Day 8 Kilimanjaro – Oct 3, 2013 Shira Camp 3845m

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I awoke before our ‘alarm’ (our waiter Ema bringing hot water for tea or coffee). What a pleasant way to start the day! Shortly a nice bowl of hot water for washing up is brought to our tents and we are then served breakfast in the dining tent.

We were served porridge, fruit, coffee and tea which we enjoyed immensely. And then came the main course of toast, eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers! We were surprised as none of us had left room for more. We decided we better eat though as we don’t know what is in store for us today – almost like fattening up the calf or the sacrificial lamb!

By 8:00am, we were on the trail following Winston, John, and John, our trusty guides. We are very spoiled to have three, one for each of us! The trail this morning is more of a natural trail through the forest and is much steeper than yesterday. The sun is shining and we get a fabulous view of the top of Kilimanjaro – what a view.

We stop for a break about an hour later and take some nice photos of the clouds beneath us. Good job we did as within the next hour the clouds enveloped us and a fine misty rain was our companion for the balance of the trek.

The trail was continuously steep with some rock scrambling thrown in for good measure! We all managed quite nicely and by 1:45pm we arrive at Shira 2 Camp. After removing our wet clothes and changing into something comfortable, Ema serves us lunch of homemade soup, toasted tomato and cucumber sandwiches, pasta, spinach and donairs. We are so spoiled.

The balance of the afternoon is ours to enjoy. I spend it in my tent catching up on this blog while I hear the pitter patter of rain on my tent. Ooooh I love my sleeping bag.

Around 6pm I got up and headed to the dining tent while Si and Jim were still napping. Ema brought in hot water and popcorn which was delightful. Following the popcorn Ema brought us a yummy dinner and, of course, I ate too much of it.

We were all pooped so off to bed we went. I was sleeping by close to 9pm, cozy in my sleeping bag.