“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”

(Henry David Thoreau)

July 11, 2017

I did not sleep well during my first night on the mountain.  I do not know if it was due to not being used to sleeping in a tent during the night, but I only caught a few hours of sleep.  I woke up very tired.  I knew this was not ideal knowing that I had a full day of climbing ahead of me.  Day two would be much longer than day one.  However, after drinking some tea and eating a good breakfast I was ready to take on day two like a champ.

We started our journey by continuing to trek through the African forest.  For the first few hours, we trekked through the heavy green forest, and then we gradually arrived at the heather.

When I finally arrived at the heather, it felt like I walked into a portal to an entirely different world.  I guess I now know how Alice in Wonderland felt when she arrived at the other side of the rabbit hole.  During the first day and a half, I could not see the sky because I was hiking through the thick forest. However, once I finally arrived at the heather the trail opened up and the view was gorgeous.  I could literally see for miles. Once I hiked upward to one point, I turned around and saw Kenya in the distance.

After hiking into the early afternoon it was finally time to relax and have lunch.

I really enjoyed my lunch break.  It gave me an opportunity to eat a wonderful meal and rest my legs.  I also drank as much water as possible in order to prevent altitude sickness and dehydration.

Most of the hiking after our lunch break consisted of climbing uphill for several hours over the rocky and uneven terrain.  This was the part of the hike where I began doubting myself.  I gasped for air, and my legs grew heavier and heavier with each additional step. As I grew weary,  I wondered if I was actually prepared for this grueling journey.

The video above shows only a few seconds of what kind of hiking I suffered through on the second day of my climb.  The video below shows the part one summary of my day two adventure.

Overall, I hiked over six hours, and with only an hour left on the hike, I was finally able to see the magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro.

I hiked around the side of a hill and then BOOM, Mount Kilimanjaro was in full view. This was the first time in two days that I could finally see the mountain.  When I finally saw the mountain in the distance, I felt like I had a spiritual experience.  I was stunned by its unique beauty.  I felt chills all over my body.  The mountain just stuck out of the earth high into the sky above the clouds.

When I first saw the mountain, my initial reaction was Holy S#&t! How are we going to get to the top of that mountain within the next six days?   At this point in the afternoon, our second-day hike was almost over.  The mountain was still miles away.  The next one to two hours consisted of hiking downward on flat terrain.  I was relieved knowing I would soon be arriving at  Shira Camp 1 (Camp 2).

Sawsan decided to take a group selfie during a short break.

I finally arrived at Shira Camp in mid-afternoon.  I was extremely tired.  Every muscle in my legs ached.  I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, enjoying the beautiful weather and the gorgeous view of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The nice thing about arriving at camp in the early in the afternoon is that I had plenty of down time before dinner.  I took the extra time as an opportunity to take some amazing pictures of the mountain and its beautiful surroundings.  The extra time also gave me an opportunity to talk with the other members of my trekking group and get to know them a little better.  On this particular afternoon, I had a long discussion with Sawsan and Marc.  Sawsan was a wonderful young lady from the Congo who had the ability to speak several languages.  Marc is a school teacher in Boston.  Marc was hilarious and his sense of humor kept me laughing all the way to Uhuru Peak.

After sitting around camp for a few hours drinking tea and enjoying the view, it was finally time for dinner.  By the time dinner began, I was ready to eat and then head to my tent for the night for much-needed rest.

Thinking back, one thing I was concerned about before I started my nine-day trek was whether or not I would enjoy the meals.   However, after my first day of eating amazing food my concern quickly faded away.  The dinner I had on night 2 did not disappoint.  And yes it was as good as it looked.

After dinner, our guide, Edward, made us check our pulse and oxygen level before retiring for the night.  I really do not remember what the results were that night for me, but thankfully I was told they were normal.  Soon thereafter, I went straight to my tent to fall into a deep slumber.

In a perfect world, before falling to sleep, I would write a wonderful journal entry about my daily adventure.  However, this is not a perfect world.  Once my head hit my pillow, I was out like a light.  But I woke up after only sleeping for a few hours.  I then wrote in my journal early in the morning on July 12, 2017 at 1:02 a.m.:

Day 2 was very challenging.  We hiked over 6 hours and about 4.5 of those hours was hiking up steep hills.  The weather was very hot.  It was very sunny and you could see out in the distance for miles.  We had lunch in between a beautiful mountain range, then the next two hours we hiked up steep rocky hills.  However, it was very rewarding.  Finally with about an hour left in the hike we came into full view of Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance and it was almost like a spiritual experience, because it was so beautiful. . . Dinner was amazing.  However, I did get very tired around 8 p.m. every night.  I think it is due to the time change and also by how hard we hike every day.  Once the sun goes down it gets very cold.  However, for some reason I always wake up in the middle of the night.  I don’t know why, because I feel very comfortable.  Tomorrow is going to be a short day, but we are going to hike above 12,000 ft. Right now we are at about 11,300 feet.  I look forward to see what tomorrow brings.   Entry completed at 1:14 a.m. July 12, 2017. 

I also thought it would be fun to record a video journal entry as well explaining my thoughts after day two of my trek.  Below is a video I recorded in the middle of the night of July 12, 2017 around the same time I wrote in my journal.  You can see I am pretty darn tired in the video, but I wanted to record my thoughts and feelings as I was experiencing them.

After I made this video I crawled back into my warm sleeping bag and went to bed.  I knew that it was important that I get my rest.  I was exhausted during the last hour or so of my hike during day two, and I knew that my journey was just going to get tougher.  Thankfully, I slept well the rest of the night and I woke up ready to conquer day three.