Descent to Third Caves Campsite 3936m. This day is the spectacular walk across the saddle separating Mawenzi and Kilimanjaro. But instead of heading for the Kibo Uts, we make a sharp right turn (or heading south) and drop down to the greener valley and camp lower down for better sleep. En route, we pass the wreck of a plane that crashed in bad weather in 2008. You can see the remains of the Rebmann Glacier in the top left corner of the Kili photo above
Kikelelwa Camp to Mawenzi Tarn Hut 4302m – a pleasant 4 hour trek uphill, traversing a dry river bed that still has a few senecios (lobelias) before rising up to the Tarn Hut campsite (see left). While only a small pond left these days, the campsite is spectacular, with views of Mawenzi above. In the evening, we took a sunset walk up to around 4600m for extra acclimatisation.
Ate too many salted almonds and suffered most of the night from gas – the realities of expedition life.
Left: the Kili team, l to r: David, Shani, Juliana, Maureen
Simba Camp to Second Cave 3487m to Kikelelwa Camp 3675m
[SMS received SG1408HRS] We reached 2900m, enroute to the Second Cave for lunch and then a long afternoon to Kikelelwa Camp at 3600m. It is going to be a long day… Weather has been goo so far. We got the first views of Mt Kilimanjaro and Mawenzi.
[SMS received SG 2243HRS] We reached Kikelelwa Camp at 4pm local time. An 8 hr day of treking. We walked thru heathland and traversed east. All are quite tired, but fine.. covering 12km from 2650m-3660m. Tomorrow is a steep climb to Mawenzi Tarn campsite at 4375m, with spectacular views from the saddle between Kili and mawenzi. Managed to wash my stinky shirt from the day before!
Arusha to Rongai Gate – trek begins.End at 2635m. :))) We started the day’s trek from Rongai Gate, 1800m. Was a nice walk until lunch. After that, the going was a bit more challenging.We will spend the night at Simba Camp, 2635m. The weather has turned cloudy and cool. We might get a bit of drizzle later. We are all in good spirits. No one has been eaten by lions yet. David & Maureen (via SMS).
The walk was pretty sweaty and humid to the campsite – but a mellow day in all.
Arusha – Arrived after a 5 hour van ride south of Nairobi and through the Namanga border crossing. No problems with our visas. Today: tooling around the town that is supposed to be the Middle of Africa – exactly midway between Cairo and Cape Town. Picked up a shady Maasai who appointed himself as an offiicial tour guide; ostensibly to pick up tips at the end of the day by showing us things we already knew. Took a while to shake him off. Friendly dude though. Picked up a Tanzanian SIM card, ate some cool chappttis.