Teal Diva climbs Mt Kilimanjaro Day 2

And so we begin Day 2.  We wake up to a beautiful day!!!  We are all still so excited.  So let me also start by saying that we were told if there was any wildlife on the mountain (which is highly unlikely), it would be an elephant or water buffalo looking for food.  During the night, I needed to go to the bathroom and I made JJ go with me because I heard something outside our tent and I totally thought it was an elephant or Water Buffalo.  It is amazing what your mind can do...I probably heard the wind blow and somehow associated that with giant footsteps. 

Breakfast was just as amazing as dinner.  Hotdogs, Western Omelet, porage, probably some fried potatoes of some sort, homemade toast, peanut butter, jam, hot tea, coffee, etc.  I was not and never will be a porage eater.  I determined this at the hotel.  JJ says porage is like oatmeal.  This was pureed and like a brown color.  When I tried it the first (and only) time, I was told to add honey or sugar and it would taste better...I don't know if that is true.  The feelings I had...nothing could make that taste any better.  Now that is my personal opinion.  Mikey (JJ) ate it almost every time it was served. 

We also woke up to a beautiful view of the mountain.  There were all sorts of hot air balloons too.  We weren't really sure what they were doing because the air is so thin in relation to where they were.  Someone said they thought they were photo balloons...I don't know. 

Now I wish I had amazing stories to share about the group, but I REALLY was behind the entire trip.  It was almost as if I had a private guide.  I saw everyone in the morning and when we got to the next camp. I just didn't want you to think I was leaving anyone out of my stories.

We are like little ants marching...

It's pretty amazing how fast the clouds move in.  Apparently the clouds are created from the moisture from the Rain Forest.  They can completely hide a mountain within minutes.

Today, my guide was Flora.  He is quiet.  He has a beautiful smile.  So as our day went on, I was out of breathe...shocker.  I was sweating.  But I turn around and look at Flora and he is walking with his arms crossed not even breaking a sweat.  Flora was a little bit harder to get to open up than Rama.  But I eventually broke him down and before you know it...he was helping me learn the Kilimanjaro song (again, I will post that on further into the story). 

So we consistently stay about 30 minutes behind the group, thanks to yours truly.  We can see in the distance the porters and other hikers.  I think it is pretty important to mention our porters.  These guys carry all of our luggage from one camp to the next...on their heads.  They set everything up for our arrival and tear everything down.  They buzz by us like it's no big deal on the trails. 

Here is the trail we are following today.  It's a lot more dusty today.  Look at the brush by the trail and you can see the dust.

Because we (I) are walking so slow, we don't take many breaks.  We try to constantly catch up with the others.  We have been told water is the mountain medicine.  So I have tried to remember that and drink lots.  Today, I have run out of water...I drank about 2 liters.  Huge shocker because I don't typically drink that much water.  With the group being about 30 minutes ahead of us, Flora radios them and they leave water for us.  The one thing I remember him saying was "EdooEdooEdoo".  I don't know what it means but I liked repeating it.  I later found out it was the guys name on the other end of the radio, Eddie/Edwin and this was Flora's nickname for him.  Anyway, Edoo-Edoo tells him he will leave a sign as to where the water is.   It's pretty amazing how you can communicate through nature.  All throughout our hike, we found different markers where people had made signs for others.  Here was our sign for the water.  It is a trail of branches...

We end up taking a photo opportunity at a cave.   Apparently, people would sleep in these caves prior to having tents.  Flora was kind enough to take some pictures of us. I was a little reluctant to go into the cave in fear of bats.  Now, people had told us there was no need to worry about wildlife while on the mountain...I just found this hard to believe being that we were in Africa...but they were right, we never saw really anything...ON THE MOUNTAIN.

Peek-a-boo

In case you are wondering what we have around our legs...they are called gaiters and they help keep your pants clean and help keep rocks out of your shoes, etc.  So we end our day at another camp.  Today we are tired.  We are dusty and dirty and we have gained a lot in altitude.  We had a fantastic lunch and dinner prepared for us.