Us organizing our packs, the porters organizing their packs, I’m ready to go.  The porters had to go through a checkpoint to have their packs weighed – they are allowed 25 KM for the company then only 1 to 2 km for their own items.  We stopped at the sign for a briefing from our guide then we lined up at our checkpoint where our passports were compared to our permits and everything got stamped.  I had gotten up at 0400 to head out and we started hiking at 1100……it was a couple of hours just to get to KM 82 then a lot of red tape to get onto the trail.