Rongai Route up Kili - Day 2

We covered quite a bit of ground today, going up fairly steep slopes mostly. We were woken up at 6.30am by the guides themselves offering tea or coffee at each or our tents. They then came half an hour later with a basin of warm water for 'wash wash'. At 7.30am we were expected in the mess tent for breakfast, and what a breakfast!!! Complete with porridge, fresh fruit, omelette and bacon, bread with butter and jam ...mmm.. good start for the day ahead, which we needed. During breakfast they filled our water bottles/sacks to which we then added iodine and ribena, orange tang or naturaliser tablets to give a better taste to to the sterilised water.
We walked 'onwards and upwards' towards the first cave where we stopped for a mini-break then proceeded to the 2nd and larger cave at 3400m for lunch. A lovely al fresco lunch of salad and soup! It was quite an intense day overall, walking on rough terrain with low shrubs and greenery along our way. It was a relief stopping for short-breaks and not cause I was tired but my bladder was about to burst every 2 or less hours with the water I was drinking. I must have drunk at least 5litres that day - I think I broke me personal record, if not for altitude for drinking water!!! After lunch we walked further up, this time among the clouds. I could sense the air was changing together with the scenery. We cheered as we saw our next campsite in the distance which marked another milestone. Yet, the day wasn't over as we had our tea, 'wash wash' and went for our acclimitisation hike of about 200m nearly in the dark. That brought us to about 3800m so that we came down and slept at 3600m. The view (before the sun went down) was fantastic. We were still in-between the two volcanoes however, they were closer.
We had a 'chinese' dinner of fried chicken, with rice and veggies followed by pineapple fritters which we all relished :) After that Ibrahim briefed us for the next day; walk to Mawenzi Turn and therefore reach an elevation of 4330m. Shouldn't be a long day but definitely a steep ascent. That night everyone went to bed early....and some snored like anything!!!!