Kilimanjaro Day 2 – Mti Mkubwa Camp to Shira I Camp

Kilimanjaro Day 2
Mti Mkubwa Camp (9,071′) to Shira I Camp (11,439′)
Zone: Rain Forest to Heath Moorland Zone
Quoted Distance: 10km/6.2 miles
Guide Service: Everlasting Tanzania

I did it! I camped! I can no longer say that I have never camped because last night I slept in a tent. And it was fine! In fact, I was relatively comfortable. I am really glad I ended up getting the oversized Big Agnes Echo Park 0 bag because it had plenty of room for me to roll from side to side and I never felt claustrophobic in it. I also love that it slips over the corners of my sleeping pad to keep it all together. I did slide off the foam mattress pad a bit and that was annoying but not terrible. As I laid awake trying to fall asleep last night I came to the realization that the noise I was hearing was not my tent rubbing together, it was somebody snoring nearby! At some point in the night I woke up to hear another snorer joining the chorus, and at another point I could hear three snorers and realized that two of them were Katie and Kyra. And what kept waking me up at night? Blue monkeys howling and causing a raucous. Monkeys are assholes at 2 in the morning.

Last night Saidi told us that breakfast would be at 7:30 and we should be packed up by then. At 6:30 we’d have our wake up call. I set my alarm for 6:20 so I wouldn’t be startled by the “wake up call” but it didn’t matter, I was up and awake by 5:15. Some time after 6 I could hear that Katie and Shane were awake, everyone seemed to be stirring and we had a little check in with each other, yelling from our tents to see how everyone slept last night.

At 6:30 on the dot Essau and Kasimu were in front of our tents, going from “door to door” asking which type of tea we’d each like. Since this journey is supposed to be caffeine free I went with my new tea of choice, mint. It was 56F in my tent and the warm tea was just what I needed. I may have looked like a wreck but I felt decently rested.

Shane and Katie, she is such a chipper morning person, were outside narrating the blue monkeys who were trying to steal food from our camp kitchen. Katie didn’t have her phone on her to take pictures so I handed her mine from my tent while I finished packing up. I’m pretty proud that, while not exactly streamlined, it wasn’t too terrible getting my bedding rolled back up and everything packed into my duffels this morning. And I even figured out how to put my gators on by myself!

Breakfast started with porridge that looked bland but holy smokes; so delicious! After the porridge the food kept coming; toast, crepes, sausages, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, mango, papaya. They even made Kyra her own gluten-free pancakes; showing her the packaging for the mix as they served her so she could be certain. Those pancakes were insanely good, the rest of us were jealous that we didn’t get any! Another condiment appeared on the table this morning for our breakfast spread, nutella! I made a breakfast sandwich with my toast, eggs, and veggies and folded the nutella into my crepes. In my research I’ve read that the mountain diet consists of a lot of fast digesting carbs and, damn, no joke. Chaz was sitting with us for breakfast, when we asked him how he slept he told us, “So terrible, I only got 3 hours. Saidi so loud all night.” A ha! So that loud snorer I heard first was Saidi! Kyra to the rescue; she offered Chaz ear plugs to see if that would help him get more sleep tonight. Shane was anxious to get going and didn’t want to sit down for breakfast but he was like a monkey, grabbing food every time he walked by the dining tent.

The most exciting thing about this morning? It wasn’t raining! The sky was blue and the sun was shining! The porters had all the wet gear draped across bushes and vines in hopes of drying it out before packing up.

Saidi informed us that we’d be in the rain forest zone for about another hour before we entered the heath moorland zone of the mountain. With blue skies, the rain forest zone was even more beautiful with its lush bold green foliage and beautiful flowers. However, that didn’t last long. Within the first half hour the blue was turning gray and the sun was filtered. When we came upon the everlasting flower, Saidi explained to us that it was the flower that inspired the name of their guide company, Everlasting Tanzania. I love the everlasting flowers! They are extremely reminiscent of straw flowers; one of my favorites at home!

