The stats:

• Acclimatization Day! We stayed at Horombo Hut and did a small out and back hike.
• 7.0 km to Zebra Rock and back to camp
• 3.25 hours from 9:15am until 12:30pm
• 300m gain and descent.
• Easy day and feeling no altitude sickness or side effects! Our training helped.

It’s a good thing we got to sleep in until 7:00 this morning! It took us a long time to get warm enough to fall asleep last night. But we are always happy to see Juma bringing us a hot thermos of tea and then our buckets of hot water. We are only able to clean the bare minimum. We are going to be disgusting by the end of this!

Breakfast is large and delicious again; eggs, French toast, crepes, porridge and mangos. Jason is noticing that his appetite is not what it should be. He has been full since lunch yesterday and can’t seem to get past it. This must be a bit of the altitude effects.

We are also noticing the effects at camp when we have to walk from our cabin to the mess hall. Actually, getting to the mess hall is easy because it is downhill. Going back to our cabin however, phew! Walking the two hundred meters completely gasses us! It is humbling and a little bit embarrassing. This is what happens when you aren’t being properly paced by your guides. Exhaustion! As today was the first day we saw the peak peeking through the clouds, this exhaustion was eye-opening. Are we even going to make it??

Our amazing crew, however, are noticing no such side effects. They are bundles of energy, always there to help us out, make us smile and make our life just easier in general. We manage to gather them all at once for a group shot. LOVE THESE GUYS!!

Even though today is a rest day, we chose to do a little side hike to Zebra Rock. We will gain 300m of elevation which will bring us to the highest we have ever been! It will also give all of us some insight on how I will be able to make it down the mountain in my knee brace. I hadn’t appreciated until now just how concerned Charles and Ola were. To be honest, I was also wondering what it would be like, but I was remaining confident.

The hike was mostly through a dried-up riverbed with lots of stones and rocks. We got to experience sun, rain, wind, clouds, and mist on our short hike. Luckily, no snow! Zebra Rock is aptly named. Large swaths of black and white rock along a ridge wall caused by lava rock and rainwater. It was stunning and nothing like we’d ever seen before. Lots of firsts for us on this trek!

The weather was starting to change for the worse so we made our way back down to camp. I am happy to report that walking downhill for an hour did not bother my knee at all. Phew! I just might make if off this mountain under my own steam after all.

Another gorgeous hot lunch was waiting for us at camp. Pumpkin soup (Can I just say that I want to bring Simon home with us if only to make us soups!), a spicy veggie salad, chicken and French fries.

Now we have the whole day to ourselves. We bundle up and bring our things down to the mess hall where the electricity is more consistent. We spend some time culling pictures, journaling, and playing some games on our phone. There is no Wi-Fi and our e-sim isn’t good for Mt. Kilimanjaro, so we don’t have any internet. No texting, no email, no looking things up. Nope, just good old-fashioned time wasting. Until Juma and Ola find a way for us to hotspot off them so Jason can send a quick text to the family letting them know we are still alive!

Popcorn and tea show up for our afternoon snack. They just love to feed us. By this time, our lack of sleep is catching up with us so we head back to the room to take a nap before dinner. Except that literally as we were making our way there, the clouds parted and the sun came out with such a force that we had to stop, take off our layers and bake in the sunbeam. It was glorious. One of those moments you must take advantage of. 10 minutes of pure heat and bliss before the next cloud moved in. It warmed us to our bones. Then we went for a nap.

Leek soup and African Pizza for supper finished the day for us. Back in the hut we organized  our stuff to make sure we had the proper things packed in our daypacks and then we were ready for bed. It wasn’t even 8:00pm. That is way too early. Jason was able to kill some time making a playlist for the coming days. I told him to call it “Get You’re a$$ Up the Mountain!”