In the morning, I peered in my medical guidebook for advice. There were a few recommended medications, so I set out to find a pharmacy -- on a Sunday morning at 7:30am. Needless to say, I had no luck. So, around 8:30 or so I met Trent at Zara's office fully intending on cancelling. These worms have a tendency to get infected easily, and I was not about to attempt Kili without two fully functional feet.
Well, Zara came "to the rescue" and drove me quite some way to the Day and Nght Pharmacy. By some act of God, they had one of the suggested medications. But, I didn't have a prescription. Well, in Africa, a $5 bribe is as good as any prescription. I had my medicine, and as it supposedly worked in 24 hours, I decided to give the mountain a go.
We arrived at the bottom of the Machame Gate, 1828m ASL, at around 11:00. It started to rain. Our porters, 4 of them, and our guide Eliawony, each carried huge packs of food, shelter, and clothing. After signing in the registration book and taking some "before" photos, we started our climb. It continued to rain, and 5 minutes into the hike I was soaking wet head to toe.
 "Before" Photo |
 Trent signing in |
 Porters readying gear |
The first day of hiking took us through beautiful tropical rain forest. It was pouring rain. This led to conditions not suitable for normal humans. Before taking every single step, I had to "test" the intended spot with my trusty walking stick. Most of the time, it would sink at least 8 inches. A good step would be into two inches of foul, greasy, slippery mud.
Still, the rain forest was striking, and the "pole pole" (a KiSwahili expression meaning 'slowly' we'd hear over and over) pace was managable -- for the first four hours. Then, my resolve began to falter. I knew my pace was slowed considerably when the porters, each carrying 50+ pounds of gear (balanced on their head), wearing no rain gear, and some even without shoes, were passing me. Trent issued words of encouragement. Eliawony prodded me: "Come, Mr. Philip, only 1 and a half more hours." I didn't think I'd make it.
 Rainforest |
 The Mud |
 The Result |
So, I started a game. I took out a handful of peanuts from my soaked pocket. I ate one peanut a minute. If you try really hard, you can chew on one peanut for a good 30 seconds, one chew per step. 5 steps after swallowing, 5 steps while choosing the next peanut. It worked -- I had three peanuts left when we reached our first campsite, Machame Hut. 6 hours, 14 minutes, 30 seconds of hiking, all of it in serious rain. The sun was quickly setting, so Trent and I settled into our tent at 3100m while the rain continued to pelt us.
It took me about 4.3 seconds to crawl into the tent, remove my seriously nasty shoes, rip off my rain soaked clothing, and crawl into my warm sleeping bag. Another 2.6 seconds, and I was sound asleep. 90 minutes later, around 8:30, Trent woke me up: "When are we going to be fed?" he asked. I didn't know, and my head was swimming so much from a combination of altitude sickness, dehydration, Larium, Thiabendazole (for my friend in my foot) and Diamox that I hardly cared.
 Machame Hut |
 After Day 1 |
Still, it poured. Our guide fetched us for dinner a few minutes past nine. I was none too pleased to exit the tent and trudge through the rain and mud to our mess tent. They prepared a good meal of potatoes, macaroni with vegetable curry-like sauce, and an unidentified meat product. I could barely eat, and three hours later it hardly mattered.
Around midnight, I wretched it all back up. I barely made it outside the tent -- in fact, just my head stuck out into the still relentless rain. Luckily, it didn't smell. The rest of the night passed somewhat quietly.