Berg Adventures International Kilimanjaro Machame Route Cybercast 2006

Jambo! This is Meagan Marks on Day 2 of our climb of Kilimanjaro. This is our first dispatch and we are learning Swahili as we climb, hopefully we’ll know a lot of Swahili by the time we leave the mountain. We left Arusha yesterday where we stayed at a beautiful hotel and I thought long and hard about wanting to stay in the nice soft beds of the hotel instead of camping on the mountain. Luckily Scott dragged me out and we took a bus ride with lots of our porters who were really funny, they are so fun and they smile all the time. Even though we are totally tired after climbing the mountain they put us in a good mood.

We camped last night at Machame Hut. It was wonderful, we had a candlelight dinner. All the other people climbing the mountain are taking pictures of our group because we have the nicest everything. We have a private toilet that comes up and down the mountain with us, we have a flower vase on the table we eat at, it’s really amazing. We just arrived at Shira just heading down to the camp on Day 2.

I spent about 10 minutes deciding whether I should pack my makeup bag which gives you a sense of my lack of preparedness [laughter]. It’s really fun, we are really enjoying it.

Hi this is Scott. Yesterday was good, getting used to the elevation. We were at 3000m yesterday and today we are at 3800m. Definitely more adjusted today and looking forward to the next couple of days of acclimation. The food is great and keeping us energized. We are taking lots of breaks and going slow. Bye for now.