Mount Kilimanjaro

Day 2: MACHAME CAMP to SHIRA CAMP
12500’ ~3810m ∙ 2.8 mi~5 km ∙ 4-6 hours
After breakfast, we left the glades of the rain forest and continue on an ascending path, crossing the little valley walking along a steep rocky ridge, entering in the moorland zone covered with heather, until the ridge ends. The route now turns west onto a dry river gorge. We reach our camp in time for rest, dinner, and overnight at the Shira Camp.

Slow and steady wins the race. Same pace as yesterday. The trail took us up into mooreland. It was a short day and we ended up getting to camp 2 for lunch. We rested a few hours and had a short walk to acclimatize further. The crew sang us a nice song when we arrived at camp about coffee and other things that would taste good during the climb. We really enjoyed our climbing companions. There was a US family, mom and dad were 62 and 71 respectively along with their adult daughter. We were also joined by a lady from Dubai (29) whose only training was some apartment stairs, she suffered. The porters on our trip were all really nice. We had about 20 porters including guides, cooks, and toilet engineer. Things are so regulated now that the max load they can carry is 20kg (including 5kg of their own) but they still work really hard to make sure you get up the mountain.Read more