Day 4 - 1000m and more! (Feb 14)

Simba Camp to Kikelelwa Camp via Second Cave
Distance: 11.75 km; altitude gained: 1040m
Simba Camp - 2635m (8645 ft)
Second Cave - 3487m (11,440 ft)
Kikelelwa Camp - 3675m (12,057 ft)

Our tent at sunrise (~6:30 AM)

After a very rainy night, we awoke to a clear sky and a beautiful sunrise shortly after our 6 AM wake-up "call".  This was our "test" day to see how quickly we could get ready in the morning.  The quicker we got ready, the later we could sleep the next day.  But, it was also cold.  And we were tired. Our 6 AM wake-up call quickly became routine and comprised of two porters (who also served as our "servers" at mealtimes) rapping at our tent.  "Wake up time!"  This was promptly followed by their request to enter the tent.  They would unzip the main tent and then unzip our sleeping compartment and offer Olivia and I mugs, hot water and tea, coffee or hot chocolate, plus all the various accompanying condiments (sugar, milk, etc...).  We would then sip our tea from the cozy comfort of our sleeping bags before dragging ourselves out into the cold air to change and pack our luggage for the porters to continue to haul up the mountain.  After day 1 (and probably since we took so long to get ready), Joshua told us not to bother trying to stuff our sleeping bags in their sacks as part of the packing routine.  "Leave it to the porters," he told us.  But Olivia was a trooper and would fight with her sleeping bag each morning to stuff it into the sack, even as the altitude nearly made it a losing battle each morning. 


Breakfast followed the packing and we headed to the mess tent for what would quickly become my favorite meal of the day.  Tea, toast, porridge, freshly cooked eggs (which I raved about the entire trip), "sausages" (which really just looked like extra pink hot dogs), fruit (mango, papaya, banana, green oranges, etc...) and once or twice crepes were the standard breakfast fare. Following breakfast, we'd prepare our water supplies for the day's hike (usually 2 liters).  Regarding the water, I was thrilled to have brought a camelbak (despite the fact that some websites advised against it since it will freeze on summit night), as it made consuming water on the trail much easier. For those considering a climb, I highly recommend bringing one for every day including summit day, when only the mouthpiece froze and was easily warmed up enough to be usable. I'll also reiterate here that after drinking the chlorinated water for less than a day, I was also thrilled to have brought plenty of gatorade and flavor packets which also made it significantly easier to drink the large amounts of water that we needed to combat altitude sickness.

A little after 7:30, we were on the trail and I knew it would be a tough day (after summit day, I think this was the toughest day of the trip).  Not only would we be climbing over 1000m today, which is more elevation gain than I had done on any of my training hikes, but it would be over a relatively short distance (the first 800m in about 5 km), plus our final campsite would be at an elevation higher than I had ever been at previously. 

We were fortunate, however, to have an impressive and picture-perfect view of the Kibo peak less than 10 minutes into the hike. Look straight ahead, it's Kibo peak. Look to the left, it's Mawenzi peak. Look behind you, it's the Kenyan plains. The view, in itself, was enough motivation to carry me through the tough morning climb. 

Porter carrying supplies up Kili

View of Mawenzi peak from the trail

Not a bad view for a hiking break
L to R: Ed, Imogen, Bridget, Catherine, Olivia

After a 3.5 hour slog up the trail, we arrived at our lunch destination, Second Cave.  It's here where the trail splits and those doing a five day climb hike on to Third Caves, where we would be spending our fourth night on the mountain.  We proceeded, however, towards the Mawenzi peak, in order to better acclimate to the altitude.

Lunch at Second Cave (L to R: Ed, Olivia, Bridget, Imogen)

 Upon arrival at Second Cave, Joshua told us to put on our jackets (we were all in short-sleeves or sleeveless shirts). Once we stopped moving, the weather felt pretty cold, pretty quickly. We obliged and sat down at the outdoor table that was prepared for our lunch. Lunch today consisted of: cream of mushroom soup; a cheese, tomato and pepper sandwich on a hamburger bun; cucumber salad; green beans and carrots; and the most delicious tasting french fries! We all agreed that the chef must have heard us talking on the way up to Second Cave, as we had all been discussing our cravings for french fries.  It's amazing what they can cook on the side of a mountain and we quickly learned the words for very good (mzuri sana) and delicious (Tam!).

Tam sana!

Before leaving our lunch destination, Ed decided that he would try to help the porters out by carrying one of their loads.  That lasted all of about 15 ft. (Ed, I assume we'll be on speaking terms again around July now...)

Ed, trying out for a new role as a porter

Back on the trail

For the afternoon's hike, we happily had over 6 km to gain another ~200m in altitude.  It may sound easy, however, I can assure you that after a tough morning hike and, at over 11,000 ft above sea level, this was no walk in the park.  The good news was that we had some interesting diversions to break up the afternoon, including some impressive views of Kenya as well as stops at some caves.  The most interesting of which was only recently discovered and is, as of yet, still unnamed.  This unnamed cave seemed to go on forever (not unlike like blog...) and we had to wear our headlamps for the first 200 ft or so into the cave, after which point we decided that we had better turn around.

Our group in the unnamed cave

L to R: Catherine, Olivia, Imogen, Ed, Bridget

Another cave and 2.5 hours later (around 3:30 PM), we arrived at Kikelelwa Camp, which gave us plenty of time before dinner to check out the area, have our afternoon popcorn and tea and freshen up.  During this time, I also had Olivia help me with my backpack, as my shoulders were killing me.  We tightened up the chest strap and waist strap, helping the pack to sit better on my back and not put so much weight on my shoulders. 

Bridget at Kikelelwa Camp

White necked raven atop an outhouse

This was the first camp where we were above the clouds.  As the sun set, clouds were rolling in, covering the grounds in a layer of mist.  Nearby, we could hear singing (and what sounded like soccer chants) coming from a neighboring climb group's porters. We were warned to keep our tents zipped up from this point onward, as the birds (and other ground creatures, i.e., mice) would be perfectly happy to find a temporary home in one of our warm-ish tents.  One of our bedtime stories from Joshua was about a woman who had left her tent unzipped, gone to the bathroom, returned to her tent, stripped naked and climbed into her sleeping bag only to find a mouse had taken up residence while she was gone.  The next thing he knew, the woman started screaming and ran out of her tent completely nude.  Quite the show, I'm sure.  Lesson learned - our tent would remain zipped unless we were entering or exiting.

View from Kikelelwa Camp, above the clouds

Playing Uno at 11,440 ft elevation

Dinner that evening was followed by a competitive game of Uno in the sleeping tent that Olivia and I shared.  We were lucky enough to have all five climbers pile into our sleeping compartment for the game to help warm it up because once the sun went down, it was absolutely freezing.  By the time everyone left around 10:30, it was 40 degrees inside our tent and even colder outside. Definitely too cold to do anything but crawl inside our sleeping bags for another good night's rest.