Day 5

Barely had I posted the previous entry, or the sun set behind a cliff and the temperature dropped from tropical to freezing. We didn't get dressed quickly enough and so before long we were shivering. We put on more or less everything we had with us and went to dinner. With altitude comes a loss of appetite and we had to force ourselves to eat. At 7 pm we were in "bed."

I didn't sleep very well. The thin mattress pads didn't do a good job protecting from the underlying scree (volcanic gravel). I was hot. Or was I still cold? I went to sleep with thermals and my fleece pants and I had put an additional silk liner in my sleeping bag. I turned on my left because my right side hurt. I turned on my right because my left side hurt. What kind of idea was it to use my dirty laundry bag as a pillow? Normally I put my fleece pants in my camping travel pillow case, but now I was wearing them. The smells emanating from the laundry bag were not conducive to sleeping. I was definitely hot, so I took out the silk liner, my fleece pants, a top layer, and organized my pillow. Oh no! Now I had to go to the toilet and get all dressed again! Luckily Marc was fast asleep, and didn't noticed too much of my endless tossing and turning.

As the next day was another acclimatization day, we started the day very slowly. They brought us our hot tea and water for washing at 7:30. We had a late breakfast and didn't head out until 9:30.

The path left camp steeply. Pitamalia set the pace placing his suede shoes in the volcanic scree. In his hand a half-filled bottle of murky drinking water. Marc was behind me, followed by Hesbon and Frederick. The steep path required all my concentration, but our Tanzanian friends were chit-chatting as if this was a walk in the park.

Pitamalia (I later found out his name was Peter Malya) had a very slow deliberate pace, and I followed in his footsteps. The five of us were walking in lockstep, with the rhythm of a mechanical clock. Each step was the highest step Marc and I had ever taken.

Soon we passed the 5000 m mark. At this altitude half the atmosphere is below you and the air pressure is only half that at sea level. The diaphragm has to work twice as hard to inhale. In addition each breath contains only half the amount of air and therefore oxygen, depriving the body of what it needs to metabolize energy and keep warm. You need both when you climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Luckily neither Marc nor I had any symptoms of altitude sickness.

We were on part of the so-called Rongai route and we walked up to the point where that route rejoins the Marangu route at an altitude of 5174 m. Gilmans point loomed high above us -- another 600 m higher. Tonight we would have to climb all of this in the dark, in our quest to reach Uhuru peak in time to see the sun rise over Africa.

We made it back to camp for a late lunch at 2:30 and then a well-deserved nap. The plan is to have an early dinner, then get up around 11 pm and leave for our final ascent at midnight.

Location:School Hut, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania