Holy Moly

Africa - Day 4 - Thursday September 26

We woke up today at 6 AM.  We got dressed for the day and packed up our night bags. While we were at breakfast the crew broke down camp.  We have been learning that the meals here are no joke.  They have a saying here "The Mountain is Food."  They want us to drink 4 liters of water per day and eat as much as we can. The meals are 4 courses and if you don't eat at least one full helping of each course then they start twisting your arm.  Today's breakfast was hot cereal, an egg sandwich, fresh fruit and,,, well, I forget.  The altitude must be taking its toll :)

We finished breakfast around 7:30 AM and started our hike. There are 5 climate zones on Kilimanjaro and today's entire hike was a rock stair stepper (no more rainforest).  We hiked up steep rocky slopes with only a few flat spots thus the title "Holy Moly". There were two dicey points where we were told "hold on" and "don't look down."  It wasn't anything crazy.  I had no problem doing it which says a lot (I hate heights).  I also didn't look down.

Along the hike we were constantly getting passed by porters.  These guys are no joke. After the clients leave camp, they pack everything up and race to the next camp site to set it all up before the clients arrive. They not only carry their own backpack, they carry a bag or two on their head and shoulders.  It's a very impressive site!

We arrived at camp pretty early, 11AM.  Today's hike was 4:10, 2 miles and 2,613 feet ascent.  At camp we were once again greeted by the friendly singing which Jamie refers to as Stairway to Heaven because it doesn't seem to end.  We rested for 30 minutes and then started lunch.  Today's lunch was; course 1: an avocado wedge with something piled on top of it and some egg toasted bread thing, after that, course 2: creamy chicken noodle soup, course 3: pasta shells and sauce, course 4: watermelon.  

After lunch we were free to hang out and rest. I was dead-set on trying to get this phone of ours to work. The only place to get signal was about 200 yards from our camp site. It doesn't sound far but it's downhill (which means you have to walk back up hill to the camp site).  I ended up making the trip multiple times, more than I care to admit. After numerous calls to tech support I was able to get the phone on the Echo network which is basically useless. I finally gave up.  Fortunately for us I brought my sat phone which has been working great but still no wi-fi.

At 4 PM we were served popped corn, toasted nuts and tea.  We snacked for a bit and then headed off on a recreational hike.  You might be asking, "If you are hiking for 8 days, why would you do any additional hiking?"  We were asking ourselves the same thing.  When we asked them, the answer we got was "to keep you from getting stiff and to help you acclimate."  Fair enough.  We did a hike around the camp area and saw some of the local attractions. It was more of a walk then a hike and it ended up being worth the effort.

After the hike we cleaned up for dinner.  Dinner was another four course meal which we struggled to get down.  Don't get me wrong, the food was great but the portions were huge.  They kept saying "you're not eating because of the altitude but you have to eat."  We explained that we can't even eat this much at sea level.

After dinner we were all exhausted so we headed right to bed. It was a very chilly night which we got to enjoy over and over again as we all had to pee every 30 minutes.  This 4 liters of water per day is a lot!  At least it was a clear night and the stars were amazing.