Kilimanjaro Day 3

As part of my daily ritual, my guide woke me up at 6:30 AM with warm water and tea. Today was acclimatization day. This means we’re trying to help our bodies adjust to the altitude. We do this by stressing the body—climbing a bit higher and then coming back down to the Horombo hut. I was a little anxious about today since I had a touch of altitude sickness yesterday. So, I set a few rules for myself. Drink water every 10 minutes, and my heart rate couldn’t exceed 145; if it did, we’d have to stop. 145 sounds like a lot, but your resting heart rate is much higher up here than at sea level. We set off very slowly towards 4,250 meters, which was our goal for the day. In fact, it took us about an hour longer than usual. When we finally reached 4,250, I felt great, and it really boosted my fighting spirit! The view of the summit of Kilimanjaro from 4,250 was absolutely stunning. We had entered a landscape where nothing grows! At the marker for 4,250, there was a grave for one of the many who have died on the mountain over the years. My guide mentioned that I might have the hut to myself that night. Awesome, I thought—finally, I could get some good sleep. The huts accommodate four people. But that didn’t quite turn out to be the case. A Norwegian couple was going to share the hut with me. They were around my age and super easy to talk to. They were from Oslo and shared that they were avid trekkers in the Norwegian mountains. It was nice to chat a bit in Danish again. To our surprise, another person was also going to sleep in our hut, so it was now full. An Indian man in his fifties who had trekked in all sorts of mountains. We all agreed he was a bit eccentric! I had a feeling he would snore like a bear, and that turned out to be true. A lot of our evening conversation revolved around how everyone was feeling physically. Some seemed to have no symptoms at all, while others weren’t feeling too great. I was feeling pretty good that evening. The view from the huts was indescribably beautiful, with the clouds lying below us. After dinner, we went to bed around 8:30 PM. Thankfully, I popped in my earplugs, so I managed to get some decent sleep that night.