Kilimanjaro Climb Day 1 On the Mountain

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Well it didn't rain at all which was wonderful! I felt strong today, and I was at the head of the group with Toby all day. Everyone, especially Larry, was teasing us for the break-neck pace we were setting. It became a running theme for our climb.

The group is very fun and shared a lot of laughs. Shoshanna was in the middle of the pack and went at her own pace. I stopped many times to shout words of encouragement or ask her how she was doing or took photographs of her.

I think we got a lot of good pictures today, and am very excited to share them with loved ones. The scenery, mainly the vegetation was gorgeous. I did not see any animals today which surprised me.

Lunch was a bagged lunch and was decent. Everyone was starving, so we all ate a lot.

I took porter duty for all of 5 minutes. They all zoom past us with packs and bags on their heads and are going as fast as they can to make sure camp (tents, mess tents, portable toilets) is set up by the time we get there. Well I decided I wanted to give this a try, so I took one of the porters bags, and I don't know what was in this thing, but it weighed like 70lbs, it was ridiculous. It didn't last long, and my head hurt the rest of the day. I have much respect for the porters and the work that they do.

When we arrived at camp we changed into dry clothes and had hot tea. Later we would have dinner, everyone was exhausted. I smell and Shoshanna smells worse 😊 but we have to trek on, today was day 1. No effects from the altitude thus far for either of us. It took us 5.5 hours to get to camp today.

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