Boot camp on steroids

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And we are off!! We left Rivertrees and headed out onward to the Marangu Gate to get permits from the park ranger. The land-rover that we had some issues with the day before overheated and we had to abandon it (as well as the 7 passengers it was carrying). Summits Africa was quick to replace it however and we were quickly off again, new cruiser and driver. The new driver was quite a character, racing over the dirt bumpy roads Like a one ton hot shot on the sierra high grade (Garett's description). This seemed to please him as much as it displeased his mother😊

After 4 hours or so of driving and registering we were finally at the Rongai Gate (north side of the mountain close to Kenya). Here we met up with our 4 cooks, 4 guides, 2 camp managers and 43 porters. Yep, 53 for the 13 of us. With that much help they should be able to carry us up... Right?? We had an excellent lunch and finally started. The food was amazing and continued to be so thru out the whole trek. Kevin started us out with a prayer and we took comfort with that as well as that fact that mom was doing the same for us at home.

We climbed thru very beautiful rainforest and walked 9k The pace pole, pole Swahili for slowly, slowly, was just that. Really, really slow... A little painful to start with but we were all so happy to be underway it soon became a comfortable pace. Even thou this was to be an easy day we were still very relived to see our camp and were greeting by all of the support team singing to us with a few Swahili & Masai songs. This was very emotional and touching as we stood at the foot of this immense mountain with its peeks challenging us to reach the top. Each tent was outfitted with mummy bags and liners (which none of us ever really did manage to master the art of) Rolande described it best when she said she felt like an alligator rolling around with its prey. The 3" mattresses and pillows (yes pillows) made sleeping in a tent a very pleasant experience indeed! The real treat was the two portapotty style toilets. Debbie was in heaven, compared to the contraption we had in Peru this was deluxe😊) As we snuggled into our bed rolls that night it was with satisfaction and anticipation for the journey ahead. Lala Salama ( sleep well/good night).

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Photos

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Bathroom break

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The bathrooms were ewww

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It dosent look so big...

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The view from moshi... What were we thinking?