Photos:  Simba Campa and our view of Mawenzi Peak

Today was our first day hiking and we arrived in good spirits to our camp at 8,500ft - known locally as Simba Camp.  Today's climb took us through tall heather forests, as well as some open glades where we ran into local bee farmers.  We also crossed the tell tale signs of Elephants - BIG droppings!  This is one of the last remaining routes on Kilimanjaro where we can run into big animals such as Elephants and Water Buffalo.  There have been reports of  Buffalo as high as 14,000 on this route!

Our hike took about 3 hours today, after about a one hour drive from our hotel to the trail head.  Tomorrow we plan on hiking to our Camp 2, at just under 12,000ft.  Tomorrow is one of our longest hikes of the trip, so we hope to hydrate and eat well tonight.  Everyone is doing great.