Woke up at the timely hour of 06:30, with the help of my flatmate’s trusty Casio watch. I hadn’t slept well, given my headache. I was longing for a proper pillow already - a laundry bag of socks just doesn’t cut it.
By this point, each pair had been privately assigned specific porters, who would tend to our specific bags and tents. We were never introduced to them, but noticed it was always the same guys who took our big bags and packed/setup our tents.
The usual morning routine was for either a porter or M’Sofia (the chef’s assistant) to bring us each a bowl of water to ‘shower’ and do our business. Everyone else was a more modest, but I went all out, usually just outside my tent. I’d gone for my usual serial-killer/mental-patient haircut so I could wash without fuss.
After our wash, we’d head bleary-eyed into the mess tent for breakfast, which usually consisted of copious amounts of coffee and some Western-ish breakfast … pseudo-porridge, or some sort of sausage and eggs (probably not necessarily from pigs or chickens).
Following breakfast, we’d get some sort of briefing from Ibrahim, on what we should expect from the day’s trek, and what we should carry for the day. Then we’d have maybe half an hour to pack our stuff up and head out.
Today, we’d be heading out towards Shira, which was about 6km away, but we’d be going a bit further and higher (3900m) then coming down to down to camp to acclimatize.
I broke out with the trekking poles today, just to get a feel for them. I only really needed them for downhill (having wrecked my knee on a previous trip), but having spent a hundred quid on these ridiculously technical poles, I felt I needed to get my money’s worth ….
Today’s walk took us up above the clouds, which was pretty spectacular and not surprisingly this is where the vegetation starts to thin out and everything looks a bit more mountain-y.
By the time we pulled up into Shira camp, a fog had rolled in and everything was looking very swampy and eerie. Looks like we got in just in time, ‘cos it started to rain about this point. However, it was only mid-afternoon, so we had to amuse ourselves for a bit before dinner. James had gone off to pass out already, so I went toilet-exploring with Gemma and Katherine.
On a side-note - toilets on the Kili trail are not for the faint of heart. Thanks to the countless numbers of trekkers and porters who pass through the area, the already basic facilities get pretty messed up, festival-style. That’s before you factor in the lack of electricity, local bug population and occasional long drop. If you don’t know what a long-drop is, you could probably hazard a good guess …
Also nearby was Shira Cave where the porters used to make camp, but they’ve since been forbidden, for whatever conservation reasons.
At some point in the middle of the night, a heroic porter had arrived with Jackie’s bag …