Climbing Kilimanjaro: Days 0 and 1
In February 2024, I arrived in Tanzania with my husband (Danny) and two friends (Kim and Katie) to begin the trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Before I went on the trip, I read a lot of blog posts about people’s experiences and most of these posts included a recap of the entire trek in one post. This works for some people and I love that journey for them. What I noticed is that the content was mostly highlights and facts about the trail, which you can find on Google, and little bit about the personal experience sprinkled in. I want to share more than highlights in these posts, and if you’ve read any of my other writing you know that I love to write with depth and emotion and only sometimes get a little off track. Highlights are fast and snappy and scrollable, and I’ve already done that on Instagram - check me out @michellegruening if you want to watch them.
In these posts I want to take you back to the moments I lived throughout the trek, and wrap you up in the experience as if you were there. Some of you may have climbing Kilimanjaro on your bucket list, and some of you may be happy to travel through the words and experiences of others. No matter where you fall, I welcome you here. Let’s go back in time, to the thrilling landscape and life of Tanzania.
Note To Reader
If you are reading this purely for entertainment, awesome! This disclaimer does not apply to you. If you are reading this in preparation for your own climb of Kilimanjaro, it’s important for me to note the following things. Before my climb of Kilimanjaro:
I was living in Colorado at an elevation of 5350 feet above sea level
I was in excellent physical condition and was 36 years old
I did not smoke, rarely drank alcohol and did not have any for two months prior to the trip, and did not have any other medical issues
I had been hiking to elevations above 12,000 feet for years and hiked in the mountains every weekend for three months before the trek
I physically trained for a year before my trek through cardio and weight training at OrangeTheory Fitness
I had a lot of gear already, although I did purchase a lot
Why do I include this information? Because research will be a part of your trip preparation and you’ll most likely read a lot of blog posts like this. A trend that I saw in my own research was that people didn’t include their personal background before giving advice or recaps of their own trip. To best understand my experience, I want to give you a basic understanding of me as a human, and the benefits I had before embarking on this journey. This may help you better prepare for and relate to the experiences I had along the trail.
Now that we have those details out of the way - let’s go! Or as they say in Swahili, twende!
It’s Tan-ZAN-i-a not TAN-za-ni-a
After 30 hours of travel from Denver → Amsterdam → Arusha, Tanzania, we finally arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport. When we left Denver it was mid-February, with snow covered grounds, no humidity, and an icy breeze. When we landed in Tanzania, it was in the 80s, full humidity, and nighttime. We waited in the customs line for about 30 minutes, hoping the travel gods were kind to us and that all our luggage would be waiting for us on the other side. To get into Tanzania we needed a completed and accepted visa, our passports, and we had all our immunization records on hand in case they were needed (they weren’t). At this time it was Danny, Kim, and myself, as Katie had arrived a few hours before and was already enjoying the lodge where we’d be staying for the next couple nights - BruBru Lodge.
Myself, Danny, and Kim after the long travel day(s) to get to the Kilimanjaro International Airport in Arusha, Tanzania.
We found our driver waiting for us outside the terminal and after a brief bathroom break, we were piled into the incredible army green, giant safari truck. We were finally beginning our trip in Tanzania!
Side note: Tanzanian people pronounce the country tan-ZAHN-ee-a. In my effort to always want to do things correctly, I asked if saying TAN-za-NEE-a was incorrect and they said, “Hakuna matata. It’s however you want to say it. Both are right.” I realized quickly that I needed a lot more hakuna matata in my life. I would get better at this.
All settled into the truck, the windows were down and we were off into the night to make the hour drive to Moshi. Once we got onto the local roads, the wind blowing on my face, the truck shaking us around due to the uneven roads, my heart swelled with so many emotions. I was so wonderfully happy to be back in Africa and seeing a new country (I went to Namibia in 2022) that tears started welling in my eyes. I felt a sense of peace and calm envelop me as we drove farther, the wind telling me that I was welcome there, that it was going to be an incredible adventure. I’ve traveled to several countries, and I’ve never been more emotionally impacted than when arriving in Namibia and Tanzania. I knew it was going to be a trip filled with big emotions, I just didn’t expect them to start at the airport.
