Last night I had about 1,5 hours of sleep and I was worried that I would feel tired all day. The thought that I'm climbing one of the seven summits is providing me with a serious amount of energy so I didn't felt sleepy at all.
Not being able to find sleep is actually one of the symptoms that you can experience when your body is adapting to a higher altitude.
We slept at a height of 3000 meters and the temperature was dropping towards 10 degrees, which isn't very cold considering the height.
In the morning the guide brought us some tea, which was nice to start the day with. Afterwards we cleaned out the tent, packed our bags and quickly had breakfast.
Around 8.30 am we could start hiking. The first part of the track was very steep and it was basically a boulder field we needed to get across. It was also very dusty and the low vegetation could not protect us from the blistering sun. There was so much dust that I put my sunglasses on to keep the sand out of my eyes.
We past by a series of jaw dropping viewpoints today and every time we looked in the distance we couldn't believe our eyes.
For a while the beautiful mountain Meru could be seen. Clouds were whirling around the top, this created a nice shadow play on the sides of that mountain.
After 4 hours on the road we spotted the first Moorland Lobelias. These trees are shaped like a pineapple when the tree is still young. When it grows bigger it starts to look like an exploded cabbage. Funny little trees.
When looking into the distance my eye spotted a small crawler. A chameleon that didn’t hide well enough :)
It willingly cooperated in a photoshoot. Funny little creatures.
The guide told us after 5 hours that the hardest part was behind us. However, just 5 minutes later we had to climb with our hand and feet next to some steep overhanging rocks. Our guide seems to have a weird sense of humor.
Near the end of the day the weather changed and soon the first raindrops fell on the dusty trail. Suddenly the thick raindrops changed into a hail storm.
Luckily we were close to the end point, it took us just another 20min. to reach the Shira Caves campsite.
After a few hours the clouds were pulling away from the top of this old volcano and we could see all the way to the glaciers on the summit. A magnificent view.
My belly was singing the song of the lions. It was a pretty hard day and by the end of the afternoon I got really hungry. Tonight we had rice and a local variant of goulash on the menu. Very tasty.
Well, at this point I would eat everything :)
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