We woke up at the crack of dawn, which would become the norm over the next two weeks. If we had had our bags, we would have packed them up for the climb, but instead, we wandered around aimlessly for awhile and then walked out the door to the covered dining area for breakfast. Aside from fighting off a swarm of bees who wanted to share our food with us, breakfast was very good. You can actually see Kilimanjaro from the Springlands hotel on a clear day, but a clear day it was not, so were unable to see what we were in for. Looking back, I think that it was probably better that way, as we would have realized that Kilimanjaro is really big had we actually seen it.
 
After breakfast Alison, Margo, Wally and I were driven to ZARA headquarters, where we met our guides (Alex and Joseph "Photo"). We were taken to a dark, yellowing room stuffed with green canvas bags of miscellaneous clothing. A cat that I can only describe as being "mangy" was sleeping (or was unconscious) on the bed in the corner of the room. I usually reserve the word, "mangy", for dogs, but for this prime specimen I had to make an exception. Alex went through the bags looking for the gear we would need for the next two days on the mountain. We rented boots, gaiters, sweatshirts, jackets, sweatpants, socks, balaclavas, scarves, and gloves. One of the jackets Wally made out with was... fuzzy in an undescribably funny way. One of mine had lots of assorted hair attached to it. Not all of it was human hair (I eyed the cat suspiciously), which made me really excited to put it on. Luckily, my boots fit properly despite only being left with one-third of one inner sole (it was the heel portion of the left boot). On the way out, Zainab said, "No problem." Our bags would follow us up the mountain in a day or two.
 
It took 45 minutes to drive to the Machame gate from Moshi. During the drive, we stopped (for food?), and I noticed some meat hanging from a store-front window. The meat still had a tail and looked strangely like a dog, so... I voiced my observation to the others. Alex overheard us and corrected me. (laughing) "It's not dog! Goat!"
 
We arrived at the Machame gate just after noon to find many porters standing around, presumably waiting for their respective climbing parties to arrive. We signed in, and were off into the rain forest! The canopy of trees was thick, and our entire field of view was blanketed with the textured green of hundreds of thousands of small leaves.
 
After hiking upwards for awhile, it became apparent that we were quickly going to be really, really dirty. It started to drizzle, and we all (except Wally) gingerly picked our way along to avoid having our boots sucked off by deep mud. Wally decided to go the direct route (hereafter referred to as the "Wally way") and sloshed right through the small, connected pools of mud that dotted the trail. Every once in awhile, we would hear the familiar sucking sound that indicated that someone had stepped somewhere where the mud was deep enough to create extreme suction between boot and mud. It was about now that my right boot filled with water and I noticed that the sole was coming off at the front. *sigh*
 
We stopped for lunch a few hours after starting the hike, and I took out my camera for the first time since leaving. It had started to rain pretty hard, which made me think back to the "we never have rain in January" comments I heard from all of the locals upon arriving. Lunch consisted of buttered toast, a hard-boiled egg, some fruit, and a small bag of peanuts. Both Wally and I were soaked from the waist down because we were unable to wear our vinyl ponchos (their breathability rating was somewhere around 0%), and had instead draped them over our heads and packs. My boots had long since stopped repelling water, and I already had a blister on the fourth toe of my right foot. Margo was wearing her poncho. I was worried because she looked pretty wet and might have been overheating by wearing it.
 
The remainder of the rain forest was painful. My quads, which were unaccustomed to such long, extended uphill hikes, cramped up (only once, luckily), and I started to use my nylon pants as a napkin every time my hands became muddy from grabbing onto something. Alison gave me some moleskin and tape for my blister. I really think I wouldn't have made it if I hadn't had moleskin, so she gets credit for keeping me going. :)
 
We made it to Machame hut at dusk, after trekking for more than seven hours. The porters had (of course) beaten us to camp, and our tents were already pitched. To our surprise, we found an extra tent with a table and chairs in it for us to dine in! I couldn't believe it. On the table were bags of tea, Milo "Energy Drink" (translation: hot chocolate), sugar, hot sauce, a thermos of hot water and a plate full of biscuits and popcorn, which we devoured hungrily. It quickly became dark, and we started to worry about Margo. She had fallen behind (but was accompanied by Alex), while we trudged ahead with Photo. After two hours of waiting in darkness, porters were sent back down the trail with flashlights to look for them. Finally, we heard Margo's voice at around 10:30pm. She was completely soaked and seemed a bit frazzled -- almost in shock, from exertion and being covered head-to-toe in mud. I can only imagine how unpleasant it was to hike for three hours through a rain forest in the dark. After chatting briefly, we retired to our tents. I was thoroughly unused to the dank musty smell that permeated everything (including Wally's socks, which I named "Acidic Death". heh...). Combined with the altitude, I just could not fall asleep. I finally dozed off around 4am, only to wake up with the light of dawn.
 

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