Day Four: Flippin’ the Bird the Bird

This is getting ridiculous. It has been two months since we summited Kili, and I have Facebook friends logging on to wish me a good trip.  It is time to finish this blog. 

Smurfette looking chipper as we head out on Day Four

Day four on the mountain amounted to a well-earned downhill jog across a barren landscape to our next tent site, Third Cave.  On day three we slept at 4300 meters.  On day four we crawled in for the night at 3900 meters.  The sun shone on us for most of the day, and it felt blissfully warm.  I found myself slightly annoyed that we seemed to be hiking in the opposite direction of our destination and going downhill when there was so much climbing yet to be done.  Alas I rationalized that we had put our fate in the hands of Team Kilimanjaro. They had done this hike a few times before, and I decided it was best to just chill out and trust their method.  Seriously?  What else was I going to do?  Forge on up the mountain on my own?  Not a chance.  Who would I have for entertainment at every turn if it were not for this nutty bunch of hikers surrounding me?

Smurf assesses the surrounding peeing pebbles

Instead, I relished the long walk accompanied by Howard’s raven friend – the one that had him flippin’ the bird the bird all afternoon (as he was still a tad bitter about the soap eating incident).  I enjoyed the opportunity to relax in the sun before lunch as our porters set up tents and the cook whipped up some ground beef crepes.  The quote of the day on this spectacular afternoon came from Jeff who had concluded that, “even a camel will pee on Diamox.”  This particular situation was becoming more and more challenging as the trees had just disappeared from the landscape and the boulders seemed to be fewer and farther between.  Random pebbles were deemed worthy pee spots from this point on. 

A rocky campsite at Third Cave

You guessed it!  Third Cave

What lay ahead was a day of hiking, an afternoon of resting and, then, a midnight summit push which would end sixteen hours later. Much of the peeing to be done on the final push would take place in the cover of darkness.  We only had another day to endure the overly public Diamox-enhanced relief routine of our fellow hikers. 

Chris and Howard contemplate life with two
toilet options in the background.

Feeling giddy, nervous and ready to get this over with, I slept well on my gravelly tent site – banishing the pre-race jitters for another day.