Kilimajaro Expedition 2012: Day 1 Plugging Through The Rainforest

Well, today's the day. We hopped onto the bus which took us from Arusha to Machame, where we will start our 7-day trek. For me, the first day would be a test because it's a 6-hour long trek, and I remembered that my last climb up up a mountain (Mount Kinabalu, 4095m) basically killed my quads. Granted, we'd be training heaps (8 hour treks), I'd also learnt my lesson of making sure that I replenish my salts, and unlike Kinabalu, the trek up Kilimanjaro is gradual (read: NO STEPS!). So many people had told me that climbing Kinabalu would be easy but they've obviously never climbed it in the kind of conditions that I climbed in: through a storm with the wind gusting, making conditions really cold. Some of the students were told that if they can't afford base layers, they could make it with several layers of dri-fit tee-shirts, a sweater and a jacket. What a massive mistake! I'm thankful that I had a base layer that I used for drysuit diving, a fleece that I'd had for some time, and a half decent outer shell. I had a hard time fighting the nip on my fingers and also my face because my gloves were soaked through (bad advice from a shop which reckoned that I won't need waterproof gloves because it won't rain) and my double layer of Buff just couldn't keep the rain out. Although I managed to summit, I was massively humbled, and I swore that I'd never take the mountain for granted anymore. I'd read up heaps about Kilimanjaro, made sure that I had the appropriate gear (thankfully, we had an experienced guide in Khoo Swee Chiow, an adventurer who'd summited Mt Everest three times, and he provided far better advice than what I'd received for Kinabalu). 

While waiting for our local guides to sort out the administration for our expedition, we had lunch and tinkered with gear adjustments. After being introduced to the guides and some last minutes group photos, it was time to start. Walking through the gate, we could see blue monkeys scampering from tree to tree. Today's trek was very comfortable, and we were wearing the kind of clothing we would for the tropics, so there was no need for base layers. And we also learned a new word today: "pole pole", or "slowly slowly" in Swahili, words which would come to prove extremely valuable to me and eventually contributed to my ability to summit. I found the pace set by our guide, Joseph, to be extremely comfortable, and being the gadget freak that I was, I was keeping a close eye on my heart rate monitor to see how my body was adapting (yes yes, plus I wanted to see how many calories this fat man was burning). Today's trek was largely uneventful, apart from our first experience with the toilet (a really deep pit, though not wide enough to fall in, with a shed built over it). It also started to rain, which hardly came as a surprise considering that it was the start of the rainy season, which eventually proved to be a blessing as we were practically the only group on the trail. 

Toilet

The most important lesson that I'd learnt today (and a lesson that I will hold dearly for future expeditions, especially in colder climate) was that we took way too much time during breaks. There wasn't a sense of urgency in getting things done fast, and we also struggled with our rain gear as we were not familiar with it and had not practiced with them previously. Swee Chiow said that we could get away with these "mistakes" or lack of urgency down in the rain forest area where it was warmer, but we could ill-afford taking such long breaks when the temperature gets colder. We took a total of about 6.5hours today, way past the 4-5 hours that he'd expected from us. 

Seemed so close, but so far away

The day ended when we reached Machame Camp, where we caught the magnificent view of the snow capped mountain, which came at an appropriate time, reminding us our of our objective. Settling down for the first night, there were lots of things that we were uncertain about, like the routine of cleaning up, packing and repacking for the following night (absolutely essential as a time saver), etc. Dinner was in a larger tent when we sat around a long table, and we were greeted with snacks of popcorn, and hot drinks could be made with the tins of milk powder, Milo, coffee powder and tea bags. The first night of eating dinner was definitely a challenge, eating by the dim candlelight meant that we couldn't quite see what we were eating. Subsequently, we learned to bring our headlamps along.

Overall, it was a great day for me and I felt cautiously optimistic, none of the crazy aches that I'd felt after Day 1 of Kinabalu. Then again, while Kinabalu was just nothing but steps all the up to the camp, I'd hardly seen any steps on the first day of the trek. I gotta say that the pace that we'd been on had been very comfortable, and that might've played a big role in feeling fresh at the end of almost 6.5 hours. I was also thankful that our long training treks of 8 hours and the back to back treks (we did a long trek that started in the afternoon and ended well past midnight, and did another 5 hours trek the next day after resting for 8 hours), which was designed to get our body used to the demands of a 7 day trek. And for the number freaks amongst you, here's the data from my Polar heart rate monitor on the first day:

Time started: 12.30pm (East Africa time)
Total calories burnt: 3951
Max heart rate: 154
Average heart rate: 126


As you can see, it was really quite an easy day with an average heart rate of 126. Coming next, it's the trek to Shira Camp, another full day of trekking.

Click for the larger image to have an idea of our route