Saturday, July 5, 2014

Kilimanjaro Recap - Day 3 & 4

Day 3
Day 3 was a pretty easy day after the uphill of Day 2. And so we walked. Again. But we talked too, and that was the best part.
Taking a wee break.
And that my friends is where we walked. That little trail on the left. One foot in front of the other.
We ended up here. Kilimanjaro and our tents in the distance. 
Where we came from in the rear.
Our tents and a few toilets to choose from.
We ate so much soup! So stinking much soup. Every single day. Often the vegetable unknown kind.
After tea we went to explore this fun structure.
This is Moir camp where people use to sleep. Clearly not any more!
I just loved all the flowers!
Pondering that in 4 small days of hiking we will be up there.
And then there was this. I left our nightly post dinner debrief with James to capture this. 
4.5 hours of slow and steady climbing to get us to 13,650 ft. where we slept at Moir Camp.
Day 4
Every day as we get closer it just seems more amazing.
This is obsidian. James just grabbed it off the ground and broke it open for us. Sharp little rock.
And here are the crazy amazing porters of ours. Carrying our stuff, running toward the mountain. Literally running. It was insane.
This was the remnants of Andi's little side adventure to get this picture. Her little explorer self.
Where we are headed.
And we shall call them Mountain Palm Trees.
We can from up there. That is the Lava Tower at 15,000 ft and then we were rushed down. Yes, we practically ran down that hill. I was so not ready for that and yes I got a little ticked at James. Poor buddy didn't even know.
And he always seems to be in every one of my pictures.
And then we camped among tons of other people. It was so stinking cloudy and damp!
But we were tucked right at the base of the mountain. 
The sun came out in the middle of the clouds reminding us of this pretty little thing we were trying to conquer.
God does some amazing work people. Amazing.
5 hours of climbing to 15,000 ft and then back down to 12,950 where we slept at Barranco Camp.
My most frustrating day and yet to end with this beautiful site. 
Was still thankful I was on this adventure though.

The only elevation effects I felt were a slight headache which went away went I went down to a lower elevation. 

Day 4. Complete. Next up
Barranco Wall. With rocks to climb.