Kilimanjaro - Rongai

Fredy is our guide and Herman and Linus are his assistants. Fredy is pleased to announce that he has saved us a few dollars by bringing only six porters when we had been expecting seven. Our support group numbers ten, a somewhat embarrassing total.

The Rongai route starts near the Kenyan border and scales the dry side of the mountain. The track starts in the corn fields at the edge of a village and climbs through forest and heather and into alpine desert. Ravens inhabit the entire mountain – even the summit if snack-fumbling climbers are present. The walk to the base camp takes three days - these days are marked by slow hiking, ample dinners and early bed-times.

At the end of the first day, Fredy drops by to announce that Linus has been demoted from assistant guide to senior porter. We fail to match Fredy’s interest in discussing this development at the time though the reason does become a source of curiosity later.

At the end of the second day, Fredy drops by to announce that we do not have enough porters in our group to ensure an adequate supply of water at the base camp. To resolve this unforeseen problem, he wants to discuss attempting to climb to the peak in a single day. Again, we fail to match Fredy's interest in having a conversation.