Kilimanjaro: Day 3 - The shira plateau

Leaving Shira 1 camp

Today could have been packed into day 2, but we drew it out to help acclimatize.  We also started taking some altitude sickness prevention medication today (Diamox).  Today we woke up at about 6:30 had breakfast at 8:00 and started walking at about 9am.  Breakfast today was like most other days: 4-courses and excellent!  We would always start with porridge of which we would eat only 1 or two bowls.  Then we would be served fried bread which resebled buttered toast.  When complete they would bring a plate of sausage and omlete.  Finally we got fresh fruit (mango, watermelon, banana, or orange). Even the hotel couldn't live up to this breakfast.

Looking back where we came from.  The hill is what we descended on Day 2 into the Shira plateau

As we walked, the sun was on our faces as the brush was starting to thin while we crossed the Shira plateau and approached the summit. I did remember sun-screen this time, but my arms were already hurting.  Our packs were light today as we would be at our next camp, Shira 2, by lunch.  

This evening, Katie complained about a little wheeze.  She had a runny nose when we started and we had both eaten a lot of dust so I figured that she just needed to get some of that gunk out of her lungs.  As for myself, I had put sunscreen on, but I was so burnt by this point.

My arm isn't usually this red!  And the watch-tan is rockin'

Here we walked another 10km and climbed only 305m.  We were done within 3.5 hours.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and eating.  Katie's favorite part of this camp (and we also found at other camps) were the tiny birds and mice.  We watched them search for food, then become twitter-paited and run after each other.  The mice had small stipes on their backs and almost looked like chipmuncks, the birds included doves and some hoppy yellow sparrow.  White-necked ravens also hung around our camps which Katie interpreted as a death omen. Tonight we slept at 3 810 m (12 500 ft).

Shira 2 was starting to get above the clouds

Sunset over Shira 2