Climbing- Day One- Starting Point

Once we completed our park registration, we started our drive to the starting point. We drove past more potato pickers on our way to the starting point. In the following photo, the pickers are in the carved rectangle on the hill:

Don't fall off!

Part of the ride to the starting point was extremely bumpy. This video does not do it justice:

We eventually arrived at the starting point; it looked to me like some nondescript spot in the woods. I met my team at the starting point; 9 in total- 7 porters, one chef and my guide. It was certainly a strange feeling climbing out of the truck and having 9 sets of Tanzanian eyes stare at me. As I was the only female-and a foreigner, at that-I was curious as to how the dynamics of our team would work.

Herman and I ate a brief lunch while the porters assembled and packed all of our gear. I remember feeling both nervous and excited. What would the next eight days bring?