 8.30. We walked until 2.00 pm through the Montane forest (jungle). We saw loads of monkeys. Everyone was very excited.  We had started our trek! Along the way we played games such as 20 questions to guess who a person was and other related word games. We arrived at Machame Camp which is at 2,900 metres. at around 2 pm and then relaxed and drank tea. The guides and porters are really good. We have a team of 23. It was quite cloudy and damp, but no rain. In the evening we went for an acclimatisation walk, leaving camp at 5 pm and going up a few hundred metres and then returning down to base camp. Before dinner, all the porters came over and we had a massive sing and dance for 20 minutes! Everyone joined in, clapping and dancing! Amazing! Bed at 8 pm as everyone was so tired!

Day 2 – Tuesday

We were awoken with hot tea in our tents at 6.00 ready for an early breakfast of porridge and scrambled eggs on toast and more tea/coffee at 7.00. After packing up, we set off at 8. Today was a shorter day but a lot steeper and the paths were quite narrow. There are quite a few teams on the mountain maybe 6 or 7. But Nelson, our chief guide send a runner off each morning to bag a good camp site! A nice quite and secluded and away from the main area.  Today we walked out of the rain forest and into a kind of moorland, with bushes about 10 foot high. It was quite cloudy at first but after a few hours at about 3,500 m we came out above the cloud and we had some fantastic views across western side of Kilimanjaro and over towards Mt Meru, but the top of Kili was still in cloud. We had a hot lunch sitting inside a large tent, so that we were out of the sun, as it was quite hot. We had spaghetti and melon.  The food has been excellent and everyone is enjoying it. In the afternoon, we carried on up to around 3,900 m before turning and dropping down into (Shira 2) camp at about 2,800 m. A few people did have very slight headaches, but nothing that water and a couple of paracetamol did not cure. Again at about 5 pm we went for another acclimatisation walk for about an hour, returning to camp around 6. The just before dinner there was an absolutely fantastic sunset! Absolutely amazing, what everyone had hope for and been waiting for!! Then another sing and dance routine!! And again everyone was so tired, they were all in bed by 8 pm again!

Day 3 – Wednesday

Today was planned to be quite a big day, so we were woken with hot tea at 5.30 am! We left at 7 climbing from 2,800 m up to Lava Tower at 4,600.  Quite a push but everyone was realy strong. We had lunch there for about an hour. Then we climbed Lava Tower, about a 100 m scramble. There a few people who were rather tired and a few with slight headaches, but overall everyone was good, and everyone, made to the top of Lava Tower. Many of the other groups did not go up Lava Tower – they are not as strong as our team! In the afternoon, we did a long descent all the way down to Barranco Camp (3,900 m). We made good speed going down, having walked slowly in the morning up hill to help with acclimatisation. We arrived at camp around 3.30 / 4 pm for a well deserved rest after a long day. Today was a really good day for the acclimatisation process. Everyone was tired from the walking as well as getting used to sleeping in tents.  Everyone is now looking forward to summit day. Tomorrow we have another long day going up High Camp (Barafu Camp). We should arrive there about 4 pm and then we have to get up at midnight to walk up to the summit so that we arrive on the summit around 7 am.  Thanks for all the messages sent so far.  It is really amazing and people really appreciate them and are glad to receive them. So if you want to send any messages before summit day, send them now so that they are received by 5 pm Thursday (3 pm UK time) as we will all be going to bed really early tomorrow! 

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