After the poor night of sleep, doubt had set in. Not as much for me, but my son. I put too much effort (and money) already to give up, but I felt him wavering. He wasn't giving up yet, but wasn't ready to commit beyond the next night. If he were to decide to drop out it opened a lot of questions. What would he do while I waited? How much would it cost? Would I be better dropping out as well? Nothing good would come from this. We got ready and hoped for the best. The hike was shorter- about 3-4 miles only, but with the 3000 foot elevation gain from about 9300 feet to 12300. There was a lot of climbing up rocks. Nothing too difficult, more fun actually. We still moved very slowly. We started off in the rainforest, but as we climbed got into moorlands. The vegetation became hardier and more sparse. Temperatures definitely cooled. I run hot, so I was still in short sleeves, but most people were getting out warmer clothes. We had a bit of a light rain as we had entered the clouds, but by mid afternoon we got into camp and had lunch. We were on the Shira plateau.
On Kilimanjaro the are actually 3 peaks. To the east there is Mawenzi at about 16000 feet. The big one is Kibo which is our goal. Shira is the third- its more of a plateau extending miles to the west of Kibo. This is what we had achieved with the hike today. The next few days will be ups and downs on the Shira plateau before approaching Kibo itself. Not a tough day, but after we had some rest we had a short hike to get a little higher. This is consistent with the advice of hike high, sleep low. Will seemed to do ok, but the physical challenge wasn't going to be the issue for him. Sleep would be deciding factor.
Given the shorter hike we had more time to get to know our group. We each had our individual tents, but we also had the meal tent. It was full size so it was a contrast to the tents. They carried chairs and table up the mountain for us. There was usually hot water for tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. In the afternoon when it wasn't meal time popcorn was usually provided. There was usually someone there to socialize with. We had 14 in our group. Altezza had another group, but we never interacted with them, or any other group really. 8 Americans, 2 Canadians, 2 Australians, and one each from China and Italy. Our group had 4 sets of parent child including Will and I. There was a group of 3 friends, and 3 individuals. I think we got along pretty well and had no complaints about anyone else. I tried to be a wildcard with meal time seating allowing me to get to know everybody from the group.
A couple details- our schedule was typically to be woken by waiters with coffee or tea at 630. Warm water for washing and treated cold water for drinking were always provided. Breakfast was typically the same. Porridge- with sugar, honey, jam was first. Pancakes, toast, sausages, with fruit were provided. All meals we were provided more food than we could possibly
We always stopped for tea. Cookies, sweet bread (cake like- not thymus or pancreas which for reasons unclear are called that too), and peanuts were brought out.
Lunch and dinner were a variety of things. We always started with watery soups. This isn't to say they weren't good- they were- but they helped with hydration. First couple days they brought me chili to add to it. After overdoing it, I stopped asking for the chili. Typically there would be a starch, vegetables and protein. If I have a complaint- I got tired of how many vegetables there were. I always feel pressured that since they are healthy I should eat my vegetables. By the end of the trip I was turning them down and eating what I wanted. It would have been hard to go hungry. For New Years they brought a cake up. It was actually the best cake I've had in awhile. I regret not getting a second slice.
The one thing I did change with my intake was to limit fluids after we got to camp. We took diamox in am and at lunch, but I did not want to go out at night to toilent tent any more than I had to. So I drank a ton in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment