This morning my camelbak started leaking and I had to empty out all the water. Luckily most of my stuff in the pack was in ziplock bags. But that left me with only one liter of water for the day. (Ironically, I had originally packed a second water bottle for just such a situation but my bag was too full so out it came). In the photo you can see the path we initially followed; however we diverted to the right onto another trail about 1/2 way down. You may also be able to see a small white building at the base of the mountain if you click on the photo and follow the trail - that is Kibo Huts, where we later descended from the summit.Jonas advised us to wear long pants as the Saddle gets very windy. Indeed I needed my medium fleece, hat, gloves and jacket and my ears were still cold. At 10:30 we came to the wreckage where a small tourist plane crashed in 2008. Kind of eerie, the scraps of twisted metal still scattered around there.
It was shortly after that we diverted onto an alternate route. At times I could not even see a path but then I realized there were piles of rocks marking the way. It was a long day and I was quite tired by the time we reached camp. People were very quiet at lunch (Leek soup, carrot/bean frittata type thing, bread and fruit). Thankfully we had most of the afternoon off and it was much warmer in camp, being in a sheltered location. I had yet another soap stolen by the same damm bird and tried to air out some of my socks.I managed to fix my camelbak thankfully - had a screw loose. My camera battery was still holding up. I was thinking a lot about Cindy and her surgery tomorrow and wished I could contact her somehow. Cell phone service spotty at best. Some have managed to send text messages to their families.
Lisa and Jim started working out tips today. Tips are contentious here. I was glad they took it on. We decided to give a set amount as prescribed by the Porters' Association recommendations to each person (Guides get the most, then Asst Guides and the Cook, then Porters). And then if we felt we wanted to tip someone for extra personal service, we could do so individually. This made a lot of sense to me. And I had to laugh when Lisa told us she had 36 individual small plastic bags on her.
There were less people at this campsite. It was very barren - hardly any plants - just a lot of volcanic rock. As I fell asleep, I could hear other trekkers talking about the summit attempt and not knowing what to expect. I had a lovely view of Kili from my tent - it seemed still so far away. Hard to believe we were going up to the very top the next day.