Bebopping Around Moshi
We wanted a couple free days before our trek officially began so we could (try to) kick our jet lag and enjoy a couple nights of sleep in a real bed. We stayed two nights at BruBru Lodge, which I would highly recommend due to its great food, lovely service, pristine property, and exceptionally clean rooms.
Katie and Kim had not yet met each other in person, and the last time Danny and I saw Katie was in Namibia. Our first breakfast at BruBru Lodge was an amazing reunion and first meeting all wrapped up in one. Right away we all knew this group was going to be so much fun - I mean of course, we’re all amazing people so how could it not be fun! The few free days we had included many meals at Tausi Restaurant in BruBru Lodge, lounging by the pool, taking naps (a mistake for our jet lag), reading, and a brief trip into Moshi city center. We went to a souvenir shop called Blue Zebra where they are no strangers to tourists - they accepted several currencies and even Apple Pay. I got a couple small things like coffee and a magnet, but I have an aversion to buying souvenirs of a trip I have yet to experience. For example, there were these great picture frames with the summit information on them, but it felt wrong for me to buy it before we even began. I wouldn’t say I’m superstitious, but I am a little-stitious.
Souvenirs in hand, we walked into the city center where it was obvious we were tourists and we were approached several times with things to buy, shops to visit, or places to go. It became a bit too much for all of us, so we walked faster and farther out of the city center. As we walked we enjoyed seeing everyone in their Sunday best leaving their religious services and heading to the markets lining the streets. We didn’t enter into any markets, knowing we’d be bombarded the moment we walked in, and chose instead to call our previous driver, Seif (pronounced “safe”), to take us back to the quiet and certainty of BruBru Lodge for our final night.
The “Official” Trip Begins
The 19th of February arrived to officially start the trip that we booked through WHOA Travel (19-27 February). We were moving hotels and after checking out of BruBru Lodge and storing our luggage, we walked the half mile to Kilimanjaro Wonders Hotel where we’d be staying for the night. (The Kilimanjaro Wonders Hotel is the Tanzanian equivalent of an American Days Inn, I would not recommend it unless you’re more focused on budget than quality.) We walked along a back road where we saw some local kids, lots of lizards, and so many snake plants that I wanted to figure out how to take them back home with me. We would able to check in to Kilimanjaro Wonders Hotel in a few hours, so back to BruBru Lodge we walked to gather all of our luggage and return, again via foot, to the new hotel. We got a very small taste of what our porters would experience, carrying all of our gear, and it’s safe to say we are not nearly as skilled in the art of luggage transportation.
As it was the day before our trek was to begin, our lead guide, Abuu, and our main point of contact for Tanzania Journeys (the local outfitter taking us up the mountain), Aly, were meeting us at our hotel for our first briefing. They gave us a map of Kilimanjaro National Park (KNP) where we reviewed the trek in its entirety. This would be the first and last time we spoke about days ahead of us, because from here on we would focus only on the current day. This turned out to be an incredible gift - more on that later.
Abuu reviewing the entire trek with us the day before we officially began. Abuu has been a Kilimanjaro guide for over 13 years and has personally summitted over 150 times. He’s the real deal!
After we reviewed the trek, Aly and Abuu came up to our rooms to do a gear check. During the gear check we went one-by-one and reviewed everything we had from sleeping bags to socks and ensured it was appropriate for the trek. We all passed with flying colors and were given the A+ stamp of approval. Abuu and Aly left, and the four of us started divvying up snacks between our packs. We had baby Oreos, Skittles (tropical, of course), Cheez-Its, trail mix, sour gummies, Pringles, granola bars, peanut M&Ms, Goo packets (that would betray me…more on that in Day Two/Three), and more that I can’t remember. We all took a few things to carry and started packing all our gear back up into our duffels and day packs.
