Got up at 5:30 to shower, breakfast, pack and pile into our truck with our 12 (or so) crew, stopping every so often to pick up more guys. We would have 3 porters each, plus four or so guides.
It was a 3 hour ride to arrive at Machame Gate (1800m) at 10:00 where we’d begin our trek.
You’ve probably noticed Jackie’s not in the photo there - we were told her flight from Aberdeen was delayed and that she’d be meeting us at the first camp instead.
We would be walking up to Machame Camp (3000m) today through some jungle. There was a little rain which I hadn’t expected, having left my pack cover in my big bag.
Arriving at the decent hour of half-five-ish, we arranged ourselves into the two-man tents (me/James, Kath/Bob, Sherril, Gemma/Jackie)
Me and James naturally settled into a bag-wall arrangement where our huge North Face duffles and packs were lined down the middle of the tent. Unfortunately, this meant no snuggling in the middle of the night.
Dinner that night was awesome - Mau, our charismatic chef, made us battered fish with zucchini and veg soup.
Jackie finally made it us about 21:00 without her bags! They’d somehow got lost en route, but despite this, she and one of the guides trudged from Machame Gate to our camp in the dark, having come straight off the plane from the airport. What a trooper.
I had problems sleeping tonight, with headaches.