The drive across the flat African plain was somewhat uneventful, once you get used to the roads being full of cattle, pedestrians, insanely overcrowded buses, and competing safari vehicles. On a clear day, the drive would have been dramatically punctuated by the commanding views of Kilimanjaro outside the left of the Land Rover, but the entire massif was shrouded in clouds. Occasionally a tantalizing view of the summit would peak through a hole in the clouds, but never for very long. Once we turned off the main road towards the Machame Gate, the summit quickly became hidden in the surrounding foothills.

As we approached the Machame Gate, the roads became increasingly rough as we passed fields of coffee beans and scores of locals, all of whom smiled and waved as we passed by. At the gate itself, a small crowd of people parted way so our Land Rovers could pass through. The trailhead area is fenced and gated, giving climbers a little bit of peace and room to prepare for the climb. The crowds outside the gate are a combination of vendors selling bottled water, hats, walking sticks and so forth. There are also a number of young men who hope to get picked as porters for various guiding services who find themselves in need of extra manpower.

Once inside the gate, we disembarked and our guide, John, led us to the small building where we had to sign in and present passports for identification. Following that, we found ourselves parked next to a large mob of young Tanzanian men and huge amounts of gear set into neat piles…tents, food, cooking gear, chairs, tables, on and on. Turned out that this was our gear, and all these guys were our porter crew from the Chagga tribe. I had expected we’d have a dozen or so porters with us on the climb, but the actual number was somewhere between 60-70!! Clearly, this was going to be a climb in the finest classic expedition style. We had porters to carry all the camp gear, all our personal gear, the meals, the cooking gear…absolutely everything!

After about a half-hour of organizing and planning, most of the porters had their assigned load and were queued up to start up the trail…but first, they had to check in with the officials at the gate and have their ID’s checked and loads weighed. In order to maximize safety on the mountain, porters are required to be registered with the park system, have a national ID card, and are not allowed to carry more than 25 kg above and beyond their personal gear. While most of the porter crew went through this process, we started up the densely-forested Machame Trail, accompanied by two of our local guides, Leonce and Alouise - both extremely friendly, enthusiastic guys. We didn’t exactly have the trail to ourselves, either. Along with our group of 10, there were dozens of other groups climbing along the same general schedule we were, and it was not uncommon to pass and be passed by roaming groups of Americans, Europeans and Australians, all on the same qwest.

The hardest part of the first morning wasn’t the steepness of the trail (it was extremely mellow and very well-kept), or the weather (a mid-80s morning in the rain forest). In fact, the hardest part was maintaining the pace our guides were all setting…but not as you’d think. They were moving much more slowly than I or anyone else in the group was used to. Of course, this was all in part to maximize everyone’s chances on the mountain. Keeping the same, slow pace throughout the entire climb kept everyone from wasting energy needlessly. The mantra on Kilimanjaro is “pole pole” (that’s pronounced ‘POH-lee POH-lee’) which is Swahili for “slowly, slowly”. And the slow, consistent pace is one key to a successful summit bid.

As the morning wore on we continued through the rain forest. Thanks to cloud cover and the dense canopy above is, it remained relatively cool as we slowly ascended from the 6000’ trailhead. Our porter crew (and other groups’ porters) passed us at an almost steady rate, moving much more quickly than we tourists. Some carried huge, old dilapidated backpacks, some carried bundles of gear right on their heads. But they all passed with a smile and greeted us with a happy ‘Jambo!’ (that’s ‘hello’ to you and me).

Presently, we rounded a corner to what was obviously a lunch-stop area…many other climbing groups sitting on logs or patches of greenery having a meal. The dominant feature, though, was a huge picnic table complete with red-checkered tablecloth. A group of porters were off on the side busily tending to various stoves and pots. I rolled my eyes a bit and thought to myself “jeez, who is THIS for?”. Well, umm…it turned out that this fabulous spread was in fact for us! Our porters, who had long since passed us after checking in at the trailhead, had set up a fabulous lunch stop for us, complete with hot beverages, plates of fresh fruit, fresh meats, potato chips, cookies…on and on! I think we all felt a little self-conscious sitting down to a full meal in the middle of the forest, while slightly jealous onlookers ate prepackaged snacks out of plastic bags. We even had a private toilet facility set up just into the woods…little more than a canvas port-o-let with a toilet seat on a plywood box-frame, but still a vast improvement over the alternative!

After a wonderful, filling lunch we headed on up the trail towards our destination, the Machame Camp, situated near 9000’. Our porter crew cleaned up the lunch site, packed up, and headed up the trail, passing us as we climbed. As the afternoon wore on, the trail started to steepen, and was build into stairs in many places. The rain forest lived up to its name, and we spent a couple hours in a light rain, just enough to warrant throwing rain gear over your shoulders. As we broke out of the rain forest into more of a heath forest, the sounds of campsites filtered down the path, and we presently came to the Machame Camp, a series of campsites located on a flat section of the Kilimanjaro foothills.

After signing in at the camp HQ, our guides led us up the trail several hundred yards, and the small tent city springing up around us really brought home the number of people who were out here with us – dozens of tents crowded each other in the campsites, and the bustle of people was incredible. But once again, our crew had managed to outdo our compatriots. We were led up the trail and away from the main camp to a small level perch away from everyone else. Not only were we well away and above the rest of the people, but our porter crew had obviously been busy. There was a huge, bright blue AAI dining tent set up with the same table & chairs we had lunch on a few hours before. A half-dozen 3-man Mountain Hardware tents were set up around the campsites and our drybags sat in a protected pile under a tree for us to claim. The porter crew had their own tents (3 huge canvas dome tents) set up a little ways away from the rest of us, and were busily preparing dinner. Two 5-gallon jugs of water were set up, one for refilling our water bottles and one for washing. It was an amazing sight for 9 trail-weary hikers and frankly, we were all a little agape over this extravagantly set up campsite. In the dining tent, hot drinks, popcorn and cookies were ready and waiting, but first we split up into our tents…I and one of the other climbers, Jake, paired up since we were the only two not our here with friends.

Once we had ourselves settled in our tents and had damp clothes strung out on impromptu clotheslines and hanging off tree branches, the call came out for dinner, and what a dinner it was! Again, hot drinks (keeping hydrated is always important, whether you’re getting your water as just water or hot chocolate or tea), platters of fresh fruits (pineapples, papaya and mango were the usuals) were laid out. Dinner started with soup…a delicious cucumber soup, followed by fresh chicken, bread and rice. Needless to say, no one went hungry. As the sun set and dusk turned into night, we all found our way back to our tents for our first night on the mountain. I can’t speak for my fellow climbers, but I laid back on my Therm-a-Rest and slept like a log.

On to Day 2...