My Journey to Kilimanjaro Part 2: Waterfalls, Coffee, and Last-Minute Gear Checks

September 9, 2023

After crashing early last night—somewhere between 5 and 8 PM—I wake up feeling like I have a sleep hangover. I think I slept for 14 or 15 hours, but honestly, I probably needed it. Today, I’m meeting up with Catherine, another traveler from my group, for a tour of a waterfall and a visit to a coffee farm in a nearby village.

A Scenic Drive to Materuni Village

I booked this tour with Albert, a local guide who has been following me on Instagram for a while and persistently encouraging me to come to Tanzania and climb Kilimanjaro. I feel a little guilty that I’m here to climb Kili, but ended up booking my trek with a different company. Still, I’m grateful to be heading out on this tour with him today. His company, G2G Adventures, is awesome and I highly recommend them for your Tanzanian adventures!

Albert and his partner, Benson, pick me up first, then we swing by the Pink Flamingo Hotel to grab Catherine before heading toward Moshi. The drive takes us up a narrow, winding, ridiculously bumpy dirt road to a trailhead high on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Materuni Village. This Chagga village is the last settlement before entering Kilimanjaro National Park—the last bit of civilization before the wilderness takes over. The Chagga people, one of Tanzania’s largest ethnic groups, have lived on the fertile slopes of Kilimanjaro for generations, cultivating coffee, bananas, and other crops.

The Breathtaking Materuni Waterfall

We park and begin a 2.6-mile hike down an old dirt road that leads to Materuni Waterfall, also known as Nambe Waterfall. This glacier-fed cascade originates from the streams running off the slopes of Kilimanjaro and plunges over 260 feet into a crystal-clear pool below. Along the way, Albert and Benson fill the air with trivia—local culture, native plants, traditional foods, and even a few Swahili words we should know.

When we reach the waterfall, it stops me in my tracks. It’s stunning. I’m immediately grateful that I packed my swimsuit. I quickly find a spot to change and wade into the water. It’s freezing. The force of the falls is so strong that it creates a wind and current that push me back before I can swim out very far. I stay in as long as I can stand the cold before climbing back out to warm up.

A Beer Bet and Lunch at the Coffee Farm

After drying off and changing, we hike back to our vehicle, stopping to purchase some souvenirs from local vendors set up along the trail. Afterward, we head to the coffee farm for lunch. As we eat, Albert reminds us of a joke he made on the trail earlier: if anyone fell, they owed the group a round of beers. Well, at the waterfall, he wiped out hard—so hard he cut his hand open on a rock, and I ended up stepping into nurse mode and bandaging it for him. True to his word, he makes good on the deal, bringing four Kilimanjaro Lagers to the table. I’m not usually much of a beer drinker, but I wanted to try the local brew. It’s refreshing, a little spicy, and honestly, pretty good.

Learning the Art of Tanzanian Coffee

After another round of fresh, delicious food, we head onto the coffee farm, where we learn the entire process from harvesting and shelling the beans to roasting and finally brewing a cup of Tanzanian coffee. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but I take a polite sip. I won’t be downing a full cup anytime soon, but if I were a coffee person, I imagine this would be the good stuff.

Before leaving, I browse a small market near the farm and pick out a canvas painting of the waterfall we visited. It feels like the perfect souvenir. Albert surprises me with a hand-made dreadlock bead in the colors of the Tanzanian flag, a gift of his friendship. I have him put it on one of my locks before leaving.

Final Gear Check Before the Climb

When we return to the hotel, more travelers have arrived. Not long after, our Kilimanjaro guide from Monkey Adventures shows up to do a full gear check. He goes room to room, assessing everyone’s setup and making recommendations for anything we might need to add for a safe and comfortable climb.

He insists that I need a ski jacket and gloves—neither of which I brought because, well, I don’t own them. I’ve been checking the summit temperatures, and it’s not expected to drop below 20°F during our climb. I don’t think I need them. While I recognize that he’s the expert on this mountain, I’m the expert on my own body.

We compromise. I agree to take a ski jacket if he can find one that fits me, but I’m not bringing ski pants. With that settled, he moves on to check the rest of the group’s gear, and we all reconvene later for a final briefing and group dinner at the restaurant.