Day 1: To Forest Camp (~10,000 feet)

All of our gear, ready to go!
Photo by Christine Castrucow

Our first day on Kili! Yesterday we met our Serengeti Pride Safari (SPS) leaders (and co-owners) Lema and Erika in Arusha to hear about the trip, have our gear checked, and go on a short walk around the forest near our hotel. 

This morning, we loaded all of our gear and all 17 group members into safari vehicles for the drive to the trail head. As we got closer to the mountain, the roads got rougher and rougher. Our first stop was at the Ranger Station to check in our entire group: 17 guests, 4 guides, 2 assistant guides, and over 80 porters! This seems like a staggering number of people, but Tanzanian law mandates that porters may only carry ~50 lbs each; SPS works really hard to make sure that our porters are treated really well, so many of ours will carry less than that at times. After we'd all checked in, we drove over to the Lemosho trailhead itself. It began to rain and the road became a muddy track. We ended up walking the last bit of the road, and came upon the mess tent all set up for lunch. After a delicious lunch, we set off!

The road to the Lemosho trail head

The trail cut through dense rainforest. 

The trail was steadily rising but not too steep (most of the time), though the rain made it slippery at times. The trail climbed through dense, beautiful rainforest that reminded me a bit of the ones I've visited in South and Central America. After about three hours of hiking and chatting with our fellow hikers and guides, we arrived at Forest Camp. By the time we got there, our porters had set up our tents and hot drinks and popcorn were waiting for us in the mess tent. The porters also brought our duffel bags to our tents with bowls of hot water and soap to wash off the dust from the trail. This is seriously luxurious camping! As the night got chilly, I sat in the mess tent and played cards with a bunch of other people in the group. Dinner was delicious and crawling into my sleeping bag at the end of the night felt great!

Some sections of our
first day's hike were quite steep!

Sophie snuggles into our tent on the first night. 

Dinner in the mess tent. 

Yum!