20 February 2011

Kilimanjaro doesn’t look that far away anymore!! 

It was a long day on the trail.  We trekked for 8 hours.  From a terrain standpont it wasn’t quite as difficult as the past days.  The altitude was another story completely.

We made it up to Lava Tower at 15,190 feet (4630m).  All of us experienced some effects of the altitude – headaches and shortness of breath.  A couple of us felt the effects a little more severely but please don’t worry.  We are now back down a couple of thousand feet to Camp 3 (12,926 feet (3940m)) and everyone has recovered and we are more comfortable.  So goes the acclimitization process for conquering Kili!

After the drenching we took the other day, the weather has been much kinder to us (much like our families back home who have allowed us to do this!)  The temperature fluctuates throughout the day and we find ourselves peeling off and putting on layers as we go.  It’s evening now and there is ice which has formed on our tents.  Overnight, condensation forms on the outside of our sleeping bags and they are somewhat wet when we wake.

Tomorrow is a shorter trekking day but we it will be challanging  as we will have to use our hands to surmount the Barranco Wall. We know, however, that our challanges pale compared to those of the women victims of human trafficking