Kilimanjaro Trek - Day 1 - Londrossi Gate to Mti Mkubwa

After a fantastic night’s sleep at the hotel, we finalized our gear, had a good breakfast, and then met Joseph and several other folks from Kilimanjaro Brothers, including MD, our other guide, Priscus, our driver, Justin, and Kili Bros’ head marketing agent, Kibo.  They took us to the store where we could rent some last minute needed gear, including essential trekking poles and waterproof duffle bags. 

(L to R: Justin, Kibo (Lawrence), us, MD, and Joseph. 

We then got on the road for the drive to Londrossi gate, stopping along the way for some barbecue, ugali, and roasted bananas with the crew. 

(Erika and Priscus)

The Londrossi Gate actually has two parts. First the guide and visitors register with the National Park Authority, Kinapa.  At the same time, Kinapa weighs all of the gear the group is carrying to make sure they will have enough porters so that no porters are carrying over 35lbs (on these paths that’s still quite a bit!). We had a quick and tasty lunch while Kinapa weighed the bags and then went a little further down the mountain to actually start the hike proper at the Lemosho Gate. 

We finally began climbing at 2:45pm and spent the next three hours climbing the 550m over 7km before getting to our first home - Mti Mkubwa Camp. 

The first day was entirely through rainforest and we enjoyed perfect hiking weather as we followed the pace set by Priscus - pole pole - slow slow.  These guys are professionals so we’re following their lead completely and as a result we didn’t feel too beat after getting to our camp. 

Once there, we cleaned off with some hot, soapy water, and then had some popcorn and tea with Priscus.  We also had a chance to walk around the camp a bit.  Later, we reconvened for dinner with Joseph and had a great meal prepared by our cook / stomach engineer, Edward.  

Joseph taught us some Swahili and we also got to know our crew a little better.  We are a traveling party of 14 - the two of us, our guides, Joseph and Priscus, our cook, Edward, waiter, Emmanuel, and then porters, Andrew, Stephen, Paul, Juma, Magembe, Mtaki, Masanja, and Jacob. Finally, we had our nightly safety check and briefing with Joseph and then went to our tent for some sleep.