The air grew damper and mistier as we moved through the final parts of the rain forest zone. It wasn’t steep and had some downhill undulations. We were all in a good mood and I was enjoying myself; actually able to take in the beauty of the rain forest and its foliage without the distraction of yesterday’s heavier rain.

With practically a clear divide, the terrain changed from mountain rain forest to the heather moorland zone (I figured out that heath and heather are both appropriate terms). The tall trees gave way to shorter shrubs and open views. Saidi continued to teach us about the mountain flora, showing us one plant that is commonly made into a tea and used as pain medication. It smelled delicious and I regret that I didn’t take some with me to make into tea at camp.

Katie had the fun idea that we all needed Swahili nicknames to use on the mountain and tasked Saidi with assigning them to us. While Saidi was thinking we heard singing coming from behind. Our lead porter, Swaeba, was approaching with Chaz; singing his heart out. Per Saidi, he’s also the group song leader. We sang along and danced to their Kilimanjaro hype songs; so much fun!

Our cook, Steven, came up behind them throwing up knuckles for all of us. Something about the essence of Steven makes me think that this man has ganja on him somewhere. Saidi told the three men his assignment and the porters stopped to help him come up with our names. Chaz proudly declared that he was Simba! Saidi clarified that the nicknames were for us and Chaz said ok, but he still was assigning himself Simba and Saidi as Elephant. Back to the mission of our nicknames, they assigned Shane’s first, Zambwela, explaining to us that Zambwela is a famous “funny guy” in Tanzania so when you call someone Zambwela it’s calling them a funny guy. Kyra got hers next; first they declared her to be Dicky Dooday who is a famous entertainer but then they immediately changed hers to Manka, which means “mountain woman.” It is very fitting her nature loving spirit and also matched the words on her hat. Katie got hers next, Mama Yeyo, Masai for a woman who has her own family. There could not be a more fitting nickname for her and her nurturing spirit. They weren’t ready to assign my nickname yet and so I was left in suspense over who I am!

I needed to pee so I walked down the trail around a corner for some privacy. Pulling out my trustee pee funnel packet I was feeling smug about what a great find they were when, um, well, I realized that I was having a pee funnel fail. Maybe squatting is just easier.

The terrain of the trail itself was evolving from the previous mountain zone with stones starting to create obstacles on the trail. The air was also getting cooler as we climbed and had less foliage to provide insulation from the open valleys below. Saidi pointed out the path ahead for the rest of the day; explaining that we go down and up and down and up and down and up and then across and over and up and across and over two ridges, before we would then descend again to get to camp. The ridges looked soooooooo far away! I tried to distract myself from thinking about the distance by reveling in my own reminder that it’s about the journey, not the destination.

Saidi continued his lessons on the foliage and I was excited when he showed us the proteas! I actually know someone who is trying to master growing proteas back in California so I had to make sure to get some good pictures to show them and I cannot wait to tell them all about proteas in the wild. The mist grew thicker into a mild rain so we put on our ponchos. I’m usually a fan of the downhill sections but the trail became slick with mud which created extra challenges.

The rain stopped so we took our ponchos off. Kyra and I cheesed for the camera while Katie took a solo pee break. But within a couple minutes the rain started again, this time harder than it had been all day. So back on went our ponchos, Kyra in her blueberry glory and me in my green monster with the hood that keeps sliding down and covering my eyes.

We navigated our way through the trail, narrow with large rocks and boulders lining the sides. About an hour later the rain stopped again and we stripped our ponchos back off. The proteas lining our trail were now in bloom and really are mesmerizing flowers.

We climbed above the clouds and stopped for a break. We all snacked amongst the protea blooms while large ravens begged for crumbs. Katie happily chowed down on her gummy worms, that girl loves her sour gummies. Shane retaped his feet. I took more pictures of proteas and then, for some reason, felt compelled to hop on top of the rocks for my own little dance party while Saidi and Chaz sang. It was a balmy 59F and the rain had stopped again so I was happy as a clam.

