Tanzania : Part 4 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 2) : Machame Camp to Shira Cave Camp (6 hours)

060916 - I was awake by 5am and was undecided on what to do. I went to pee. Climbed back into my sleeping bag. Lie awake until 6am. Woke my sister up and told her we needed to start packing. Haha. So, we changed into our trekking attire for the day. Packed our stuff. Climbed out from the tent to brush our teeth and wash our face which froze our fingers (when in contact with water) for a while because it was chilly. 

I went to the kitchen tent to see what our cook was cooking. He was warm inside his tent. How nice. Meet Erick, our lovely cook whose food is yummy! 

Breakfast was at 7.30am. The first dish is the local porridge which is made from red kidney beans and it is really thick. It is plain and hence need to be added with sugar or honey to sweeten it. Our first dish is usually hot liquid to warm ourselves up. 

Our main dish is bread with sausages, vegetables and potato chips. And papaya as dessert.

My sister officially takes over the food distribution among 3 of us.

After breakfast, we lathered our faces with sun block. The sun was glaring. We left by 8am. In the below photo, I was wearing my wind-breaker jacket from Uniqlo. It really breaks the wind from entering into it. So, that means I am warm inside. I was also wearing my buff to cover my throat from the cold air. Unfortunately, this made me really stuffy mid-way as I was sweating from the steep ascend. I shall explain further as you read on. 

Today, our destination is Shira Cave Camp (3,750m) with a distance of 5km. The trail is narrow and Eden, our guide advised us that we have to give way to the porters as we walked the narrow trail. We tried to leave as early as possible to avoid being caught up with the porters but we only managed to leave by 8am. 

After about 50 minutes of huffing and puffing up the rocks (the trail is rocky), we reached a view point to see Mount Meru surrounded by a bed of clouds. All the trekkers stop here to snap a photo.

Do you see the glaring sun? The heat was creeping into me. I was feeling uneasy as I took this photo. I took a few steps and had to stop by the side. I crouched down. My head was spinning. I was getting light-headed. I was feeling nauseous. Eden asked me what kind of body changes am I feeling. I said that I find it hard to breathe but I don't have a headache. I took a Panadol and Clarinase (because I was having flu which unfortunately worsen throughout the trek), removed my red Uniqlo wind-breaker and buff from my throat) and wore my cap. I thought that this cannot be happening to me. I can't be having altitude sickness on Day 2 itself of the trek. Eden said that this is not altitude sickness. 

I felt better after 10 minutes. I stood up and continued the trek. All the porters have passed us. I guess we will be behind the crowd now. As I walked, I realised I must have been overwhelmed by the heat which suffocated me. 

30 minutes later, we reached a huge rock where I could see many trekkers on top. Eden said this is another view point where one can see Mount Kilimanjaro. I got excited. Let's climb up the rock.

From the top of the rock, I could see the view of the trail further up where it keeps ascending up the rocks.

That is me and Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. I looked so much different from an hour ago where I felt like fainting. My sister said I was so pale and she was worried. I wore my cap and a thinner buff. I am better now. The white stuff on my face is the sun block. We only spent 30 minutes on the rock and was back on the trail.

Here, I encountered my first Giant Dendrosenecio Kilimanjari trees which are endemic in Kilimanjaro at an altitude of 3,600 to 4,275m. I got to see one up close the next day.

During our break time where I snapped photos, my sister recorded some birds, and our guide found a telephone signal. Haha.

We saw the national flower of Scotland, the thistles. 

Then, I saw vandalism on the rocks. How shallow these people are. Eden explained that the red marks function as a marker during winter seasons to guide people on the trail as it will be snowing. 

Eden said that these rocks piled up (in a triangular shape) are to wish the trekkers good luck. In Malaysia, I learnt that this is a sign to continue walking ahead. 

