Kilimanjaro Climb Part 3 – To Machame Camp

The previous entries in this Kilimanjaro Trip journal are the Introduction and Arrival in Moshi. Alice’s words (with the bare minimum of editing by me) will be in italics. My words will be in the usual font I use for these blog entries.

Today’s entry is about Day 1 of the Kilimanjaro climb on the Machame Route. Day 1 includes the transfer via jeep from Keys Hotel in Moshi to Machame Gate, one of the entrances to Mount Kilimanjaro National Park, and the hike from Machame Gate (elevation 1830m/6000ft) up to Machame Hut Camp (elevation 3000m/9900ft).


Elevation Change: 1170 meters
Distance: 18 kilometers in 5 hours
Habitat: tropical Montane forest

Alice’s journal:

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March 31, 6:00 PM

What a glorious birthday! I woke up after a fairly decent eight to nine hour sleep. For the first time in about five days I had no headache.

Breakfast with Maria, a bit of last minute packing and we were off in the green jeep. The jeep was piled haphazardly with gear. The 45-minute trip to the Machame Gate passed through rural Chagga country and villages.




We were the only group at the gate. I kept trying to figure out who our porters were but it was hopeless. At one point, I don’t think that our guide, John, knew.

The cook, Maria and I started up first. I probably had 17 to 20 pounds. The cook had a heavy load and was working hard.






We passed through a gorgeous rain forest; much like you’d see hiking around Vancouver but the trees and ferns were different. We eventually reached an area where the trees were smaller and stunted.

Maria and I kept up a steady stream of conversation but our porter was silent and looked very unhappy.


We reached the round green hut of Machame Camp just as a huge downpour hit. Three camp rangers reside in the hut and would be our rescuers if we needed them. We signed the book and noticed that we were the only climbers for today. By comparison entries from February filled several pages. The ranger told us that sometimes there are 200 people camped at Machame on a single night in December to February.


We had the place to ourselves.

We were treated well. Our tents were set up and we were served hot chocolate and tea in a separate dining tent complete with card table and two chairs. It started to rain and they dug trenches around our tents.



I just noticed that they have a large cook fire inside the cook tent.

There seems to be a ridiculous number of porters here. We finally got a number from John, eight guides and porters and two of us. If they had high tech western hiking gear I’m sure that they could halve the number. They also don’t seem to pack the gear in any kind of efficient manner. Just lots of stuff put in baskets or bags and carried. Two had a decent backpack.


Maria wished me Happy Birthday in Swahili. I really need to focus on learning a bit of the language. So far, I can say “Jambo” for hello.

The temperature today is good. We’re now at 9,900 feet and it is 15° C.

I felt very good during the hike today (5 hours) and began to feel the altitude a bit by 9,000 feet. I started taking Diamox this morning at the lesser dose (2 x 125 mg). I may bump it up tomorrow to 250 mg and 125 mg. I feel ever so slightly dizzy and that could be due to Malarone, Diamox or altitude.

Dinner was great - soup, fried potatoes, spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, beef, bananas. We tried real hard to eat as much as we could but the quantities served were 3-times too much. I was relieved to hear that nothing would be wasted and the porters finish off the leftovers.

Since it was my birthday, I treated the porters with my two Toblerone chocolate bars. John ensured that they knew it was a treat due to my birthday. I heard the next day that they each took one piece and were saving the rest for tomorrow.


The temperature dropped to 9° C during the night. I was plenty warm and had a good night’s sleep (for camping anyway.) I woke every two hours and pee’d a few times. The stars were brilliant. I saw the southern Milky Way.

The summit of Kilimanjaro was also visible this evening after the thunderstorm passed over.

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The next part of this Kilimanjaro Trip journal is here.