Day 2

Marc and I woke up around 4:30 am. It had stopped raining, and so we took a look outside. The clouds had lifted and we were treated to the most amazing sky. Stars were everywhere and we got a clear view of the Milky Way. No one else was up, though, so we went back to bed.

We were woken up at 6:20 with two cups of hot tea. Everything was damp from the rain. My wet shirt from yesterday was still soaked. After breakfast, we packed our gear and headed out around 8.

We had about 12 km to walk and 1000 m to climb. The path headed into the last bit of forest, which was slowly thinning out and giving way to grassy moorland. We made a short side excursion to the extinct Maundi crater, now filled with vegetation.

The flora sometimes resembles what you see in the Alps, but in addition there were plants you see only here: lobelias and tall groundsels that look almost prehistoric and that reminded me a bit of the Joshua tree in the American southwest.

As we gained altitude we caught our first glimpses of Kibo and Mawenzi, the two tallest peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro, separated by some 10 km. The lower Mawenzi is jagged and too dangerous to climb. Kibo is covered by several glaciers. It's quite amazing to have snow just a few degrees from the equator.

The path climbed steadily and because of the gorgeous weather and the excellent path we made good headway, reaching our lunch spot around noon. The porters, who had left ahead of us, had set a table and the cook had prepared a hot lunch.

After lunch it was just 90 minutes to Horombo huts at 3721 m. Horombo is a small village with several dozen small A-frame huts. We washed up and now we are having tea.

Horombo will be our home for the next two days as we take an acclimatization day. That doesn't mean we'll rest -- we will climb all the way to Mawenzi huts at 4780 m to get used to the thin air and then immediately come back down to Horombo.



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Location:Horombo huts