Day 3 | 17.2.21

Day 3

17 February 2021 

Shira Camp 1 to Shira Camp 2 

Elevation (ft) 11,500ft to 12,630 ft 

Distance 6mi 

Hiking Time 4-5 hours 

Habitat Moorland

After breakfast we head east across the Shira Plateau and past the Shira Cathedral to Shira Camp. Shira is one of the highest plateaus on earth. It is about a four-hour hike to camp. On the way we pass the first of many Giant Senecios, some of Kilimanjaro’s otherworldly, massive plants. *c/o Embark Exploration, Co.

 Waking up in these temps is strange and invigorating. It is so cold at night here. I am underprepared and scared about this miscalculation. Last night I was able to regulate with layers and a hot water bottle but five more nights of increasingly higher altitudes is daunting.

 Our waiters bring us coffee at 6am. This helps to begin emerging into the dawn. By 6:30am, hot wash water arrives. I go to bed as clean as possible so that my morning routine doesn’t take too long. Then packing and mess tent by 7:15am.

 8am on the morning of Day 3 is introductions. We have the opportunity to meet our porters and say hello & express our thanks. “Jambo! Asante sana.” Due to Covid, no singing is allowed in the park, BUT our team broke the rules and it was fantastic. I am so grateful for these men who are helping me achieve this goal that I never knew that I had. 

 Jambo! Jambo bwana!

(Hello! Hello sir!)

Habari gani? Mzuri sana!

(How are you? Very well!)

Wageni, mwakaribishwa!

(Guests, you are welcome!)

Kilimanjaro? Hakuna matata!

(Kilimanjaro? No trouble!)

© Colin Murray

I sit quietly waiting for the scenery to change, 

quietly waiting to take my place in the ancestral home. 

Celestial possibility and I am frozen

It’s all bathed in white

Anticipating life

This trauma loop

Familiar and strange.

What happens to curiosity when it becomes comfortable?

Like the rest.

 I write with more questions

Less curiosity

Uninterested in the knowing

I am the knowing

The knowing was always there.

Did you know that you were dying?

My parts knew and refused to see.

I saw you.

All I saw was you my love.

I always thought that the future that I didn’t see was my own. A chance to live small and escape the pain. And now I know that it was our future that was lost. Or never there. Or somewhere in the in-between... relegated to the confused curiosity of my mind. 

Our future is infinite now.