Day One the climb begins
We left the hotel at about 9 am and after a two hour buss ride we arrived at the Marangu gate already exhausted from the buss ride before even climbing a single step up the mountain, it took another 2 hours for everybody to hire the needed equipment and for all the formalities to be sorted out and we finally started the climb to Mandara Hut at a very late 13:00.

The temp for this first climb was very hot so I just had on shorts and a T-shirt and trainers which I was planning to wear all the way to Kibo, I also had a walking stick, and my back pack which had 1.8 liters of water, my lunch pack, first aid kit and a rain jacket, but I was really hoping it wasn't gonna rain since I had no rain trousers.
I found the climb not too challenging, it's just a long up hill walk which lasted a little over 3 hours. But a few others found it much tougher especially the teachers, one was found lying on the ground about 3 quarters of the way up totally exhausted, after he was given some biscuits and water he was able to finish the climb.

As it got darker it got much colder at Mandara and by night I hat to throw my jacket on but I still stuck with the shorts. For dinner we got Know soup and Spaghetti. One of the teachers decided that same night not to attempt the hike to Horombo Hut, and the other 2 also had some reservations but they decided to continue. The night was cold even in my sleeping bag which was rated 0 degrees centigrade, and I woke up several times due to the cold.

At the Marangu gate