Kilimanjaro - Size Matters (Day 1)

Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Kili.

Loosely translated – it means “big @!#$! mountain”, and it's the tallest point in Africa, at around 19,000 feet.

So, yeah, it lives up to its name...






















After the safari, I had signed up to try my luck at climbing it. Kili is called the “poor man's Everest”, meaning that you don't need any special equipment to get to the top. You literally can just walk all the way up.

'course, it's not really the fitness factor that is the hard part – it's the altitude. Most tourists opt for a 4 night trek up, and the success rate is only about 50%, since many don't acclimatize enough, and end up with excruciating headaches, nausea, and other fun stuff.

Since time wasn't really an issue for me, I opted for a more leisurely approach – and ended up taking the Machame route over 6 days.

I was a little nervous heading into it, wondering who I'd be hiking with – a week with some strangers could end very badly if we didn't get on too well. What if they weren't in good shape and dragged us down? Heck, what if they were just dull?

Turns out that this wasn't going to be a problem... Gavin and Louis were both ex British Royal Marines, and were more than accustomed to 30+ mile hikes over minor obstacles like Afghani mountains. Kili wasn't going to daunt them - and they brought some world-class banter to the table, so our nightly card games were punctuating by serious heckling.

So – the trip was off to a good start; with another Gavin, from Australia, the four of us had a total of 9 people supporting us, from 2 guides, a cook, and 6 porters. Unbelievable how fit these guys were – carrying big loads on their heads up the mountain, week in and week out.



Our first day was pretty tough – we hiked up through the rain forest portion of Kili, with a series of seemingly never-ending stairs. Plus, as we were stuck in fog for much of the day, it was actually fairly dull visually.





However – we got to the first stop and had a great surprise... the rangers sold ice cold beer!!!



Alas, I had to pass... alcohol is a big no-no when trying to get used to altitude. For the record, saying no to such a tasty, cold, delicious beer has got to be one of my major tests of willpower. :)