After tea, we all emerged from our tents for various morning rituals and the packing of personal gear back into drybags for our porter crew. Breakfast was served in our dining tent around 7:30, another fabulous meal of freshly cooked eggs, thick bacon, coffee and juice, and something called “ugali”, a thick porridge that reminded all of us of Cream of Wheat, and was actually pretty tasty! Another great meal to start our second day, and around 8:30 it was time to hit the trail. Hefting our daypacks, we climbed steadily though the heath forest from 9,000’ and passed through two miles above sea level. The trail on Day 2 was every bit as well-defined as from Day 1, although a little on the steeper and rockier side.

As we broke out of the thick forest into more of a moorland environment, the views opened up behind us to reveal the hazy Tanzanian plains and the symmetric shape of Mt. Meru, almost 15,000 high, in nearby Arusha National Park. On the mountain around us, low clouds gathered and broke in dramatic fashion, making the temperatures rise and dip quite rapidly. By the time we added or shed a layer to accommodate, we had to do it all over again! Unfortunately, even when the skies were mostly clear we didn’t have any view of the summit, which was obscured by the foothills around us.

As with our first day, lunch was set-up and waiting as we crossed a small plateau at around 11,000’ feet. Our lunch table was once again ready as we approached, and was populated with platters of fresh fruit, cookies, chips, fried fish and hot water for drinks. A few of the other tour groups on the mountain were actually taking pictures of our spread as we sat down to eat a hearty lunch. With the weather moving in and out, though, we didn’t dawdle much, and were back on the trail within about 30 minutes. Once again, our porter crew cleaned up, broke everything down, packed up and soon passed us on the trail.

The second half of Day 2 was a rocky ascending traverse to the Shira plateau, at about 12,300. The plateau provided incredible views of Meru and the plains below, the cities of Arusha and Moshi hidden beneath the haze. As we hiked onto the plateau, finding our campsite was not difficult…the bright blue dining tent was like a locator beacon, and we found ourselves once again with an excellent campsite, situated about a quarter-mile away from the rapidly growing tent city. We asked our guides how we seemed to have the nicest campsites, and they told us that a couple of the porters were specifically tasked with the job of running ahead of everyone else and staking out the campsite every morning. Talk about service!

We rolled into camp at about 4:00pm, everyone breaking for their tents and drybags for the afternoon set-up routine. Hot drinks and snacks (nuts and popcorn) were available in the dining tent. On a clear day, the summit block of Kilimanjaro would dominate the view of the plateau opposite view of Meru and the plains below, but once again we were foiled by cloud cover, and couldn’t see anything beside roiling white and grey clouds scuttling around the mountain. A light rain shower passed through camp for about 30 minutes, but we were otherwise dry for the day. Our guides invited us to either relax at camp or feel free to explore the plateau around us, depending on how we felt. At 12,000’ I felt pretty much at home, and wandered off to look around a bit (it’s a pretty hard area to get lost in), along with a couple others. Most of my compatriots settled in for a quick nap before dinner.

Once again, dinner was a veritable feast of rich carbohydrates, beverages, fruit and meat. By this time, I think we had all figured out we were really being spoiled out here, and everyone had also come to terms with it as was enjoying it! A few of us who were used to more labor-intensive expeditions (i.e. put up your own tents and cook your own food!) had a tough time not offering to help out. But, our guides pointed out that our porters took a lot of pride in their jobs, and they really did have everything down to a really efficient routine. I did my best to just sat on my hands and tried to relax whenever I felt the urge to help, knowing I should save my energy for higher altitudes.

By the time dinner was over, night had fallen and the lights of Moshi filtered faintly up the plateau, giving us a scenic view downwards. Above us, the clouds had cleared away giving us a spectacular view of an almost completely unfamiliar sky. Being used to the view of the night sky from the middle of the northern hemisphere, the view from the middle of the southern hemisphere was quite a change…different stars and constellations, and a few familiar constellations in unfamiliar places (like having Orion directly above us instead of near the horizon, like I’m used to). Most of us lingered outside in the gathering chill to enjoy the light show for a while, before retiring for the night.