We met early for breakfast on Tuesday morning, loaded the jeeps, and drove off toward the mountain. There were several stops…first to buy water, and next at the entrance to Kilimanjaro Park to register. We had to show passports and sign in with Kiliwarriors. It is mandatory that you climb the mountain with licensed guides/porters.
The landscape changed, as we drove, from flat and dry to lush and green as we approached the rain forest at the foot of the mountain. On the plains, we got the first real sense of how massive and how high it is. You don’t get this sense from pictures. We all realized that this wasn’t going to be easy.
There are several standard routes to the summit. We were taking the longest and probably least traveled major one (Lemosho) in order to get the most acclimatization to altitude and give us the best chance of making it to the summit and to make camping in the crater at 18.5k ft reasonably safe. It was also considered to be very scenic. We had seven full days of hiking along with additional half days at the beginning and end.
At the park entrance it was amusing to see lots of blue monkeys in the trees. They were probably amused to see us too. After registering, we backtracked slightly and then took progressively smaller and worse roads toward the trailhead. The muddy, rutted road wound up, down, and around giving the Landcruisers their reason for being.
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