Hiking

Finally, our hike began! It started in the rainforest, and it was beautiful. We saw a few monkeys swinging in the trees, and enjoyed our walk through the hot, lush rainforest. We were grateful for the shade it provided. Since we had to drive so much that day, we had a short hike, about 3 hours.

When we arrived at camp, the cook had fresh popcorn and hot chocolate waiting for us. How great is that? We then had a hot dinner of soup and a vegetable dish. Have I mentioned how spoiled we were? 

Hiking with our assistant guide, Felix

Enjoying popcorn and hot chocolate

Dad, standing next to his tent and in front of the bathroom tent (did I mention that we were pampered on our hike?)

After dinner, our guide told us to be sure we kept our headlamps on when we came out at night, just in case there were any animals around. The light would scare them away.

"What kind of animals are you talking about?" I asked.

"Elephants, Buffalo, anything really. Kenya National Park is just over that hill."

"Lions?"

"Yes, there could be. But don't worry about it, just keep your light on."

I worried about it all night and didn't get much sleep.

The second morning we finally saw Mt. Kilimanjaro! It was the first time we had seen it since arriving in Tanzania because there were clouds covering it the day before. Kilimanjaro was a volcano, and now has a giant crater on top.

Because Kilimanjaro is so close to the equator, people there have never seen snow unless they've hiked to the top of the mountain. Our guide, Joshua, told us that many people don't think it's snow up on top, but white rocks. He believed the same until he climbed it.

Heading out on Day 2.

The porters cleaning up camp and getting ready to move to the next campsite.

There was a cave near the trail that we explored for a few minutes. This was a hole on top.

Inside the cave

Lunch stop. Yes, that's a tablecloth and hot lunch they made for us. Our lunch was soup, and a "cheeseburger" - a bun with cheese, sweet ketchup, a tomato and a pepper. They fed us, then cleaned up and we kept hiking.

Notice the change in vegetation as we got higher.

Heading out for the third day of hiking. See that mountain in the background? That's Mawenzi, and we were headed to the base of it for our third night of camping. It is a beautiful, rugged mountain not far from Kili.

That's enough pictures and descriptions for now. More to come!