Wednesday July 13 – Arusha to Machame Camp

I was a little sluggish when the alarm went off at 6:15 from getting to bed so late. We finished packing, had breakfast with Monique and Sierra and brought the bags down for loading. More hurry up and wait – patience again – while we stood around waiting for the group interviews. This is a good lesson for me but I don’t like it despite the fact that I know I need to learn it.

Finally we were loading up in groups of six, foolishly thinking we were headed for the mountain. We loaded with Nan, Doug, Sierra and Monique and our driver Boneface who spoke very little English.

As we are loading the trucks Lori’s Dad is joking around making faces at us and giving us the finger in gest. So I decide to stick my butt up to the window and pretend to moon him. We were all laughing and asking John to give him a a “scrambled egg”. Then Doug said something about a “soft boiled egg” and we all got another good laugh.

Pulling out in a caravan we headed over just one block around the corner to change money for those who arrived the night before gear check. This could probably have been handled by walking them over while some of the interviews were going on or during breakfast. Oh well – more patience. Since none of us needed to change money in our car we were thinking we would go on to the mountain. Its probably good that we didn’t though since it turned out our guy didn’t really seem to know where he was going. Our cars were assaulted by street vendors as we pulled up to the change bureau. Our guy ended up driving around the block about six times. There was a guy selling flags who had picked out Sierra – her smile seems to attract these vendors. Every time we circled around he zoomed in on her window. We all started laughing and joking about it. It was really hilarious. Finally she asked Monique to change seats with her and it stopped. Our driver finally turned and started heading down the road toward Kili. We were excited but it was premature.

I was riding in the front next to him to avoid getting car sick but my seat didn’t have a seat belt – his did. We are riding along on the two lane road and he is talking on the cell phone, 2 vans are passing in our lane coming straight at us and there is a tree just to my left. My life flashes before my eyes and we all get a good laugh after we survive squeezing by the tree by the skin of our teeth without getting hit. Our driver seems unfazed. He is still talking on the phone. We continue down the road a bit to a gas station where we stop and wait some more with no communication from our driver. Its starting to give me the creeps. Finally, we connect up with Eric’s van. They were still behind us at the change bureau. He has caught up from this change bureau fiasco after deciding to make the rest of the change himself at the mountain. I hear him tell Ben that the change bureau was a mistake. We head back down the bumpy road to Kili. After about 30 minutes we stop again and the Rotterdam market so that the rest of the cars can catch up and we can have a bathroom break. This is the first place we go that there is only a hole in the floor no toilet seat. Interesting. You have to really stand back when you flush it or water splashes up all over the bottom of your pants. Fortunately someone had warned me in advance of this issue and I managed to escape with dry feet and legs.

Back on the road after 30 minutes………

There is a lot of farming along the roadside. Quite a bit of corn, some sunflowers (for the oil), lettuces in a small home garden, a greenhouse operation of some sort, cows, motorcycle bars, lots more corn (could be Iowa), a few sheep, charcoal for sale, tall ant hills – 2-3 feet tall from the red soil, lots of people walking along with baskets or buckets on their heads.

Today is overcast and in the 70’s. I imagine it will be a bit cool once we get to the first camp.

We are behind 2 dump trucks and about to pass in a somewhat blind curve. There is oncoming traffic but we manage to leap frog around them without getting killed. Fumes are making Monique a little sick to her stomach. Closing the window gets rid of the fumes but then it is too hot up front and I start feeling sick. So I alternate the window opened and closed the rest of the way to the trailhead. I see no sign of Eric’s van but I know Ben is behind us because we passed him a while back. At last we see the turn off to Machame. We turn and sit and wait again. Later I wonder how many minutes we wasted waiting around that could have been used climbing to avoid arriving at camp after dark. Poor planning drives me nuts since my expertise is operations – the seamless flow of activity without interruption or problems. I guess they probably have no idea what pace this group is going to walk so they aren’t worried about it at this point. The mountain is ahead of us but we can’t see it because it is shrouded in clouds. Along the road to the the trailhead it seems that our driver is confused about where he is going. He asks several people out the window in Swahili. We have no idea what he is saying but the people on the road just shake their heads. When it seems we are close John and Sierra start strapping on their gators. They are ready to go but its still going to be a while. We think he is lost but finally we arrive at the trailhead and pour out of the truck. We are ready to go but not yet. First we have to sign the book that we are entering the trail, go to the bathroom and eat lunch which seem silly later in the day when “eat lunch” on the trail. I think then that we could have skipped the “lunch” at the trailhead. This whole process seems like it takes more than an hour but I am not looking at my watch. We are ready to go and we stop for a quick group photo. Jeff takes the picture in what will be a continuous theme of Jeff behind the camera and NOT in the photo. He sets the timer so at least he can run in to one of the shots.

