Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Poli Poli- Slow Down!


Day 1
We met in the courtyard of the Marangu Hotel and waited for our porters to weigh our packs and pack up our supplies, food and gear. We selected our wooden walking sticks and the piled onto the back of a rusty white pickup truck to begin our short journey to the gates of the park. When we arrived we registered with the park warden, then entered the gates walking past the armed guards. Within 5 minutes our guide was yelling 'poli poli” which means ‘slowly- slowly’ in Swahili! The key is to keep a steady slow pace to help your body acclimatize while you hike.
The base of the mountain is a lush rainforest filled with huge trees, vines and moss. As we walked; groups of monkeys watched us from above with their bushy white tails dangling from the trees. After a few hours we arrived at Mandara hut at 9000 ft. We stayed in a cabin in a large room with bunk beds. We each claimed a bed and unpacked our belongings. We were called for dinner shortly after and we all made our way over to the main lodge. The food was actually quite good, we were served chicken, cooked spinach and potatoes. After dinner we headed back to the cabin and go to bed early so we would be ready for our early wake up call.

Day 2
In the morning we were woken by a porter who brought us hot water for washing and warm tea. We dressed, packed our day bags and gave our camel packs to the porters to fill up with fresh spring water. We headed over to the main lodge for a huge breakfast of porridge, toast, fruit, eggs and sausage. The one great thing about the trek is that you can over eat and not gain weight because your body needs the fuel!
After we ate we started our hike out to the Maundi crater.  After that we hiked back through the rainforest and then into the moorlands.  The vegetation was sparse and it was very rocky.  At the end of the day we arrived at the Horumbo hut. 

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