Day 2: MTI MKUBWA to SHIRA CAMP

Altitude: 2,895m (9,498ft) - 3,505m (11,500ft)

After a surprisingly chilly night camping in the rainforest and a hearty porridge, bacon and egg breakfast, we continue on the trail leading out of the forest and into a savannah of tall grasses, heather, and volcanic rock draped with lichen beards. Its amazing the point at which the forest changes to moorland, its almost like someone drew a line round the mountain, the trees stop and the heath begins. 

Rainforest giving way to heath

Chilling in the sunshine

The morning isn’t a straight climb up–we spend most of our time dipping down into valleys and back up again. Our overall altitude gain was about 760m (2,500 ft) for the day, but to get there involved a lot of up and down. 

Getting steep

We are reward however with some spectacular views. Some of which remind me of the hills in Scotland, probably due to the fluffy white heather extending as far as the eye can see.

Giant Heather and views

This could be Scotland

They even have Thistles

This is the first time I appreciate how truly amazing our porters actually are. While we attempt the steep inclines “Pole! Pole!” (Swahili for slowly, slowly!), they race past us at lightning speed, loaded with rucksacks and all manner of things on their heads; ranging from the obvious tents ect.to the less obvious, ie. garden furniture. God forbid we get caught short at 15,000ft without our comfy plastic garden chairs! 

The bare necessities

While these guys leap from rock to rock like elegant gazelles we proceed slowly but determined and I’m sure someone mentions elephants at some point during day two! Can they mean us!? So begins our mantra which will follow us in the coming days …. Slow like an elephant! Strong like a lion!

After lunch, we round a bend and get our first view of the summit. Finally! It’s still a long way away and we still have to cross the Shira Plateau, the vast high altitude desert plateau where these first views of Mt Kilimanjaro open on the horizon and the landscape is a magnificent contrast from the departed rain forest. There’s no mistaking Kibo summit with its permanent snow capped glaciers, a very rare sight in the heart of Africa. 

Our first views of the summit

Shira 1 Camp is very different from Big Tree Camp–there are no trees here. It’s in an exposed area with no protection and nowhere to hide if the weather turns bad or the cold wind comes up, but, the view makes up for it. It’s still a ways away–we still haven’t finished crossing the Shira Plateau–but we have a clear view of Kibo Summit from our tents.

The view from camp

And being above the clouds and in an exposed area far away from any major light source also means that we get our first taste of the spectacular night skies up here. Literally stars, beyond stars, beyond stars! Its also the first night we realise standing out in the cold too long after dark is likely to induce frost bite, so our stargazing is short lived! 

Stargazing

To fend of the cold night, one of our porters, Ernest, suggests he fill us each a water bottle with hot water and tuck it inside our sleeping bags!! We love Ernest .. he fast becomes our favourite porter! 

Another day down ...