Start: Machame Camp (Elevation = 9,948 ft)
End: New Shira Camp (Elevation = 12,621 ft)
It was probably in the upper 40's when we woke up this morning at Machame Camp. Cold enough that fleeces were worn around camp. Some of us even wore stocking caps. John woke up around 6:34 AM prior to when the porters came around with the warm water around 7:00 AM. Breakfast was:
Oatmeal w/ Corn Flour
Papaya
Eggs
Sausage
Toast
Per Azizi, the menu is always 'surprise', but so far we have been pleasantly surprised by the food every day.
There was ~30 min to finish packing everything after breakfast. Unfortunately, we had our clothes spread out on any bush which the sun was shining on trying to get it to dry out from all the rain from the previous day. We were slow in getting everything gathered up and didn't end up getting on the trail until 9 AM. The group beside us at this campsite said they had never camped before and they were drinking wine the previous night....not sure if we will see them on the summit.
The Machame camp was at the boarder between two vegetation zones (Rainforest and Heath). The heath was much more interesting as the vegetation was more foreign and smaller so we could look farther around where we were hiking. Another advantage was that it was much drier. It did sprinkle some, but nothing like we had experienced the day before.
We had received a bag lunch in the morning which consisted of: Orange Juice, Fried Chicken, Muffin, Tomato/Cucumber/Mayo sandwich, boiled egg. While at the lunch stop, some of the group chose to use the public toilet. This was easily the most disgousting facility I have ever been in. It was a small wooden hut perched above a hole in the ground. A small rectangular hole was cut out of the middle of the plywood boards on the floor. Not only was the smell bad, but as you can imagine many people had missed the hole in their haste to get out of there which made it infinitely worse. We do have our own toilets which porters carry for us. We do not have access to these during the day, but they are set up at our camp by the time we arrive. Whatever we paid for those toilets is the best money we have spent on the trip.
This was actually one of the shorter hiking days and we made it to the New Shira Camp just after 2:00 PM. It was starting to rain as we finished up the last ~10 min of the hike so we walked quickly. The tents were already set up so we headed straight there and managed to get inside prior to getting too wet.
Once the rain had stopped and we had unpacked most of our things, the porters broughts us some warm water to wash with. After that, it was time for tea. We arrived at the dinner tent, and they had also made us a large plate of popcorn to go with our tea which we finished quickly. It was still cloudy and misting out, but Azizi offered to take us to show us one of the nearby Shira caves. The cave wasn't all that impressive but was next to the helipad in case someone needed rescue and there was a nice view of the camp from there.
After walking back to camp, there was still quite a bit of time prior to dinner so we decided to play cards. We were going to head to the dining tent, but the porters were in there and we felt bad kicking them out so we went to Steph and Cindy's tent. We ended up just talking and telling stories and never actually played any cards. At around 5:30, we decided to head back to our tents to rest until dinner which we assumed would be around 7 like last night. About 15 min after we were back in the tents and Simko fell asleep they called us for dinner. Dinner was:
Zuccini Soup (with tortilla-like things called Chi-pate)
Rice w/ carrots
Beef Sauce
Vegetable Sauce
Mango
After dinner, the sun was about to set so we decided to go outside to watch that before having tea. Mt Meru was visible to us for the first time on the hike. We could also see the summit of Kilimanjaro and we were pleasantly surprised with how much closer it seemed than the day before. So far, none of us are experiencing altitude sickness problems but tomorrow we will go up to over 15,000 feet which could cause some problems.
After going back into the dinner tents for tea, we headed back for the sleeping tents. Will be sleeping in the base layer tonight and stocking cap as it is already feeling cold out. The sky is perfectly clear....you can see a ton of stars out here!
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