To Shira Camp 1

By 7am we were woken up the energetic waiter who happily announced his arrival to our tent and brought us freshly brewed ginger tea and to check up on our health condition. We were both feeling well and ready for a brand new day with brand new experiences.

After a well-consumed breakfast consisting of Tanzanian oatmeal, egg and bread we sat out on an expected 7-hour hike thru lush rolling hills. The pace was pole-pole today, which in Swahili means slowly-slowly and certainly a more sustainable pace for acclimatization and to avoid the dreading altitude sickness and sore legs.

The altitude sickness was continuously in our mind and we kept checking out each other’s state of mind. Last night was the final time to decide for Diamox. The tablets must be taken prior to reaching the altitude of 3000 meters as a preventive measure for altitude sickness. My original thought was not to take the Diamox due to the side effects it can give and after listen to many of the successful climbers at the hotel most have taken the tablets but not without scary stories of the side effects. I was between a rock and a hard place. The choice was to get sick of altitude or to get sick of the Diamox. I decided to take 125 gram of Diamox daily and increase if necessary at higher altitude.

Throughout the night the rain had continued and the temperature had dropped by several degrees. The first couple of morning hours felt a bit chilly and the warm weather clothes came out from the damp bags. Prior to the climb I realized that I did not have any rain gear with me so I had got some oversized from the hotel and that later turned out to be the best outfit in my bag. The rainy season supposedly starts in March so not much rain was expected this time of the year but gee the trails were already becoming very muddy and dangerous slippery.

We ascended thru a lush rain forest and it was such a blessing to breath in the cool fresh mountain air. A gorgeous way to spend a Sunday morning with a stroll on the mountainside with a stunning view of Mount Kilimanjaro.

It was very clear when we reached the altitude of 3000 meters. The lush rolling hills became sparser and the scenery became more rock draped. It was a day of pleasure and we reached our final altitude of 3400 meters at Shira camp 1 without much effort or struggle.