We stopped at the last store before starting our climb.
Then we left the main highway for a dirt road that was very dusty, I was thankful for my bandana too say the least
We stopped at the first check point and some form of negotiation took place between Lemma and the officials while the rest had a bathroom break and we were off to the main check in.
It was still dry when we arrived I was in line for 30 mins each person must sign in with name, address, occupation, passport number and age and only one ledger ;-( I jumped around and took a few photos
The rules
And a few more
It started raining and it was really coming down lucky for me I was able to stand underneath the awning until I signed in, finding where the Land Cruiser had moved to was my next challenge while not getting totally drenched. As with any African transaction Lemma paying for all of us took another 30 minutes and each of us had to sign a waiver for the western breach route
Finally off little did we know what the next 7 hours would offer, the rain continued to come down in buckets, the dirt road quickly became a rutted muddy mess. The land cruisers were in low lock and what really surprised me was the all had open differentials.
The road got worse very quickly there were several vehicles stuck and our driver was very good and got us to a safe place to observe the chaos. Not many in the group had ever been off roaring so as the cruisers were sliding, tipping spinning their way up the road they were hanging on for their lives.
As you can see we picked up a few hitch hikers trying to stay out of the mudd
The road ahead was not promising the right side was deep and cut up and the left was blocked.
Then one of the 4 SPS Land Cruisers got high centered on a stump and after numerous attempts finally used a high lift jack to free the vehicle.
Less than a football field a defender was stuck and blocking the road :-(
We tried for 20 minutes to free it without any success, back to collect our packs and the porters were called down from the trail head to collect our gear. It was nearly 4PM when we started the hike
A second never went by for 7 days of amazing the porters are and what the do is beyond most peoples imagination. I was appalled to see them carrying our gear in clothes & boots given to them by previous climbers and most of it did not fit well.
Well after 4 hours of hiking we arrive at our camp showed to our tents and introduced to our porter that would be carrying our belongings for the next 7 days?
One of two mess tents
Mine was the last bag to arrive and my porter said wow that was heavy I felt very bad the trail was very difficult and muddy plus as darkness fell upon us we all were shocked that only a few of the porters had flash light none with a proper headlamp for hiking at night. Well dinner at 10 PM and off to bed.
Location:Kilimanjaro
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