With snacks in all of our bellies and good moods we began climbing along the first ridge. We had to do some bouldering before the trail became friendlier again. Do you know what a pain in the ass bouldering is when you are in a poncho that is trying to trip you up on every step? And everything is slick and wet? As we hiked along we played the alphabet game to entertain ourselves and distract from the wet task at hand. Our first category was “things you can find in an REI.” I was good at that one. The next category was “places in Africa,” I was not so good at that one. It was a fun distraction.

But then the rain was back harder yet again and we had to pull our poncho hoods up, making it harder to call out words and making us need to pay closer attention to our steps so we weren’t slipping in the mud. Saidi showed us another species of the everlasting flowers. I really need to plant some. The rain came and went and came and went. Never constant and never gone for long. With all of us ladies needing to pee again, we took a short break and formed our first official, literal, pee circle. Squatting together in the rocks as we passed around toilet paper and a dog poop bag for our trash. It was really quite efficient.

We descended down the ridge and off in the distance, far below, was Shira I Camp, our destination. It had been almost 7 hours since we left camp this morning and we were finally getting close! To our surprise, we saw people headed towards us on the trail. As the people got closer we recognized them as some of our porters, they had come to meet us and take our packs, including Chaz and Saidi’s so we could finish the day without them strapped on us! The relief of getting the packs off and hiking free of added weight is indescribable, like shedding half your body weight! How amazing are these porters?! They run ahead of us carrying at least four times as much weight as we have, get to our camp, get everything set up and take care of whatever camp errands need to get done, and THEN hike back up the trail to find us and help us finish the day. We threatened to shed happy tears that I think were equally over getting our packs off and the amazing support from our team. Our porters now hiked at our pace, staying with us so our day packs were still on hand if we needed them. So so happy!

Telling Chaz how much we appreciated the porters, he responded by explaining to me how vital climbers, like us, are to the porters. It’s how they are able to feed and house themselves and their families, and get an education. They appreciate us. It really is a symbiotic relationship between climbers and porters. We continued descending the ridge into the valley, the ground muddy but the rain at least back on pause. We saw our first helicopter rescue landing pad, and 35 minutes after our hero porters showed up to help with our bags, we made it to Shira I Camp.

Lunch was ready and as Essau waited to feed us, Chaz declared that they had come up with my nickname, Bibi Kidude (pronounced Ka DooDay), the name of some superstar from Zanzibar. I’ll take it. Lunch was a filling meal of toast, spaghetti, saucy beef, and steamed vegetables. So damn good. As Essau served us he cheekily commented, “For summitttt” as he added a little more than each of us wanted to our plates. This man is determined to keep us fed!

After eating we retreated into our tents to get set up before the sun set, it’s so much easier to set up and organize when there’s more light out! Shane hollered for us to hurry and come out of our tents, there was something we needed to see. The clouds were briefly parting and there, in view for our first time since we got onto the mountain, a peak was sneaking through, her snow capped top barely visible in a narrow sliver of an opening in the clouds. Holy crap it’s soooooo far away! The sun was trying so hard to come out and started to really peek through but that lasted for about 35 seconds before the clouds rolled back over and the glimpse was gone.

Even though we had eaten a solid meal around 5pm, that was just lunch and at 8pm Steven, Essau, and Kasimu had dinner ready for us. We feasted again, this time on butternut squash soup, chicken, green beans, and rice. With Essau again adding more than any of us wanted, “For summittt.”

Tucked in my “bed” before 9, I was ready to get a good night’s rest. Thanks to my cocktail of sleep meds and the long day I was falling asleep quickly. Kyra, however, was not falling asleep and had gotten out of her tent. Standing right beside mine she got excited that she could see the Southern Cross constellation (I do know that is indeed her favorite, I event sent her a picture of it from Chile last month because I thought of her as soon as I saw it.) She might have been talking to Shane? I’m honestly not sure. But she was talking, sharing her adoration for the Southern Cross. “Can you talk about the Southern Cross somewhere else?” I yelled out, “I’m trying to sleep!” Kyra responded by asking, “Can you and Katie NOT yell between tents and talk before wakeup call in the morning?” “Deal!” And with that, I’m not sure what Kyra did, if she moved elsewhere to talk or went to bed, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that the quiet was back and I could fall asleep.