Day 3 - Shira Camp to Moir Camp

Wednesday 29/08/2012

11,520 ft - 13,700ft

10.5 km
7 hrs

1662 Calories

Woke up to find ice on the tent and frozen grass. I asked Wilbert if he knew what the temperature got to last night and he took a guess at 0 degrees. As I keep saying, it's only going to get colder from here on up.

I had a better night than the first two but the toilet dashes were hell - so cold!

 

Mt Kilimanjaro is made up of three volcanoes and Kibo is the highest and the one used for climbing.   This morning we got our first clear view of Kibo. The cloud from yesterday had cleared and Kibo stood majestically in front of us and is capped with more snow than I expected. It looks absolutely beautiful and scarey! Very high! I can't quite believe we are going to climb her. Kibo not only looks much higher than I expected but from here she still looks a long way off.


On today's hike we move from the Heather Zone to the Moorland Zone.

The first two hours is spent walking across the Shira Plateau, which is quite relaxing and a very easy hike. The landscape is sparse but beautiful in its own way, with small flowers scattered here and there amongst the rock formations.

Kibo stands majestically in the foreground all day long, so we have plenty of time to enjoy the view and contemplating how on earth we are going to climb to her summit.

Walking across Shira Plateau got very cruisey and I chilled out by first listening to the Creative Visualisation that Tracey Carmichael had prepared for me. She based it on inspiring me to reach my dream and to see myself standing on the top of Kilimanjaro....and it works...thanks Tracey:)

I then listened to a play list of my relaxing songs...some easy listening, R&B, Blues, Jazz that sort of thing. Basically good Gin and Tonic or Port and Coffee music....but it can be adapted to a hike on Shira when needed.

Just before lunch the plateau ends and there is a very steep climb you have to work through to get fed. And then another very steep one after lunch. Two hours of hiking from lunch to camp and most of it was very testing.

At the end of the day I again had a slight headache, but nothing to worry about. Diamox fixed it quickly.

However, Seth is not well at all. He clearly has early signs of Altitude Sickness. His headache is an 8/10, he has nausea and has lost his appetite, he only managed a piece of bread for dinner. He goes off to bed with Wilbert checking on him frequently.

I probably should explain at this point that each day Wilbert tests our pulse and blood oxygen concentration twice a day to help establish if we are acclimatising correctly. It can become quite worrisome while we wait for our readings but Wilbert keeps telling us it's just a number to help them assess how we are acclimatising....mmmmh wonder when that number triggers a warning signal, Wilbert doesn't seem to want to elaborate on that one, I guess it's best he knows and we don't worry.

While Wilbert was looking after Seth, Nick and I had a chat about some things that had been advertised in all the promotional paperwork, downloads, video and web site but had not appeared as yet on our hike. We were all paying the Platinum Package, which automatically includes heaps of stuff, such as sleeping bag, two mattresses, hiking poles, portable toilet, all tips AND a PORTABLE SHOWER.

We were now on day three and no shower had appeared. I was pretty annoyed at this as the shower extra was one of my choice categories when selecting a climbing company. So, I mentioned it to Nick and asked what he thought.- like, I expected it every night and what did he expect? Nick surprised me by replying "what about the hot water bottles? We paid Platinum and showers and hot water bottles were supposed to be included!". I had forgotten about the hot water bottles, being so focused on when am I going to get my well earned shower? So, I said well that's it I'm asking for them. When Wilbert came back to the mess tent, I asked him first about the hot water bottles and his response was, I'll organise that for you...like, yes please and can I have one tonight as it's getting very cold!

Then I asked about the showers and his response was that it is not really practical to set the shower up for less than four climbers (we were three). However, if we wanted one he would organise it for tomorrow afternoon...okay, yes please - after all we had paid for this and there is nothing in the advertising of Kiliwarriuors that says you only get some Platinum privileges if there are four or more climbers!

Well as it turned out, we never did get the promised shower but did get a hot water bottle every night.

FOOTNOTE: 
After returning to Australia I raised the question with Carol of Kiliwarriors - about the  hot water bottles and missing shower.  Carol was genuinely concerned about this and looked into it very promptly.  She assured me the normal practice is that showers are offered every few nights, whenever water access is nearby.  And that hot water bottles are offered after the second night when it really starts to get cold.  In their 10 years of operation, there has never been a complaint of this nature so she was very concerned to get to the bottom of it.  We exchanged emails a few times regarding this matter and it is possible that we may have misunderstood Wilbert - maybe he said they offer showers before 4.00pm while the sun is still warm.

I am more than satisfied that Carol has addressed this "one off" incident and accept it could have been a miscommunication between us and Wilbert.  In the whole scheme of things, the lack of a shower turned out to be a minor issue, as you will see when you read on and learn what an amazing job the Kiliwarrior team did for us.