First Full Day - Hakuna Matata

Perpetual camp follower

 They call me Simba, it has become my trail name. Kinda stuck.

7/9 Oddly enough the first camp is also called Simba. 

Simba Camp

I think this is a gladiola?

Initial view of 2nd Cave

Our campsite

Sign for the 2nd Cave camp

Better view of 2nd Cave

Angel & Benjamin

Mawenzi, one of the 3 peaks of Kilimanjaro
Mawenzi Tarn camp is near the base

Have stick, will trek

Little more of the flora, some sort of 
'everlasting' flower

Looking back down on our camp site

Simba camp to Second Cave, 11,440 FT, 52°F, RH 87%, wind 5-7 MPH, damp. Slow walk up, it took about four hours on what should probably have been about 2 hours (at sea level, haha). I was very hot and sweaty, again. Had to take my rain jacket off, left with just a t-shirt. Then took off my rain pants, my jeans were soaked from sweat. It's cloudy at Second Cave camp - then it rather suddenly cleared and the sun came out for a bit. Got to dry my shirt, jacket, & maybe my shorts, all soaked from yesterday. Diamox makes you pee - a lot! Up at 11 PM & 2 AM last night. Although it is hard to drink as much as the guides would seem to like us to. I don't need water to cool off when we stop because I'm sweating like a horse. Kili wasn't quite so shy, came 'out' for a couple pictures. 

We got to camp around 1 PM today, had lunch, then a rest. Thought it was going to rain but thankfully it didn't. Then we took a short 'stress test' hike up to 11,900 FT and back down.

Got a few more pictures and back to camp by 5:45 PM, supper is at 6:30 PM. Then try to pee some more before hitting the sack. There are two ravens here looking for hand outs. Oh, and we saw a lot of buffalo 'exhaust' along the trail up here. However we have seen no other animals than the ravens. Apparently elephants are not unknown around these parts as well as wild dogs.

Sun is going down and it's starting to get chilly. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight.