Hiking Kilimanjaro

We donned our gear and hiked from the gate through the tropical rain forest to the Mandara huts. Each day we’d hike to an area where there were several huts built that usually slept 4 to a hut. There were 3 sets of huts: Mandara at 9000 ft, Horombo at 12000 and Kibo at 15000. Each set of huts also included a bathroom and a dining hall. The bathrooms were drop choos that looked like urinals set into the ground (except at Kibo huts where they were just holes in the wood floor) that you’d squat over and build up new muscles. The porters would cook in a separate hut and carry meals to us as we waited in the dining hall. The name of the porter that usually served us was Octavian.

A typical day would go like this: we’d wake up just before Octavian would knock on our door and give us a plastic basin of hot water. We’d wash up, get dressed and head to the dining hall where we’d hafta find our place setting. Our setting always had the same conga (sp?) and the same thermos full of hot water and the same jars of instant coffee and cocoa and a box of tea bags and a sugar bowl. Even when we emptied these, they’d be back the next meal with more. They’d bring us breakfast and then our guide would come and tell us what to expect that day and give us each a medium size tupperware container filled with food to eat for our lunch. We’d go back to the hut and dress accordingly and repack our things and bring them out to the porters who’d whisk them away and we’d not see them til we got to the next set of huts – except when they’d pass us on the trail because they ALWAYS left after we did and ALWAYS were waiting for us when we got there. We’d hike a few hours and then stop and eat our box lunch and use the choo. Then we’d hike a few more hours to the next huts. We had to register at each set of huts to get a key to one of the huts when we got there. As we settled in the hut, Octavian would come around with the basin of hot water for us to freshen up. Then we’d go to the dining hall where we’d be served a snack of popcorn and biscuits. The biscuits were very much like dog biscuits and there were usually a few burnt popcorn kernels, but it was something and the hot drinks went down well. We’d lounge around the dining hall and talk to other groups of hikers and then we’d go back to our hut and read and doze until supper, We usually went to bed early and slept well. The only time I got cold is when I left my sleeping back unzipped because I was too hot and woke up later with a chill.

Over the years, my body has developed a habit of waking in the middle of the night to go pee. The first night out, we discovered it was a bit too cold to hike to the bathroom so we simply stood on the steps of our hut and let go. The second night, however, the hut we stayed in was a bit close to all the others so we thought it best not to hang it out. The fact that it was a lot colder and raining that night also made us want to stay indoors as long as possible. We each brought a pair of gum boots in case we had to slog through rivers and such, but by the second day it was apparent we wouldn’t need them at all. Bob volunteered to put one of his boots to good use as a “chamber boot.”

Our Guide