That night we had dinner on the roof of the hotel where we all got the same pasta dish and enjoyed the setting sun. Kim brought a conversation-starter card deck that was such a fun addition to our already sparkling discussions, and one I remember from that night was “what bands would play at your very own festival?” We learned a lot about each other from our music preferences and thought about how awesome these festivals would be. There were other questions like “what are you avoiding” that led us down much deeper, real discussions - those answers will stay between us four. We were already laying down an incredible foundation of vulnerability and realness that would serve us well as we embarked on this challenging journey to the summit of Kilimanjaro together.
All prepared, packed, and fed, sleep was calling to me and I did not hesitate in answering. One more sleep between me and the start of the trip I’d spent the last year preparing for. The time had arrived, and I hoped I could get one final night of good sleep.
The Start of the Trek Has Arrived
The morning of Day One we were waiting in the hotel lobby for Abuu and Aly to arrive so we could pack up the truck and give our cash to Aly for safekeeping. There is a strict limit of $200 USD per person allowed on the mountain that you must declare at the entrance of KNP. To not worry about any of our cash, and to ensure our tips for the guides were secured, we reviewed the money with Aly, signed forms stating our names, dates, and dollar amounts, and handed it off for the next week. Aly would be meeting us at the exit gate and would bring our cash back to us then.
The view from our room on the morning we were to begin the trek. We were taking in Kilimanjaro from this distance, with thoughts of, “We’re going to climb to the top of that?!” I felt that Kili showed herself this morning to say, “Yes, you are. And you will make it.”
We got the truck loaded up and made our first stop in town at a local restaurant to pick up our lunch boxes. About halfway to the Machame Gate we stopped outside Arusha to pick up our Assistant Guide, LuLu. She had just finished a Kilimanjaro climb two days before and was already heading back up the mountain. A theme in this post, and in any content I write about Kilimanjaro, is how absolutely incredible and invaluable the guides and porters are. Their focus, strength, lung capacity, and endurance is otherworldly.
As we were driving to the entrance we heard that a bridge had been washed out and Aly needed to reroute our truck. We ended up on local, 1.5 lane mud roads full of people trying to get to Machame Gate and locals trying to get to and from their homes and shops. We slowly trudged along, passing cars with only inches to spare (the rules of the road in Tanzania are more like guidelines). When we reached the bridge we needed to cross, the other side had become extremely muddy to the point that the local vans were getting stuck and weren’t able to make it up the hill. Locals all rallied together to literally push the van up the hill until it could gain traction - we watched this happen twice before it was our turn. Thankfully we were in a giant 4x4 truck and had no issues getting up the hill with a bit more gas and a skilled driver behind the wheel.
Ready to begin our 7 day trek in Kilimanjaro National Park!
Jambo, Kilimanjaro National Park!
Jambo means “hello!” in Swahili, and we said it all the time! We arrived at the Machame Gate (elevation 5905 feet) to begin our trek and meet the first few members of our porter crew. They collected our duffel bags that they’d be carrying up the mountain for us and took them to the weigh station to ensure they were within the very strict 15kg weight limit (that’s about 33 pounds). Not only would our porters be carrying their own gear, but they’d be carrying our duffels as well. Again, the porters are such strong, incredible people.
After we handed off our bags, there was paperwork to be completed and water bladders to fill. For those who aren’t familiar with outdoor gear, water bladders (Camelbaks are the most well-known brand) come in different volumes and have an attached hose so that you can carry it in your backpack for easy drinking access at any time. This is incredibly important as we were briefed to do our best to drink at least three full liters of water each day. As we started filling our water bladders from the bucket of treated water at the gate, Katie noticed that hers was leaking. A leaking water bladder is one of the last things you want on a hike, and especially before a 7 day trek. Thankfully, there was a very small store that sold things like sunglasses, water bladders, and a few clothing items, and they miraculously had the same water bladder to replace Katie’s leaking one. After that transaction was completed (cash only, of course), we were all happy to see that the new bladder wasn’t leaking. Crisis averted!
