Once we left the Masai Mara Game Reserve, we drove back to Nairobi to spend the night. Early the next morning, we got on a bus for the 6 hour journey to Moshi, Tanzania, which is the closest town to the gates of the Kilimanjaro National Park. Then we took a taxi to the Marangu Hotel with whom we had organized our climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.
The hotel is about half way between Moshi and the gates to the park. We had 2 beautiful rooms with the above scene out our window. It just gave us inspiration for the climb we were about to embark on.
The following morning, there was a flurry of activity in the main courtyard of the hotel. They have been doing these climbs for many years and know exactly what has to be packed, by how many porters and when. We put our gear together and then just sat back and watched. For the 4 of us climbing, we had a crew of 8- 1 head guide, 2 assistant guides, a cook and 4 porters.
Once all of our gear was packed, we had had a one hour briefing, and all of the porters and guides were ready to go, we climbed in the back of the hotel's truck and headed up the hill to the park gate.
While Emanuelle, our head guide, checked us in to the park, the rest of our guides gave us tea and lunch before we started hiking for the day. Campbell had his tea under the sign giving the hut destinations and altitudes.
Dean and Kelly had their lunches and tea and were ready to hit the trail.
Shortly after 1:00, we headed off on our climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.
We weren't on the trail long when we spotted our first monkey in the tree. There were quite a few monkeys along the trail and at the huts.
When we arrived at Mandara Huts, the cook and porters had our tea and snack waiting for us. Campbell and Dean were happy to dig in.
After tea and snacks, we headed to our hut to rest up a bit before dinner.
While we rested, the porters were busy with their chores of sorting out luggage and getting everything ready for dinner.
Kelly was happy to relax in our hut until dinner was ready.
Day 2 was another beautiful day and we could just see the summit of Mount Mawenzi behind us. we got an earlier start today and were on the trail by about 8:30.
The trail had some fairly steep parts to it, but we all managed with little problem.
The cook had packed us a picnic lunch in the morning and we stopped along the trail to enjoy it. Our guides also made us tea to have with our lunch. It really was a very pleasant day.
