Kili Climb - Day 4 (Sept 4, 2009)

On this morning we woke to frost on the ground and we now were starting to feel the cccooold and I'm starting to run out of layers. Again, we also woke up to some more amazing views of the clouds below and Mt. Mawenzi with the morning sun. I don't know, but there's something about that mountain (Mt. Mawenzi is an ancient volcano that is now crumbling) that makes me not able to take my eyes off of it. Absolutely stunning as the wind would generate puffs of clouds off the warming peak.

Today we would retrace our climb up the side of Mawenzi and climb back down further to the valley and down toward Camp Horombo. This would be another 1/2 day hike where we would get to sleep at a lower altitude. I sense our porters’ strategy: get us all well rested for the first 5 days, then hit us hard with 2 days of non stop climbing at the finish. But after 4 days of hiking, we were not real excited to hike back down the mountain; we just wanted to get to the top. It was a bit frustrating to not be hiking toward Kilimanjaro but around it and down for that matter. But we get it; our porters are amazing and they know what they are doing. They need us to walk slow, save our energy and acclimatize. Along with climbing high and sleeping low, you increase your chances of success on summit day.

Today's hike took us through some amazing scenery and I could not keep my camera put away. I took so many pictures of rocks, flowers and landscapes because the coloring this morning was amazing. This is such beautiful country! There was a mist of clouds in the air as well that made some of the photos incredibly beautiful. On the way down we saw an unusual rock formation called Zebra Rock that was naturally striped (you guessed it) like a zebra. There were all sorts of what looked like cactus trees in the valley below that contained amazing shades of green (I love green) that looked so untouched and bizarre for this area. You'll notice in many of the photos there are rocks that are stacked on top of each other. No this is not natural. :) Kili park management uses these rock settings to mark the trail when there is snow on the ground.








On another note, I think we were all really starting to smell at this point as none of us had showered since we left. So. Much. Dust. Although, we've been able to wash our faces and hands in the morning and in the evening before breakfast and dinner, you never get rid of the dirt. I feel I have developed so many layers of dirt, sunscreen, deet (for mosquitoes, even though there are none at this altitude) and soap on my skin that if you could probably perform an analysis on my skin alone and determine how long I've been camping. ;-)

The good news at this camp however is that they sell Beer!! While relaxing out on a rock that afternoon, we saw another team just come down from the summit... and they looked tired. One of them had a lot of trouble, but all succeeded. That would be us in two days.