Kili Day 1 – Machame Gate to Machame Hut

Hike: Machame Gate to Machame Hut • Hiking Route » outdooractive.com

Our first day started early but with lots of hanging around at the Zebra Hotel in Moshi.

For those prepared to climb 6 storeys to the roof, Kilimanjaro was just visible.

Meanwhile, Wolfgang (manager of the guiding company) checked our equipment.

The luggage (max 15kg per person) was loaded onto the roof of the bus. Then the people were loaded and we drove to the equipment hire place where some hired missing kit, some bought extra items, and we picked up our support team and all the equipment to sustain us for a week on the mountain.

A drive of about an hour the Machame Gate followed. There the porters unloaded all the equipment again, ready to carry it to our first night’s camp.

Everyone wanted their photo taken by the sign at the start of the route, but eventually we got it to ourselves.

We were served lunch then, later than I’d expected (about 13:40), we were off on the trail.

Today’s hike is a steady ascent of 1,200m (from 1,800m to 3,000m) over 10.8km all on a good trail through the rainforest.

It can be a procession at times, with hikers and porters all using the same trail.

Some 3h40 after setting out we reached Machame Camp.

Here our tents were being erected and we were fed and watered before retiring to our tents for the first night under canvas.