We are finally taken to the trailhead and introduced to our Tanzanian guides but I can’t remember any of the names at this point except Romley who is at the front. We get started at 1:00, a little behind schedule but I am not sure how much. It gets dark at about 7:20 and I don’t know how many miles we are going. We are instructed to keep a slow pace – another lesson in patience. I walk along talking to Sierra about their Parkinson’s practice and philosophy. I have really enjoyed Monique and Sierra so far and its only been two days. We stop after 45 minutes for our first break and I use the pee funnel for the first time on the trail to great success. Back on the trail we jumped to the front with Romley and I am having trouble keeping my pace slow enough. Its driving me a bit nuts because I don’t want to get there after dark and I have trained at a much faster pace on steeper inclines at higher altitudes than where we are right now. My heart rate is below 125 and that just seems way too slow compared to my training. But I give in. I think it will be dark when we arrive if we don’t pick up the pace. But I really have no idea how much training the rest of the group has done and these guys know what it takes to get up the mountain. Patience, patience, patience. I guess I am going to learn this whether I want to or not.

We keep going and miss the apparent spot for our second break. Eric catches up to us and fusses at Romley. Romley says that he’s concerned about the time but Eric says that’s no reason to skip the scheduled breaks. We break for a drink for a minute or 2. We arrive at the trailside lunch no too much later. I am not sure of the time but its probably been a couple of ours. There is a long dining table set right along the trail. There is a hand washing station with hot water and soap, flowers on the table (plastic) and portable toilets back at the edge of the trees. We have pineapple, oranges, mango, cookies, chips, butter and red pepper sandwiches, delicious avocado and pepper salad and hot chocolate and tea.

Eric instructs us how to use the portable toilets and we hear Suz yelling from inside one of the potty tents to speak up because she’s already in there and needs to know what to do. We all laughed. We finish up early and head out with a different guide, August. Little do I know now but he will be our guide every day all the way to summit day. I think we are about 45 minutes or so ahead of the rest of the group. We are hiking with Suz, Gina, Nathan and Daniel, and Tina. Gina sings us the “scrotum song” and she is just a hoot. She is s music teacher. I can only imagine how much fun her students have with her.

It is getting pretty steep and we discover than Nathan has really overloaded his pack with 6 liters of water and lots of heavy camera equipment. No telling how much that pack weighed. He is drenched in sweat. We off load some of the water and equipment and carry on.

We are getting closer to camp as the sun is quickly dropping out of the sky. It will be dark when we arrive. I don’t recommend this, especially on the first night when we really haven’t gotten the hang of the whole set up. John and I forgot to pack headlamps in our daypacks so we are flying blind. Fortunately, some of the others have theirs. We climb up the last bit of steep trail right to a ranger house at Machame Camp with very steep steps. We have to sign the book using Daniel’s headlamp. Once the book is signed we go out another door and down some more steeps to the camp area. We can just make out tents everywhere in the darkness but are pointed in the direction of our blue dining tent and the group of AA tents. We make our selection and the porters dig our boundary bags from the bottom of the pile and carry them to our tent. They bring us two bowls of warm water to wash up. There is dust everywhere. We fumble around in the dark and find out headlamps and the little camp lights John brought to hang inside the tents. This makes it a little better. I get my mat blown up and lay out my sleeping bag and put my extra stuff back in to the boundary bag. It is starting to get really cool now. I was my face, hands and feet in the bowl of water which is starting to get cold now. I follow instructions and put on a fresh pair of socks, find my tennis shoes.

We head to the dining tent to get warm and wait for the rest of the group and dinner. I am catching up on my journal and having a cup of Milo (like Ovaltine). We have a delicious dinner and I marvel at how they are able to assemble this kitchen on a mountainside and cook such good food. We have this wonderful green bean and carrot dish with coconut, potatoes, steak and gravy. John and I turn in about 10:30. By the time I get settled in there is already someone in the tent next to me snoring loudly. We’ve made it to the end of the first day!