During a snack break, Nico offers his father a soft lap in an environment of hard rocks. My knee has been holding up fairly well until today. One missed foot plant and I tweaked it rather badly. It will bother me for the next two days but will not hurt on the day we attempt to summit.

Assistant guide Zablon. Everyone calls him Marieson.

Even though our destination is Kibo, we will climb for two more days to reach the base of Mawenzi pictured here.

Assistant guide Last. Everyone calls him Lasti (Lastee).

The flowers remain exquisite and I only wish I had noted the names for each variety.

Our main guide, Charles. 

On the path our assistant guide Lasti spots chameleons left and right. Here Nico poses with one that is in the process of molting. 

Today’s climb is only about 4 hours but very rugged over difficult rock terrain. Before we start, I take a telephoto image of the Kibo crater rim. Click for a larger view and see if you can find the path we will use to climb to the top.

Each day we each receive a small allotment of very hot water with which we do our best to stay clean and groomed. By the end of the trip we will both be craving a hot shower and soft bed above all else.

Just before midnight I make a visit to the latrine and am treated to a crystal clear night sky with more stars than you can imagine. Despite the frigid temperatures I go back for my camera and tripod to make several long exposures with Kibo as a backdrop. Unfortuanately, the small camera I am using for this trip does not do well with this type of photography and you will have to trust me when I say that you could see millions of stars on this evening.

We stand at the entrace to the cave which bears the name of our camp site for the evening.

The idea of an acclimatization walk is that you climb with no pack several hundred meters higher than you will sleep that evening and stay there for at least 15 minutes. This helps your body adapt to the higher altitudes by adjsuting the consistency of your blood so that it can carry more oxygen.

Nico is exhausted after today’s climb and collapses in the tent for a brief nap before we begin our afternoon acclimitization walk. At this altitude we are again bathed in a cloud.

Our camp today is filled with bird song mostly attributeable to this little fellow and his many friends. Our guides called them Tennis Ball birds for reasons not entirely clear to me.