Vicious and Delicious Kilimanjaro Climb and Wildlife Safari Dispatch
October 4, 2013 – Vicious and Delicious Meals at 15,300 Feet
It’s the afternoon of Friday the 4th of October and I am calling you from 16,000 feet. Our weather has changed; we had clouds today but after the beautiful clear morning light that you see in the photographs the sky continued to remain clear. We have had some clouds coming and going but I am standing now at 16,000 feet looking all the way up to Stella Point, 3000 feet above us. That’s where we will climb tomorrow on our attempt to reach the Crater Rim and our Crater Camp and possible climb all the way to the very summit of Kilimanjaro.
You may have heard that people lose their appetites at altitude. That is certainly not true if you are acclimatized and the food is prepared well. Yesterday for lunch I watched this group, after they had hiked for a while, devour their lunch. It started with Pringles, potato chips and cucumber soup. Then the fried chicken and French fries, deviled eggs and fresh green beans and cream sauce came and it was gone before you could believe it. There was no conversation we were all just wolfing it down.
Today for lunch at 15,300 feet at Barafu Camp we had hamburgers and avocado salad and some other great stuff. So, we are eating well, we are healthy and tomorrow we are going to attempt to climb to Stella Point. We will give you some news as we go higher and for now just know that this team is doing great! We will keep you posted as we get closer to the summit.
Listen to Wally's call
What a morning! The team with our mountain behind.
We awoke to the classic view of a floor of clouds over the forest reaching across to Mt. Meru.
The glaciers of Kibo and the top of Kilimanjaro rose above us from Karanga in the clear morning sky.
Lunch at 15,300 feet. We are at Barafu Camp for a lunch break. After lunch we will climb to our own high camp at 16,000 feet. We have a fantastic view of the second volcano of Kilimanjaro, Mwenzi, to the east. Mwenzi’s jagged spires reach to nearly 17,000 feet.