Day 1

At Umbwe Gate, loading up the porters with tents, food and essentials.

At Umbwe Gate, we signed our first (of many) log books - name, passport number, nationality, home address, permit number, company.... & away we went. It wasn't very eventful. We were each given a lovely box of lunch & headed up a track towards out first camp of ±2900m. The walk was pleasant. Temperature was cool for about 1pm. We walk through very lush, green rainforest. Oddly quiet for a rainforest. When I climbed Gunung Tahan in Malaysia, the noise was deafening! But perhaps it was because we were in the thick of the jungle, whereas here, we were on a marked track. The guide, Daniel, says that the animals are all deeper inside. 

There is another team on route. A team of 4 Germans. They looked very fit and well equipped. They also walked much faster. We learn our first Swahili word - pole pole, which means slow slow. The pace WAS slow, which was FABULOUS!! For a change. In all other climbs, it's always been "faster, faster" for all sorts of reasons - dangerous lighting, snow melting, got to get to camp before dark, etc! It took me some time to adapt to this slow-mo pace but when i did, i found it throughly relaxing and enjoyable! 

Anyway, it was a gradual ascend towards first camp. It took us about four hours of leisurely walking to arrive at camp. Some porters arrived quite far behind. I am not sure why. Maybe because they started much later. First camp in within a wooded area. We shared this camp with the German's. To my delight, there are actually toilet shed's at camp. These are little square wooded sheds with a big hole. A bit like what you would find in Nepal except that the Nepalese provide a larger hole to poop into whereas these one's are quite small & take some aiming effort. Sorry - did you not need that information?? 

So we're at camp and I'm loving it. The site looks lovely and, well, it's day 1. The walk was easy and everything feels good. As soon as the sun goes down though, the temperature nose dives. Wooly hat and gloves come out. In fact, I am waiting for my porter to arrive so i can get my down jacket out!! It's freezing!! 

Our table is set up - table cloth and all! Yes, someone is going to carry this bright red table all the way up with us. It's not necessary but this is how they want to do it. Plus, it provides someone with a job. Some groups get their very own sit down, male & female toilet tent! So we are not to feel bad about the small table we are getting. Dinner was yummy!!! It was just about bearable to sit out for a candle lit dinner and a short chat. Then into our tents we went for a rest. Although our tent was in a nice little spot, it was on the piss (slope) and i struggled to sleep. On one of my many toilet visits (by this point, i had given up the idea of walking to the shed & just relieved myself close to the tent) i was awed by the sight of millions of stars surrounding the camp site! It was awesome!