Jun
We woke at 6:30 am, took quick note of our hilltop campsite in the new daylight, and after a breakfast of maize porridge, coffee and tea, eggs and sausages, began our Day 2 hike at 8:45 am.
Christine Burke, stretching, was the first Roadmonkey out of her tent.
We would spend most of the next 9 hours walking through spectacular upland rain forest backlit by a brilliant morning sun; then over more desert-like moorland, filled with rocks and shorter flora of a heartier, darker-green variety; and finally around a mountainous ridge, along a trail on which each step produced a small, dessicated puff of earthdust.
Walking from out of the rain forest and through a spectacular scene with the sun shining through the trees and the moss, and a constant hum of insects around us made us feel as if we were in the exotic land that indeed we had come to experience.
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Our walk lasted about an hour until we took a break at the top of another hill and then we began a descent, then a climb into a high desert plateau full of volcanic rock and large green shrubs sized as tall as a man, and pockets of small white arctic-like flowers. Enormous vistas went on for miles on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
Rain forest gives way to more desert-like moorland.
We had lunch along the trail. We have about 33 porters for the 10 of us, and after eating a lunch of baked chicken, fruits and vegetables, we began what would probably be our longest day – an exhausting 14km climb up to about 10,000 feet. A couple in our Roadmonkey group ran out of water at about 3 o’clock , and had to walk the last two hours up and down some steep slopes to reach our camp site and rehydrate.
Comin' round the bend, Kili's peak comes into view...sort of.
The camp site is called Shira-2, a high-desert perch that provides at once a downward view of the pillowy cloud line shrouding the world below us and an upward look at the (increasingly & disturbingly meager) glacier receding like a midlife hairline around Kilimanjaro’s summit. The summit, impossibly far above, gives us a visual of where we need to go, lifting our collective spirit after an exhausting, very physically and mentally challenging Day 2 climb that seemed it would never end.
Do a little dance: Roadmonkeys (from left) Susan, Christine, Jolie and Julie celebrate reaching our camp, after 9 hours hiking, with our team's effervescent porters.
But end it did, with a spectacular sunset at cloud level that we, from our tents, were looking down upon, watching orange bruise of the sun turn clouds below us first into pink gauze, then purple before giving way to night, with Mt. Meru (the second highest peak in Tanzania) in the distance.
Sunset above the cloud line: A long day rewarded in breathtaking fashion.
More soon from this increasingly wild, tough and challenging six-day climb up one of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s toughest routes.
Paul
