Day 2: Moshi
Good morning Moshi!
Today’s schedule featured a hike briefing with Ultimate Kilimanjaro at 4pm, but otherwise, the order of the day was “take it easy!” As such, the morning was nice and relaxed. Our group filtered down to the restaurant whenever we woke up and enjoyed the breakfast buffet. As we finished, Emmanuel, a member of Ultimate Kilimanjaro, stopped by to confirm our briefing time and let us know our lead guide’s name is August. Since we had no plan for the day, Emmanuel also offered us a walking tour of Moshi — starting at 11am with August, to be followed by the briefing and gear check that we already has scheduled. We enthusiastically agreed and informed the rest of the group.
We grabbed our day packs and met in the lobby at 11am. There are multiple Ultimate Kilimanjaro groups staying at this hotel, so multiple guides showed up for Moshi tours — and two of them happened to be named August. Once they figured out which August was ours, we were properly introduced!
Getting our duffels ready!
August rounded us up and led us south towards the main part of Moshi. We walked through shopping centers, very crowded markets, the insanely busy bus stop. Then we navigated to the outskirts of town and followed the train tracks to a very sleepy train station — where apparently a train only shows up once or twice a week. At all other times, the tracks become a walking path away from the hustle and bustle of the town. Regardless, the station officials (who looked bored to death) still asked us all to sign the station register — perhaps to prove they should get future tourism dollars???
Starting the tour of Moshi
Small vans for short distances
Big busses for long distances
Heading to the markets
Train station group shot! (Barbed wire a tab ominous)
After the train depot, we wandered back into the city and stopped for lunch at a restaurant called The Dawn Cafe — which was obviously a go-to place for tourist folk like ourselves. The menu was in English, there were a lot of familiar foods, and a lot of other hiking-tour people were eating there. One local tradition they did share with us was their observance of island time, aka. “Moshi time”, lol. Once we actually got our food, we were all very hungry and devoured everything. To their credit, the Cafe did provide us (Ari & myself) with our first introduction to Tangawizi, which is an amazing ginger-flavored soda beer (sometimes called “Stoney Tangawizi”).
Now for wrath, now for ruin, and The (Red) Dawn Cafe!!!
Although we passed a ton of shops and peddlers selling everything you could think of, our next stop was an “official” local gift shop — as August suggested we make our purchases from places where you could “get a receipt.” We bought a magnet and learned about Tanzanite, a rare, blue, gemstone found only in Tanzania. Spoiler alert: we will be on the hunt for some Tanzanite jewelry again after the hike.
Heading back to the hotel, watch out for the giant street gutters/sewers!
We ended up returning to the hotel just a little before 4pm and gathered on the 3rd floor sun lounge (aka. 4th floor, because ground floor is the 0th floor here) for our hike briefing as planned. Aside from tomorrow’s exact schedule, most of the information was a confirmation of the details we’ve been thinking about for the last several months. For example, is it concerning the guides have to stress that you will, in fact, be sleeping in tents for the next seven nights??? Also, hopefully you remembered to pack some jackets and hiking footwear!
During the meeting, August also introduced us to the Ultimate Kilimanjaro health check process — which is basically using that little finger device to take a blood-oxygen level and your heartrate. This is accompanied by a series of “how are you feeling?” and “any problems?” questions that — unless you answer in the most dire terms — don’t really phase the guides much. I wonder what you would actually have to say to raise their eyebrows.
Passed our first med check!
Meanwhile, as the briefing concluded, we looked north and saw our first glimpse of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The crazy part is how far high off the horizon it appeared. From 3000ft in Moshi, you first see a layer of dark mountain terrain covered by a layer of clouds. Nothing to see, right??? Nope!!! Keep looking up, and ABOVE the cloud layer, you will find the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro at ~19000ft. This makes Kilimanjaro look like some kind of cloud-realm location.
Still no mountain? Keep looking up…
So… we are going there!!!
But first… another nap!!!
Afterwards, we returned to our room and finalized how we wanted to pack our duffel bags for the hike — making final cuts on what gear we would leave back with our luggage at the hotel. Matt used a google spreadsheet with the exact weights of every object (in grams) to determine how to pack. In the end, it seemed like the snacks were accounting for more weight than ideal (and that definitely turned out to be the case). Also, sadly we could not find Stage 1 of the Tour de France on any of the 200+ TV Channels available in the room.
As nighttime fell, we all walked to dinner at Jo’s old dining haunt from 2006 — Indoitaliano. Everyone enjoyed their pizzas and Indian food. Another round of Tangawizis!
Indoitaliano! I’ve missed you.
Delicious dinner incoming
On the walk back to the hotel in the dark, it becomes obvious that Moshi suffers from some air quality issues. My theory is that everybody turns on their generators in the evening, and that creates a bed of exhaust and fumes that settles over the town. I don’t suppose all the vehicle and motorcycle exhaust helps much either. Back at the hotel, we finalized our packing one last time and got to sleep. We leave tomorrow at 8:30am to start our hiking adventure!!!
