Day 3: Moshi to Big Tree Camp

Today the real adventure begins! We started with an early wake-up call to give ourselves enough time to make any last-minute packing adjustments to the holy trinity of bags we needed to prepare… 1) our day packs, 2) the suitcase we leave in storage at the Parkview Hotel, and 3) the duffel bag we bring with us on the hike.

Saying we “bring” the duffel with us is quite generous, since the porters will actually be carrying this bag up the mountain for us. Therefore, the duffel needs to be the most carefully packed item, as there is a hard 15 kgs (33 lbs) weight limit. That duffel weight limit also includes the rental sleeping bag, which ended up being a bit more than the expected 5 lbs — but no worries, we just tossed a few extra snacks into our day packs! Matt’s detailed spreadsheet with the exact weight of every item he packed proved surprisingly useful.

Don’t leave anything behind! Ready to roll…

Once packed and downstairs, our whole group gathered for breakfast at 7am — along with folks from the other two non-private UK groups that were starting the hike today as well. These were certainly very nice people — but no fraternizing with the competition!!! 🙂

After the Ultimate Kilimanjaro (UK) guides weighed our bags (with a fairly ancient scale that was returning some questionable results vs my spreadsheet, fwiw), and final adjustments were made, we were all cleared for takeoff.

One last thing we had to do was hand over our suitcase, extra cash in excess of ~$200 (which was the max amount UK wants you to have on your person on the mountain, if any!), and passports for safekeeping at the hotel. Leaving the passports was not my favorite thing, but it was comforting to know that if all nine of us had our passports disappeared we could start a new life in Tanzania together.

These bags passed the weight limit test

By 8:30am we were ready to go, but we waited until ~9:45am for our bus to arrive with additional members of our UK team for support — in particular, loading all of our bags to the top of the bus and somehow securing them up there! We also met Baraka, one of our assistant guides, who everyone calls Obama. Damien was our driver again, and once the porters finished packing the bus, we snapped a group photo and headed on our way.

So it begins…

Heading out!

The drive took about three hours with a 20-minute rest stop. There were people aggressively attempting to sell food, drinks, hats, and any other items you could possibly want thru our van windows once we stopped. It did not seem to bother them that the windows were closed.

Outside the van, Aaron used this time to procure some sunglasses. He found a guy, explained what he was looking for, and then the guy full-on SPRINTED across the street to another shop. He was back moments later with a handful of options for Aaron. The glasses were probably $.30, but that epic level of service was easily worth the agreed upon price.

Last chance to buy sunglasses

When we arrived at the entrance to Kilimanjaro National Park, our porters went to work unloading the van. But not just our porters… hundreds of porters from all the various groups and different guide companies were busy unpacking vans and preparing to start the hike. It was quite the operation.

Our group secured a few open benches in the picnic hut to eat our box lunches and fill up our water bottles/bladders. Other hikers were getting the full tablecloth & silverware routine from their tour providers (which seemed like overkill, tbh). The UK lunches were great — especially the chocolates.

Organized chaos!

After finishing lunch and topping off our water supply, we were on the way! JUST KIDDING! We needed to hurry up and wait a bit more. There was a line for hikers to register by signing our names in the log book (which we did), and then was another line for our guides to finish their registration and administrative tasks (permits and such, probably). Because there were probably a couple hundred hiking clients (or more) milling about and each with an army of guides & porters, it’s not surprising we had to wait a bit. Early July is not the busiest season on Kilimanjaro, but it’s probably about 75-80% of the max.

With some deep breaths and a renewed sense of patience for “Moshi time!”, we took a few moments to check our gear, perform some calisthenics, and most importantly — in honor of our volcano-hiking Bolivian guide Oscar — we made an offering to Pachamama with the $1 Coke I bought on the van ride over (“the bubbles are good for you”). Spoiler alert: Pachamama came thru BIG TIME. Oscar, this one’s for you!!!

Around 2:15pm, August gathered us up and said that we should start hiking with our other two assistant guides, James and Dismas. August said he would finish up the paperwork and catch us in 20 minutes. As expected, the number one mantra Kilimanjaro guides want to convey to hikers is to GO SLOW. In Swahili, that is “Pole, Pole”. Get used to it! They said we can let the guides know if the pace is too fast. Or conversely, they humorously said they would also let us know if the pace is too fast. Finally, we were on the trail!

Baraka, Dismas, James, and August almost ready

The day’s hike from the trailhead to our first camp was entirely in the rainforest zone. We were lucky to have clear skies and warm weather without being too hot. The trail was dirt and clay and easy to walk on. There were several steep sections that we took “pole, pole”. We saw some monkeys hanging out in the trees. Dismas set the pace and made the hike very manageable. Less manageable was the UK call-and-response chant that Dismas tried to teach us. Seems like we’re gonna need a couple more days to get that down.

Map of today’s drive from Moshi, and hike to Big Tree Camp

Day 1 hike (detail)

Made it to the first sign!

Nice jungle scenery for the first day

After about two hours, August and Obama caught up with us. We said we were expecting them for a while. They said, well, you know… paperwork! The good news is that we were now on the hike, and “Moshi Time” is not as big of a problem once the Ulitmate Kilimanjaro team is in charge. Sure enough, August’s prediction that we were now only 20 minutes away from arriving at our first camp was right on the money.

August and Obama finally caught up!

There are monkeys in this picture!

The name of our first camp is Mti Mkubwa, meaning “Big Tree”, hence, Big Tree Camp. Dismas pointed out one big tree in particular that the camp was named after, though — to be fair to the rest of the forest — there are many large trees here.

We (Joanna) registered our group at the check-in book and made our way to the area where UK had prepared our camp. This is one of the smaller camp sites and there are many groups so it was a bit crowded. The guides said that the other camps will be more spread out. Turns out it was not a big deal at all… the more the merrier. And the monkeys are big fans.

Made it to Big Tree Camp!

The porters worked their magic

Adam getting ready

Jo REALLY likes camping

We got ourselves acquainted and organized in our individual tents and then gathered in the dining tent for hot beverages and snacks. The guides administered our health check (all good) and gave us the briefing for tomorrow. After those formalities, we were served an amazing dinner of soup, home fries, veggies, and fried tilapia with homemade tartar sauce. Everything was DELICIOUS. It should have started to dawn on us that we are NOT gonna need about 75% of the snacks we brought.

First mountain meal… 10/10 would recommend

Ready to catch some shut eye, we went back to our tents to get ready for the night and prepare for the morning. Despite today’s occasional bouts of “Moshi time”, we are now officially in the park and on our way! It was a great first day of eight. Tomorrow’s hike will be a bit longer, but since we will start in the morning, we’ll have plenty of time at our next camp to relax.