Following the delivery of our rental gear and the weighing of our duffle bags and packs at the Ndarakwai Lodge, the Mufindi Mountaineers climbed aboard several Thomson Safari vehicles and headed toward the Londorosi Gate entrance on the west side of Kilimanjaro National Park.
There we met all our guides and porters. We had to sign in at the national park office then wait while the loads were distributed among the porters who would go with us on the mountain.
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| From here we drove 30 minutes to the trailhead. |
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| Porters weighing their individual loads. |
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| Rick Billingham fetching his daypack from the Thomson Safaris vehicle. |
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| L-R Jennifer Lindwall, Chris Branch, & David Still. |
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| Thomson Safaris porters putting their loads on their vehicle. |
Thomson Safaris has a roster of 700 porters they have vetted that they draw upon for their treks up Kilimanjaro and elsewhere. They post jobs by name at various locations and their porters then confirm they will be there ahead of time. Once confirmed, their pay is deposited in their bank accounts and available to their families. Typically, many other porters show up at the national park gates hoping to be hired for a trek. This system often leads to abuses involving "middle-men" and some trekking company organizers who may take a cut of the porters' wages. Thomson Safaris porters arrive at the gate knowing they have a job. They are also better equipped than many other porters on the mountain.
These Mufindi Mountaineers are both Idaho Vandals and both started out as foresters. Tom Miller, on the left, had a career with Weyerhaeuser and has worked a lot in Central and South America as well as Southeast Asia. Tom Reveley departed the forestry profession early in his career and joined Merrill Lynch where he is one of their most senior financial analysts... still going strong after 50+ years with ML.
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| Porters and guides waiting for our vehicles to be loaded. |
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| The Mufindi Mountaineers L-R: Tom Miller, Robert DeWolf, Tom Reveley, Jennifer Lindwall, Rich Wortley, David Still, Alicia Chapman, Alex Branch, Chris Branch, Gary Drobnack, and Rick Billingham. |
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| Waiting for everyone to get their loads and get them weighed. |
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| Three Weyerhaeuser colleagues were part of the 2014 climb to benefit the Mufindi Children's Project. L-R Tom Miller, David Still, and Gary Drobnack |
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Getting ready to launch for the trailhead.
Our next blog post will revisit some scenes from the Mufindi Children's Project and then pick up with the start of the hike into the Shira Caldera and toward Shira 1 Camp where the Mufindi Mountaineers spent their first night on the mountain.
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