Kikelelwa Cave and up and up and ....

Day 2 began with a guide waking us up and offering us tea or coffee. They actually delivered the tea to the tent, asked how we were and brought us 'wash wash,' a tub of water. We packed our stuff up, headed to the meal tent and enjoyed a great breakfast of eggs, fruit, bread (and for the meat eaters out there, lots of that too). We began hiking, through moorland, stopping for a hot lunch along the way at 2nd cave. The terrain was pretty steep today, lots of rocks, lots of ups and downs, scenery has changed so much in just two days of hiking. After lunch, it seemed we began heading straight to Mawenzi, one of the three peaks, which nobody climbs, it is too steep and rocky. One of our fellow hikers, Michael, had a GPS with him, so we could see our progress. We had climbed 12.6 kilometers, just under 8 miles, finished the day another 900 meters higher than we began. Flowers were abundant, including two diferent kinds of gladiolas, impatients, many yellow flowers. I saw many birds, mostly Arctic chats and Ravens. In fact, Ravens were even found at the very top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I saw wild dogs and buffalo...poop. We saw a path where the elephants walk through, chipmunks an even beetles. I was excited to be able to see the clouds below me and above me. We even got just a bit of rain in the afternoon. The next day we traveled for only 3-4 hours, between breakfast and lunch climbing 750 meters to Mawenzi turn. In the afternoon we took a short hike of about an hour climbing another 150metes up and back down, a bit of an acclimitization climb. That day was also very exciting for everyone on the mountain, inaugurtion day. As the day went on, those with iphones were checking to see how the party was progressing, I hear it was incredible, I'd love to hear some stories (hint, hint). Anyhow, the acclimitization walk took us closer to Mawenzi, so beautiful, we got to see just how steep and rocky it really is. About ten minutes later is when the rain and then snow began to fall. As we climbed back down, the snow turned to rain. It was a good excuse to sit in the mess tent and play cards, eat popcorn and chocolate and drink tea.

In the morning, the base of Mawenzi and a beautiful tiny lake were our welcome as we climbed from our tents into the cold, cold, cold. We walked over a ridge, crossed an area of the mountain and then across the kilimanjaro saddle the entire thing, a very gentle climb, in fact I didn't even notice we were climbing at all, it just seemed to go on forever, its what we all imagine walking on the moon would be like, nothing but dirt, craters and big bolders. 370 meters was all the elevation we gained over the course of about six hours.

We made it...to Kibo Hut, the first hurdle at 4700 meters, 15, 419 feet. We were asked to sign in again. We were fed...again and then rested for a few hours until dinner and then rest again, preparation for the midnight start.