Jambo Friends family and loved ones,
The Kilimanjaro 6/22/19 Team met at 8am today for a team breakfast followed by an orientation session in the morning. We then had a nice lunch at the hotel and did gear checks after lunch for a few hours. Most members of the group then went on a 2 hour walking tour around town with our friends Kitambi and Baraka. They started the tour at the clock tower that marks the halfway point between Cairo and Cape Town. We then met again at 6:45pm to take taxis to a nice restaurant in town and have a big orientation day dinner. Finally we headed back to the hotel to finish packing and getting ready to leave for the mountain tomorrow morning at 8:30am after breakfast.
People are a little tired but excited to head to Kilimanjaro and start our trip up the Machame route. We will meet the Tanzanian staff that are part of our team tomorrow at the Mache gate which is about a 1hr and 45min drive tomorrow from Arusha. They are an amazing group of people that we look forward to spending time on the mountain with them. We will then start hiking at around 6,300ft and head to our first night’s camp (Machame Hut) around 10,000ft. We will be on the mountain for 7 days and will cover a distance of 39 miles during that time. We will also have 16,044ft of elevation gain in that time and 16,444ft descent since we are finishing at the Mweka gate on July 1. I hope you are able to continue following our cybercasts as we make our group makes its way up Kilimanjaro to have an adventure of a lifetime.
Brien