At 2pm, we finally set eyes on Shira Cave camp (3,750m)! 6 hours. 5km. The green hut on the right is a new toilet and further down, is another green roof which is the ranger office where we have to register ourselves. There were many tents set up. This huge campsite is even bigger than Machame Camp (our first campsite the day before).

A new and clean toilet has been built in Shira Cave Camp. Our guide said that this toilet is for tourists. But we did not use it because it was far from our tent. We used the smaller one (which the porters and guide use) which is closer to our tent. 

The guide also has to register himself and the assistant guide. Our assistant guide's name is Joseph. 

We have reached our tents! Yay! It was another 5 minutes walk from the rangers' office. By the way, you can charge your mobile phones or batteries in the rangers' office for a fee. I did not know that and brought extra batteries. I was curious about how trekkers who used their phones to snap photos, charge their phones or how my guide charge his phone because his phone was operational everyday. I asked Eden and he told me the phone can be charged for a fee. Unfortunately, Eden does not know the fee. I guess trekkers have been informed that there is no charging available in the mountains. It would be unwise to flood the rangers' office with request to charge their phones. I mean, the trekkers here have been sufficiently pampered with good food, a personal toilet tent, a mess tent, chairs and tables. I think we can make do without our telephones.  

Time to snap some photos before lunch time. My sister's sunglasses are better than mine. Her lenses can be flipped up, and the lenses covers the side of her face too. So, her eyes are fully covered at all angles which is necessary because it is dusty on the trail and the sun is super glaring.

There is a helicopter space next to our tents. Can you see a structure in the middle? That is a toilet which we used during the day. Next to it is a toilet tent that belongs to the yellow tents. Obviously, you cannot use it because it is private property.

Lunch time. Appetiser is fruit salad (so packed with nutrients) and the main dish is bread eaten with vegetable sauce. I love the vegetable sauce. Seriously good.

One of the main attractions in Shira Cave Camp is Shira Cave itself (next to the red sign board). This is a small cave where the porters and the guides used to sleep in before the National Park required them to sleep in tents (because the clients complained to the National Park). Prior to year 2000, the porters and guides will sleep closely next to each other in the small space of the cave. They have to hurry to book their spots in this cave. For other campsites with no caves, the porters and guides sleep in the open around a fire. It gets really cold and many of them suffered from pneumonia. Our assistant guide, Joseph experienced this for many years and I was in awe of his good health and strength. The people of the mountains. 

We were queuing up to see the cave as there was another group inside. When the group left, another group who was behind us cut the line and went inside. I was annoyed. They were a bunch of American guys who obviously has no sense of courtesy. Eden did not mind and even told them to mind their heads. So, we decided to climb up a small hill first to see the panoramic view of Shira Cave Camp and Mount Kilimanjaro. It was not a difficult trail and we did not use our poles. 

We descended from the hill and went to the cave. No queue. Yay. Can you see how small the space is? There were not much clients back then and hence, not many porters and guides. Back then too, there was no regulation to restrict the porters from carrying any weight, therefore, not much porters. 

Picture of me with Mount Kilimanjaro.

We also managed to see the sunset from our tent. It was gorgeous as the sun sets below the clouds and behind the mountains. The sun starts to set by 6.15pm and keeps going down every 3 seconds. It ended by 6.30pm. The protruding peak from the clouds is Mount Meru.

We had peanuts served during tea-time. For dinner, we had bread dipped in vegetable soup, macaroni with stir-fried beef and stir-fried vegetable.

After dinner, we filled our small flask with hot water (because I was starting to cough), cleaned ourselves up with wet wipes and changed to our sleeping clothes, peed and brushed our teeth next to our tent (because it was already dark), and hurried back to our sleeping bags because it was so cold.

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My sister did a video of our 7-day Trek in Kilimanjaro. You can watch the video here (https://vimeo.com/184126352) or click on the below video but the quality is not as good as the one in the link (because the upload size is limited to less than 100MB). Hopefully it works.