Our next focus was on eating lunch. Our lunch boxes turned out to be massive, with chicken wings, a burger (that was more like meatloaf), bananas, sweet cookie bites that were kind of vanilla in flavor, an apple, a roll, french fries, and mango juice. We wouldn’t be eating another meal until we arrived to camp that night so they wanted us fully fueled. We all mostly ate everything and the mango juice would become a familiar favorite over the next week.
We all signed into the park with our name, age, passport number, nationality, days on the mountain, tour company, guide name, and permit number. We would sign in at every camp in the same manner. The rangers and staff take permits and the logbooks extremely seriously, and our guide carried a paper copy of the permit the entire trip that would be checked regularly.
We spent about an hour eating lunch, preparing ourselves, and waiting for the go-ahead from our guides. We got our picture at the first gate marker (a daily tradition) and then all of a sudden it was time to go. Abuu had to stay back as there was an issue with electricity at the main office and our permit could not be properly submitted, so he sent the four of us off with LuLu.
There was one last checkpoint for all climbers which was to walk through a metal detector and hand over our day packs for inspection. At this checkpoint they were checking for things like guns, knives, and drones. All of us in the clear, we were officially starting our 7 day trek up Kilimanjaro.
Day One - Machame Gate to Machame Camp
Day One was through the lush, sparkling rainforest where the trees are moss-covered and the ferns were bigger than me. It felt like we were walking through the land of fairies, trolls, and other fantastical creatures - our surroundings felt so big and bold and all-encompassing. We were soaking in our surroundings, hard to believe that the trip we had been planning and training and preparing for for over a year was now here. We were doing it, we were taking our first steps on this incredible adventure! We would soon be passed by dozens of porters, all in varying degrees of gear quality. They would fly past us with unbelievable weight on their heads and necks, and as they passed they’d say, “Mambo?” which means “How are you?”. LuLu told us to reply “poa” which means “cool”. There were so many joyous shouts of “mambo!” and “poa!” for the next several days that it became a reflex in some ways.
About an hour into our six hour day, the skies opened up and we were hiking through our first proper Tanzanian rainforest storm. We had ponchos that could cover us and our packs so we got those on and continued hiking up the trail-turned-waterfall as the rain fell for an hour. It sounded like we were inside a white noise machine, surrounded by the sound that people choose to calm themselves. The rain was falling, there wasn’t much conversation, and I was doing everything I could to cement the moments into my mind.
One of the best moments of Day One was when we spotted a chameleon in the middle of the trail. He was varying shades of blue and as we moved him to the side of the trail with a stick, he started changing colors and snapping his little mouth at us. We left him safely to the side of the trail, filled with joy and excitement at our first wildlife encounter. The flora of the rainforest was colorful and bright, with small flowers dotting the sides of the trail in pinks and reds and yellows. When we weren’t looking up at the towering trees, we were looking down at the small plants - there was beauty all around us.
We made a few stops along the way on Day One, but LuLu set a brisk pace to ensure we got to camp before dark. We were slowed down a bit due to the conditions of the trail which were muddy at best and a makeshift stream at worst, especially while it was raining. The guides gave us a silly way of communicating whether we needed to pee or poop, which was that we needed to “send an email” or “send a fax”, respectively. There were a couple “long drop” toilets on the trail this first day, but I preferred to do my business out in the forest because it felt cleaner and there weren’t hundreds of bugs swarming around me (as there were in the long drop toilets). You have to very quickly get used to going to the bathroom outside with (sometimes) minimal coverage. It’s something everyone has to do, so you just do it without overthinking or putting yourself through a lot of anxiety for no reason. We packed out our toilet paper in biodegradable dog poop bags and disposed of it in camp each night. It’s so important to practice Leave No Trace principles any time you’re outside, but especially on trails that are incredibly popular and busy. Leave it better than you found it!
Overall, I would rate the first day of the hike as moderately challenging, made easier by having a gradual incline the entire time. The slow climb in elevation made it much easier to acclimate, although there were a few steeper parts that made me thankful for all the weighted step-ups and lunges I did in my year of training. The trail was more challenging because of the rain creating slippery, squishy, muddy conditions that take a bigger toll on your body and mind to navigate. The rainforest conditions also made it tough to know how far we’d really gone so all of a sudden, the camp appeared and we were at the end of our first day of hiking. It was a moment of “Oh, we’re here already? Awesome!” quickly followed by “whew, I’m ready to take these wet boots off”.
