5.5 Mile Hike to Mandara Hut

Today we started our climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro with a wonderful hike through the rainforest to Mandara Hut. I felt great with no sense of the altitude.  We started at about 6000 feet so it wasn't very high at that point.  Mandara Hut is at the edge of the rainforest at 8,860 feet.  It was a pretty comfortable place and I liked being inside in the little hut, even though we had to share with lots of other people from other groups.