Sunday, July 2, 2023; Day 3

I slept somewhat more comfortably in the night — my sleeping pad, inflated by our porters before we got to Shira 1, was not overfilled and provided a bit more comfort than it had before. I also learned the trick of zipping my puffy coat down into a small pillow which worked better than struggling with the awkward one built into the sleeping pad. As I sipped my morning coffee, I jotted down a short note in my journal:

Today’s slated to be an easy day – a 4 hour hike to Shira 2 before lunch, then a short acclimatization walk in the afternoon. My breathing still feels good, and my only real worry is the consistent gurgle in my belly. Fingers crossed.

We got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise while getting ready for breakfast.

Unlike our prior mornings, our path now seemed pretty simple — “walk that way.”

After breakfast, brushing our teeth, and repacking our duffels, we form our morning huddle and sing our little song before heading out:

The day’s hike isn’t quite as flat as it looks, but it is much flatter than our prior days’ efforts. It’s mostly a series of small rolling hills, with a tiny river crossing just outside of camp.

An hour or so later, while sitting on a rock during a water/potty stop, I can more clearly observe the groups of porters flying by. Most are wearing boots from REI and the like, although a few are wearing surprising choices like Jordans and even boat shoes. I muse that many of the porters have surprisingly large feet, relative to their comparatively small stature. Later I blame mental haziness from the altitude and lack of sleep for how long it takes me to arrive at the obvious realization that they’re mostly wearing boots left behind by past hikers, and while you can’t wear a boot that’s too small, you can wear one that’s too big.

I took the opportunity to apply sunblock to my face and hands, and then wandered off a few hundred feet to find a rock large enough to pee behind. As was the case from here on out (where the flatness of the terrain meant there weren’t as many concealed places to relieve oneself), there were gross piles of toilet paper on the far side of the rocks, left behind by hikers who weren’t following the rules (and probably weren’t blessed with toilet tents). Yuck.

In the late morning, we stop for a snack break on a rocky hillside overlooking some interesting trees:

Speaking of snacks, our guides supply us with two before we set out each morning: usually one is a packet of dried fruit which I enjoy, and a dense ball or bar made from nuts, chocolate, and seeds. While the latter are tasty, I usually don’t eat them in favor of the peanut/chocolate protein bars I’ve brought from home, whose flavor I prefer and which are a weight in my bag that I’d like to reduce. :)

After an easy morning’s hike, we arrive at Shira 2 around lunchtime and sign in at the ranger station. The camp is on a ridge line with incredible views of Mount Meru poking out over the clouds below.

It’s easily the prettiest camp so far, and I suspect that it might end up being the best one of the trip – it’s sunny and cool but not cold. From here, Kili is cloudless and looms much larger in our field of view than it did from Shira 1.

But as impressive as Kili is, I think the sea of clouds below us from here to Meru is even more beautiful.

I take the opportunity to wander around camp, taking pictures of the mountains and some of the flora that manages to live at this high elevation:

We notice that the porters have congregated on some giant boulders at the bottom of the camp and many of them are chatting on cell phones, so several of our trekmates head there to try to make calls and investigate their still-missing luggage:

We’re at real altitude now, just under 13000 feet, but after lunch we’ll take a short hike up over 13000 feet to help our bodies adjust to the elevation we’ll be crossing through tomorrow. The primary reason that hikers fail to summit Kili is altitude sickness, and our tour’s combination of going slow and “hike high, sleep low” is meant to ensure that we acclimatize as much as we can.

The acclimatization hike up to over 13000 feet took under an hour and wasn’t difficult. It felt great to not have my backpack on for the acclimatization hike. While the pack’s bladder is more convenient than carrying a water bottle, by now I’d concluded that dragging my big camera (and its bag) everywhere was probably a mistake. I can only hope that when I finally get to see its pictures on a big screen I’ll decide it was worth it after all.

We ended our ascent at a patch of giant boulders with cairns delicately perched atop them.

Looking back toward camp, the view was even more impressive:

There was a bit of grumbling about having to descend– losing hard-won steps upward seemed like a waste. Had I followed the guidance to leave my poles behind, I would’ve likely fallen at least three times on the scree (“loose gravel”) on the way back down.

I changed into my thermals before dinner, resolved not to repeat the prior night’s panic.

Tomorrow, we’ll hike to the Lava tower, our highest altitude yet (~15K feet!), before descending to a camp at around the same altitude we’re at now.

Exciting times!

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