I woke to the sounds of the porters moving about at 6am. It was 5 degrees inside the flap of my tent and outside the walls were wet. A great view of Kili from the first campsite. Gibson and Philipo first brought round a tray with coffee and tea, then a bowl of warm water for washing.
Breakfast in the dining tent: Porridge, eggs, hot dog, bread, peanut butter, jam, coffee. I did try the porridge as Jonas had said this morning would be challenging but just couldn't get it down.
We left camp at 7:30 - it was 12 degrees. By 9am, it was 24 degrees. By 11am, it was 30 degrees and I was sweating. I also was wishing I had packed another light shirt - I had been so focused on the keeping warm aspect, I had only packed one! Some quite nice views down to the valley along the way. It was steep and slow going to the lunch break at the Second Caves. Pole, pole. There were a lot of groups ahead of us. About an hour for lunch and then another 3.5 hours of hiking - much easier than the morning - but still tiring. We diverted at this point for the first time and managed to lose some of the crowd. By the end of the day I needed my fleece (We all carried our fleeces in our knapsacks as the weather waas very unpredictable). We were now at 3670m altitude. Already I was filthy. The dust on Kilimanjaro is something else and as it had been so hot, I didn't put on gaiters. (Tip: If you're going to use gaiters, put them on right at the beginning - day 1).My first soap stolen. After washing, a big black bird stole my soap. This happened twice - I think the crew were wondering why I was stealing soap, lol.
This was the day Lisa's bag went missing. We heard a variety of reasons: The porter had succumbed to altitude sickness, the porter had gone the wrong way. It was getting very cold and we wondering if we would all have to crowd into one tent to keep her warm through the night. Finally it arrived after supper.
Supper: Coriander soup, beef stew with rice. (Immodium number 2).
I slept in long johns, wool top, fleece top, and wool socks. Got up at 3am to pee and looked up to see a sky absolutely full of stars.