Machame Camp
We arrived at our first camp, and stopped at the camp sign to get our traditional group picture. We then went to the ranger station and signed in the same way we had at Machame Gate before beginning the day. After we finished at the ranger station, we walked a short distance into the trees and were greeted with a fully set up camp, our bags and sleeping mats inside our tent, and instructions to take a few minutes to settle, wash up, and then report to the mess tent for dinner. Our trip package included a private toilet for the four of us which was a plastic seat set on a tripod stand, with a bag in which to do your business. The toilet was placed inside a pop-up tent that was tall enough to stand in but not much wider than the seat itself. This was an incredible luxury to have at camp each day and night.
As there is no plumbing anywhere on the mountain, our porters would collect water from nearby sources and it would be sanitized for our consumption. They would also fill a bucket that had a spout with hot water and provided pump hand soap for us to wash our hands. Almost every night and each morning, we were given a bowl of hot water at our tents for us to wash our face, feet, hands, or anything else we wanted to freshen up. They also provided us with a small cloth pouch that had a bar of soap wrapped in banana leaf. Danny and I used one soap on the mountain and saved the other to bring home. Everytime I use it here in Colorado, I’m taken right back to the mountain.
All washed up and ready to eat, we headed to the mess tent. This was the first time we got to meet Jimmy, who was one of the porters and who would also act as our waiter and wake up every morning. Our first dinner was pumpkin soup, steak, potatoes, bread, and curried vegetables with hot tea - it smelled incredible. I don’t know if it was my nerves, anxiety, or just an emotional release of finally being on this trek, but I did not feel 100% - I was maybe at 65% or 70%. I felt shaky, cold, and had no appetite. After dinner we had our first health check which included having our blood oxygen levels and heart rate recorded. At the end of Day One, my blood oxygen was at a solid 99 and my heart rate was at 100. After our health checks, we got the next day’s briefing which covered the distance, elevation gain, and estimated time to our next camp, Shira Cave Camp. Before we parted for the night, Abuu and LuLu gave us four times to remember for the morning: the time Jimmy would wake us up with hot tea or coffee, the time Jimmy would bring us our hot water for washing, the time breakfast would be served, and the time we would leave.
Armed with all the information we needed for the night, it was time to go to bed. I was getting nervous that I was already being affected by the altitude and not going to lie, I started panicking a bit. I went down some quick, unhelpful spirals and even worse, I kept them to myself. If I would’ve shared them with Danny, I know he would’ve brought more logic into the situation to overpower my very emotional state. Wishing for sleep but not having it granted, it was an exhausting and restless night where I was tossing and turning, maybe getting a consistent hour or two of sleep at a time. I did my best to shake my nerves and anxiety about what this all meant, and thankfully, eventually, decided it didn’t have to mean anything. I could simply be adapting to this new reality and it would take some time to calibrate myself. I needed to give myself a break, and rest assured that I was prepared and focused. Which I was. Thankfully that logical side of myself was right, and I’d wake up ready to rock Day Two.
Day One Stats
Day One starting elevation at Machame Gate: 5905 feet
Hiking distance: 6.8 miles, 3937 feet of elevation gain
Day One ending elevation at Machame Camp: 9842 feet
Highs and Lows
A nightly tradition during dinner was to share our Highs and Lows for the day. It was always a fun way to recap the day and see what everyone took away from it. Sometimes one person’s Low was another person’s High. I’ll share my own Highs and Lows for each day at the end of every blog post.
Day One Low: not feeling great, having low energy, and generally feeling “off”
Day One High: being here! We’re on the trek, we’re doing it!
Health Checks
There was only one health check on Day One, after dinner at Machame Camp around 7:30pm. These were my numbers:
Blood oxygen: 99
Heart rate: 100