Mt Kilimanjaro 2011 (Kichaa Group): D01 Machame Gate to Machame Camp (max height 3000m)

22 August 2011,

Revived and full with energy we assembled at the hotel gate the next morning, today we will start climbing! After having had weeks and months of looking forward to this day we all were very excited to finally start the climb! We had a simple breakfast in the hotel and got into the van, in which Francis and John already were waiting for us.

Our route to the summit is the Machame route, a route that will take 6 days – longer than the 5 days coca-cola route – but that will yield us a higher success rate because there is more time for acclimatization, plus it will offer us some great views of the rough nature that mount Kili has to offer. With Machame route you basically round the mountain for half, meaning you will spend more time on the high plateau which is just under the top crater. This is a great area with splendid views, but also allows you to walk at high altitude during the day, and sleep lower, we have been told this is good for acclimatization.

Machame route has one starting point, which is at Machame gate on the southwest corner of the national park and the mountain. Before being able to hike it is required to sign in (registration was also necessary on every camp on the mountain during the week), and you need to hand over your heavy backpack to the porters. It’s good to know that your heavy bag, containing all your clothes, toiletries, gloves, ski coat, scarf, sleeping bags, etc will be carried for you, and that you only need to take care of the things you need during the day, such as lunch, fleece jacket, sunglasses and some water.

During registration and the paperwork we had some time to walk around the gate area, and had a look at the weighting process: Each porter is allowed to carry a maximum of 20kg only – which is, in my eyes, already a heavy load to carry up on the mountain. In any case, these rules are well enforced and porters will be only allowed to go into the national park after having weighted their load.

After having received our lunch box and water we were ready to go! Finally we were starting our ascent. Machame gate was already at 1800meters above sealevel, some 1000 higher than Moshi, and the aim for the end of the day was to reach 3000meters. The first few kilometers were on sandy roads that were slightly ascending through a thick rainforest. We saw monkeys, and were awed by the large trees and the abundance of green around us. On the road it was quite busy, I would have expected to see many other hikers, but since you all walk with roughly the same speed the main people you see on the road are porters, who all overtook us with great speed, even with their heavy luggage. Our guide Martin led us though the rainforest, and after a few kilometers the dusty sand road stopped, and only a small trail was spiraling up on the mountain. This was the last point where it would be possible for four wheel drive cars to get up, from now on it was a hikers path only.

We had a nice lunch halfway through the rainforest, with some tasteful sandwiches, juice and roasted chicken. And after a hike of roughly 5 and a half hours we arrived at our first camp, Machame camp, 3000meter above sea level. 3000 meters didn’t seem a lot to me initially, but already we were feeling the first signs of altitude here, a very light headache came up in the end of the hike.

At Machame camp we registered at the ranger, and had some fun jumping on the dusty floor, creating clouds of dust covering every sight. We had our first experience of sleeping in the camp. Our tents were already ready, what a luxury. After washing the dust of our hands and faces we had our first dinner on the mountain in our dedicated dinner tent! I didn’t even expect this luxury since the tent, chairs and table need to be carried up the mountain, but while at it, it was very nice. When we finished dinner it was already dark, and temperature had dropped considerably. It was a clear night so we had an excellent view on the stars, and also on the summit! It still seems quite far away though, despite having covered already 2200altitude meters…

We called it a day quite early, most of us were tired of the first day’s hike. Around 21:30 hours we headed for our beds.