September 18th 2011 - Dust

Naremoru Gate 1950m to Simba Camp 2620m

4 hours trekking

Ready to go

After breakfast we congregated outside the hotel at 7am to board our minibus’s that would take us to Naremoru Gate, where we would begin our trek.  Our minibus’s are loaded with all of our kit and we are on our way.  This is first time we have met some of our guides and porters (more meet us at the gate) and once en route we discover we are sitting next the Chef, Jim – time to bribe him then!

It's Sunday, so all the local villagers are out in the streets, dressed in their brightly-coloured-best and on their way to church. The number of young children is unbelievable and as we stop for a toilet break we become a new attraction with the children becoming fascinated with having their photograph taken by Marvin and with an unsuspecting Emma nearly being mugged of her sweets.

After a very bumpy 4 hour drive we arrive at Naremoru Gate and we are provided with lunch which we eat whilst watching our kit being divided up amongst our porters.  There are 96 of them, but looking at all the kit going up the mountain with us to make our trek possible we can understand why.

With all the legalities of entering the park complete we, quite unceremoniously, are on our way.  We pause to read the warning signs at the side of the path advising us of health risks and mountain etiquette.  Joseph introduces us to the concept of 'pole-pole' (pronounced 'polay-polay' and which means 'slowly, slowly'). In order to allow our bodies to acclimatise properly, we need to walk at a slow and steady pace all the way. It feels a bit like walking in slow motion at first, but as the days go by, I'm sure we'll come to appreciate it.

The first part of the walk is through pine plantation, and at this level there are still a few farms and lots of kids and animals running around. After an hour or so, the pine plantation gives way to rainforest which is a relief as by now the sun is really beating down on us.

As we make our way further into the rainforest we spot the odd Colobus monkey in the tree tops.  At this point the porters (who set out quite some time after us) start to overtake our group, each carrying their allocated loads on their heads. The fitness of these guys is incredible!  It’s not long before yells of “coming through” starts to be the soundtrack of our trek.

The porters on these trips are awesome

Moments after one yell of “coming through” comes one of the groups favourite comedy moments of our adventure.  An army of porters march past us all with all manner of bags and tables balanced on their heads….followed by Steve, with his day sack on his head.  

Coming thru

Another thing which is becoming apparent is that dust is going to play a huge part in our lives over the next week.  Its dark, dense, cloudy and everywhere.  We are all already covered and are starting to cough – and we have only been trekking for half a day.

The relentless dust

The walking for the rest of the day is fairly easy, although there are a few steeper uphill stretches as we approach the camp. We reach Simba Camp at around 5pm and are treated to a warm welcome from our porters who welcome us into camp with a song and a dance before helping us to our tents – pitched on a nice steep section with lots of rocks! 

Welcome to Simba Camp

Here we also have the privilege of experiencing the local amenities for the first time, the long-drop toilets.  Don’t hold your breath, they were far from luxury….actually do, do hold your breath.  

As the sun goes down, the temperature drops dramatically and we head over to the mess tent for dinner; soup followed by fish and vegetables, eaten by the light of head torch. After a briefing from Geordie about the following day we head off to our tents in the hope of a good nights sleep.

This was the time that we first saw the night sky from Kilimanjaro.  The combination of thin air and no pollution means that the sky is ablaze with a million stars.  The North Star shining brightly, shooting stars aplenty and the Milky Way were all so clear; it was magical.

Once in bed this is where we discover the new pastime we will all come to love and cherish – bed sliding!  This should be an Olympic Sport.  This was most vocally discovered by Nick and Matt, our next door neighbours for the night.  We passed a good 20 mins listening to Nick enjoying the fun of nylon on nylon causing him to slide down his Thermorest in his sleeping bag and crawling back up, only to slide back down again. There was then a yell of “girls come and look at this” (really?) – apparently Matt had crawled into his sleeping bag “and just slid down 4ft”.  After trying to find things in our kit to use as an anchor we gave up.  It was a rough nights sleep.

Ready to go bed sliding