Day 2 - High on Africa

shira encampment 3900m

15:45 local time

14 degrees Celsius

Departing at 08:30 this morning, the group ascended comfortably from 2900 meters to Shira encampment at 3 900 m. Apart from a few headaches, the group has handled the climb very well. To the great relief,of every single person, day 2 has been free of mud and has been a most enjoyable hike. Hiking out of the rainforest, we have gone through the moorlands and are now camped in the upper regions of the heather. For the first time and with whoops of excitement, we got our first glimpse of the mountain, the BIG ONE. The mist continues to roll in and out and views of te summit are intermittent. I look over my shoulder and the full glory of Kilimanjaro is impossible to ignore. The camp lies sprawling next to me and most of the group is relaxing around camp. A few members have gone for a short hike and are making the most of the opportunity to acclimatise. The sun, with the mist, is not seen for too long at any time and the eerie feeling of rapidly fluctuating temperatures is strange to put in words.

High on Africa is also going very well. Dawie and Lance are acclimatising well and not much can be said in terms of things going wrong.. Unfortunately, a misplaced transformer has blown our only power supply for the digital camera and it's thus far impossible to transmit pictures. This has been a great dissappointment for us and we're pulling out all the stops to download pictures while we're on the mountain. We will certainly be able to download once we're off the mountain, but this of course is not the ideal. We'll make the most of what we have in the meantime.

Meanwhile, the group has had a few comments.

Warren Spiro - "It's hard work, but it's worth it"

Justin Gilham - "So far, so good - Looking forward to the summit"

Jonathan Collie - "Had first glimpse of the summit. Very excited"

Mike Jarvis - "Spectacular !"

Marc Solomon - "I'm thrilled to be out of the mud"

Ian Goldin - "Feeling High !

Mike van Zyl - Hannes Strydom "Ons is hier op 4000 meter. Ons voel fris en gesond. Ons het die pragtigste uitsig oor Kilimanjaro. Dit lyk nog na 'n stywe pad voor, maar ons SAL dit maak. Groete

Lydia Solomon - "So Far so good - Loving it"

Mark Francis - "I hope my pins last"

Volker Schmidt - "It's quite tough up to now. Much tougher than the Coca-Cola route up to now, but much more picturescue and challenging. Food is excellent!"

Toni Bold - "You can't really think at altitude, but then again, neither at sea level."Marco Raposo De Barbosa - ""Still only an our away - right !"

Dawie Cronje - " Happy Mzungu's in the mist !" ( Mzungu - Pale skinned travellers from the west)