Day 2 of 7

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 2/7

Trek from Machame Camp to Shira Camp (3847m) on southern edge of Shira Plateau. 

We'll get up early and after breakfast climb an hour or so to the top of the forest and then for 2 hours at a gentler gradient through the moorland zone. 

It is normal to experience mild headaches on this day, which should be alleviated with paracetamol. 

Those choosing to take Diamox should begin their course this morning with half a tablet (125mg) in the morning and the other half prior to supper in the evening. 

After a short lunch and rest, we'll continue up a rocky ridge onto the Shira plateau and after a short hike we will reach the Shira campsite.

Distance hiked today is 5.2km - 6 Hours. 

Enjoy dinner and overnight. (I wonder if Mr Delivery will make it up here and how long do you think they'll take?)

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

We had a good night's sleep although not everyone did. I highly recommend taking ear plugs- you will need them every night of the trip. 

The other piece of kit that is pretty much essential is a compact thermal blow up mattress. Ours was very thin, but did the job perfectly. It doesn't take up too much room or weight and I don't think our trip would have been the same had we not taken this item.

We were woken up at 7am. Breakfast is at 7:30 and we begin day 2 of our hike at 8:00.

Breakfast, by the way is oats to start. There was also bread with any eggy thing on top and jam / peanut butter etc. Coffee was still on the menu at this altitude as well as the tea & cocoa.

The first portion of the hike (8:00 start to 12:30 for lunch) was surprisingly steep. We just kept going up and up and up.

Here you can see the porters and other climbers making their way up the very steep gradient

Here is Rayson, our guide at our lunch table. It took us 4 1/2 hours to get here so we were very grateful for the break and lunch.

After our 30 minute lunch break we hiked for a further 2 hours.  The terrain changed again, it did flatten out a little. The weather also rolled in. It threatened to rain on us, but we were prepared with our rain gear, poncho's etc.

With the clouds in and most the hikers way ahead of us, it was eerily quiet and felt as though we had the mountain to ourselves. 

Well, not entirely to ourselves - there was some debate over the possibility of zombies and vampires hiding in the cloud cover...

We finally reached Shira Camp at 2.10pm. I think we were the last ones to the camp (again!) but we were greeted with our porters singing 'Kilimanjaro' songs to us, which was really awesome!

Once we got in, unpacked and got to the mess tent for our snacks (popcorn & drinks) the rain and hail came down - we were lucky to just miss it.

We were given an hour or so to relax, during which time the weather cleared and we got another awesome glimpse of the peak.

We were quite happy that today would be a 'short' day. All that walking is exhausting and by Shira camp we were starting to feel the air thinning. Its a very strange sensation - everything you do just seems a lot more difficult to do. Walking from here to there leaves you feel a little tired.

Nevertheless, our guide thought it would be a great idea to go for a hike. Hmmm, what else are you going to do up there, I suppose?

The point, of course, is to 'walk high, sleep low'. Its all part of acclimatising. So we hiked for an hour and spent some time on top of a rock - it did have stunning views which made up for it.

After the hike we were allowed to have the rest of the day off. Which meant just moseying around the camp site. Getting to know some fellow hikers and of course having dinner. It was lights out (sun down) by 8pm, so we got an 'early night'.

So, to recap; today we hiked from Machame Camp to Shira Camp (3847m). In total this took us about 5 1/2 hours. We then hiked in the afternoon for a further 1-2 hours.

On the Diamox front, we were feeling fine so they recommended that we don't take anything until we needed to. Diamox is of course a diuretic and so we didn't want to have to deal with those affects until we really had to.

Speaking of which... Toilets: They have long-drops at each camp. If you need to go en-route, you have to find a place off the path that is acceptable to you. As the days go by you become much less fussy about where you go and how much privacy you need. 

The long-drops themselves are little wooden boxes (no doors) that have a hole in the ground and two wooden foot places on either side of the hole. You have to stand on there and then squat.

Very unfortunately, a lot of people don't seem to have the ability to aim well (perhaps it's the altitude!) and they frequently miss. Making our toilet going experience really, really awful. 

I won't go into detail about the smell, but I will say, take something to cover your mouth and nose and if you have something like Vick's or tiger balm - use it.

For the most part, I waited until we left camp to go - the idea of nearly vomiting while squatting was too much to bear.