Doc Martin 75th Birthday Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

June 13, 2012 – Into the Forest and Up the Mountain

I mentioned on yesterday’s dispatch that in 24 hours we would be high on the Umbwe trail, Kilimanjaro’s most beautiful forest trail. That is exactly where we are this afternoon.

It has been a long day. No one slept very well. I saw Valentine at breakfast this morning and she said the adrenaline kept her up all night. Certainly, Charles Martin, on his fifth climb of Kilimanjaro and his first trip since 2008, was excited as he always is to get started. The whole team was.

Charles and his daughter Caroline in the forest

We had to get checked out of the hotel, drive to the Machame gate to register with the national park and then continue driving through banana plantations on our way to Umbwe Gate. The merriment began as soon as we arrived. The loads were distributed. It is quite a logistical operation to start up a mountain on an expedition like this. But it went more smoothly than normal, probably because the Umbwe Gate is remote and relaxed; the wardens are very friendly. There is no one else here. This trail is remote and empty, and that is one of the reasons we love it.

The forest is beautiful. We started on our walk and after about two hours we reached a flat spot. Rita exclaimed, “Wow, look at that!” What she saw was a beautiful table with flowers set up in the forest for us. We ate our delicious lunches and took some time to relax. After lunch we continued climbing and we had one of the biggest treats I could have imagined. I was not expecting it at all. It had been very cloudy down low and we had been climbing through the clouds all day, which is very typical on the forest walk on the first day. At about 9,300ft /2,834m we walked around the corner and there was Kibo, the gleaming summit of Kilimanjaro with a lot of snow this year..

What a good start for this Charles Martin 75th birthday Kilimanjaro climb! It is great to be with our wonderful team of staff. It is great to be in this beautiful forest approaching the higher lands on Kilimanjaro. And what good fortune to see that radiant white above us, our goal is before us already. We are having a great trip and we will be posting dispatches daily, so keep checking back.

Through the forest

Beautiful giant groundels are everywhere