Kilimanjaro-Day 1

Kilimanjaro-6 day journey to the top of the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world! Here is a day by day summary of the amazing hike. We climbed on the windward side of the mountain, the Machame route, which passes through 5 different ecosystems.

Day 1:

We start out in the cultivated valley floor, passing through farms, banana trees, coffee plantations and small villages. We caught our first glimpse of the ginormous mountain.

At around 5,000 feet our hike commenced through thick rain forest full of lush vegetation and heavy rainfall, we got drenched. The rain forest is also known as a "cloud forest/fog forest". We hiked for about 7 hours ended in our first camp at 10,000 feet, Machame camp, which is just on the border of the rain forest. Accompanying us were about 25 porter, cooks, and a few guides. The porters carried the gear on their head, not so easy.