Reaching the Top #1

So, it's been a while since my last blog, and I apologise for that.

Kilimanjaro was the adventure of a lifetime.

We met some amazing people.

And had some amazing guides.

We arrived fresh faced and super excited. On our first night in Tanzania we stayed in a lovely Lodge and met our group for the first time. That evening we had a meeting with our chief guide, Abraham, who told us what we could expect, how our days would play out and handed out any equipment that was hired.

We hired sleeping bags and walking poles, simply because we didn't want the extra weight to carry on the plane or the awkwardness of walking poles. We really wish we'd of hired the massive the arctic jackets that others in our group had as they look really comfy.The next day we got a bus to the climbs starting point, the Rongai Forest. After being registered etc we began our ascent. The Rongai Forest is really beautiful, a lovely start to the journey, a dirt path through dense trees and forest farmland.

We even saw a few monkeys on the way.

After ours trekking through the forest we arrived at our first camp, Simba camp, at 2626 metres. Our guides told us that it was named Simba camp because it used to be a route lions would take many years ago, and Simba in Swahili means lion, if you hadn't already seen the Lion King.

We got introduced to our portable hotel rooms (tents), which were really great. After a quick tour around camp and an acclimatisation walk, we wandered to the mess tent for our first meal.

Neither of us brought our head torches with us to the mess tent, rookie error. Day becomes night in what seems just minutes, so I stumbled to our tent in the dark to find them, before returning to the mess tent. Before bed we stood outside a while and chatted with some of the other members of our group, bats flying overhead scooping up bugs from around us.

Our first nights sleep would be the best we'd have for the next week...