The 2nd day marked the start of the 'real' hike in my mind. We started around 3000 meters, and our guide Frankie started us out with a very slow pace, so we could get used to the altitude. The plus side is that we never really got tired – we were taking a step, pause, step, pause... probably around ½ normal walking pace. Sometimes excruciatingly slow, but we all knew it was for the best.
The landscape got much better as well – we were able to see a teasing glimpse of Kili's peak, and then moved into more of a scrub brush environment. Kili is rare in that it features almost every type of climate on its slopes, from desert to glacier to rain forests, so you're never bored for variety.
The other plus side was that we were treated to a far 'greener' look than normal... the rainy season meant that flowers were blooming all over, so we were lucky.
The campsite was a nice surprise as well – the Machame route is based on having us hike high during the day, and then come down slightly to sleep... that's supposed to be the best for AMS.
Brace yourself – it seems that each of our campsites treated us to amazing views of the surrounding peaks and valleys, plus we were above the clouds.
In my little videos I'll be uploading once I find a @#$! decent connection, embarrassingly for a liberal arts dude, I always seemed to get stuck with 'amazing' and 'gorgeous' – Kili really cries out for a much wider range of adjectives, but 'fab', 'gnarly', and 'wicked' didn't seem to fit ;)
Day 3 and 4
The next two days went pretty third day was were we started to settle into a routine... we woke up as usual 'round 6:30, had a full breakfast, tea, and ulagi (porridge), and were on the trail by 8.
They weren't actually that tiring – we'd put in about 5-6 hours on the trail, then wind up in camp around 2. Some tea, popcorn and lots of card games rounded out the afternoon – the guides/porters really kept us super fed – and we lazed around until dinner at 6, and were in bed by 8. Not really the rock star lifestyle, but once the sun went down, our body clocks seemed to tell us it was time to crash.
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