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We got up early in the morning for breakfast, got our kit bags weighted in the hotel to make sure they were under the 15kg's. This done, it was load up and pile onto the minibus andn 4wd jeep for Machame Camp. The smell of the traffic on the road was a real "nose closer", not much talk of clean air laws in Tanzania by the smells of it. Trundling down the road, the landrover had a puncture...not a great omen of things to come !
We arrived into Machame Camp, it was butling with other tour groups, porters milling around. I really must say I was amazed at the stamina of the porters who hauled our bags throughout the trip with apparent ease...there was no way I could have done it anyway. Once everyone had signed in, the porters gathered together and the duffel bags were distributed out, along with the camping gear / food etc. We just had our daysacks to carry. It was a nice slow walk through the cloudforest... I had filled up with 3 litres of bottled water for the day as I'd be drinking iodine flavoured water soon enough...
We set introduced to the guides, Meckson the head guide had climbed Kili 350 times before. He was aided by James, Erghad, Macleod and Godislight. Main difference between the guides and porters is that the guides are more experienced and also they only have to carry their own gear. The poor porters have to lug our gear, the tents, the food, table and their own gear up for the whole trip. We started walking slowly away from the Gate and up into the forest. We headed off before the porters, but they easily overtook us during the walk and by the time we came up to Machame Camp they had the tents (Vango Force10's) set up.. Admittedly the tents were setup on a slope which took a while to get used to, but some useful tips from Helen stopped us sliding off the thermarests!!
When we arrived into the camp, there were custard creams and popcorn waiting for us..bonus! These were wolfed down quickly. Dinner was excellent also, being spaghetti, beef, cabbage and chicken soup. Good start to the trip on the food side..no problems eating this lot for me. Aftre dinner Helen lets us know that its going to be an early start in the morning, 6.50am wake up to be on the track for about 7.30am...arrgh. I must admit having not slept in a tent for a year previously, it took ages to get to sleep that night...it started raining heavily that night but the tents kept it out and was quite pleasant listening to the rain.