Fischer Camp

Day 37 2/20/99: Shira Plateau/Fischer Camp (12,950')

As usual the porters passed us less than 1 hour after we got started. Here were three of them--one of them was Roy who frequently helped me with pumping water especially when I was dead from altitude sickness--zooming past us by jumping over a little dry creek that probably lead to the Engare Nairobi River during the raining season. I think all of them can work in a circus as tight rope artists--they have to balance a heavy and uneven load as they jumped over these boulders. Amazing! I know I would have broken every bones in my body if I attempted to do this.

Today we hiked through the heath and moorland zones. According to the "New Map of the Kilimanjaro National Park" (1998 by Giovanni Tombazzi. I bought it for about $10 in Tanzania, or you could try to order it by sending an e-mail to hoopoe@form-net.com), the heather zone is known by its mist and fog near the forest. Type of plants include

, and they are the most common heath-like shrubs. As well as many proteas.

The moorland zone is dominated by cool and clear climate. Frost is regular, and sunshine can be quite intense. One will find clusters of

In addition to the above plants,  I started to see lots of lichen and moss growing on and among the rocks.

 What's so special about this picture? On the Shira plateau, we were hiking on the Lemosho route, which is parallel to the official and more popular Shira route. Past the Morum Barrier Gate, where the day before some Europeans started their hike, and at the end of a dirt road that's for rescue vehicles only was a landing area for rescue helicopters! It's not hopeless for me after all. Let's hope I don't include a helicopter ride as part of my Kili adventure. I did wonder why Samia told me about the location of the helicopter landing area. :-)

We also did stop here to fill our water bottles. At this point in the morning I felt really nauseated. I got a ginger pill from Liza and hoped that it will help. Ginger usually works for me--I almost always ask for a ginger ale on airplanes, and I sometimes make myself a hot bowl of ginger soup in the morning before I go on ocean salmon fishing trips. Would this ginger pill do the magic? In addition to the ginger pill, at this point my stomach also had Diamox (altitude sickness), Pepto-Bismol (nausea), and  Tylenol (headache). I would have taken some antacids if I had some! All these medication were sloshing around in my stomach as I hiked. Well, needless to say, I started to get more nauseated. However, I did not want to throw up because I want to make sure my body has a chance to absorb some of these medicine. I restrained myself.

After two hours of this, I said to myself: "Stephen. It's time. Time to celebrate. You get to throw up and clean up your stomach."  I excused from myself from the middle of the hiking group, found a discreet rock,  and puked. I used my bandanna to clean off my face. Now I know why Wilderness Travel asks people to bring a bandanna and exalts on its many uses--I just did not intend to use my bandanna in this manner! I then continued with hiking and wonder if I could reach the top of Kilimanjaro.

We saw some giant Senecio Kilimanjari.

We hiked through the heather zone.

Theresa was thinking, "Hum. I wonder Stephen will make it. Maybe we should go back." She felt pretty sorry for me and was amazed that I continued with hiking even after puking. Frankly as soon as I threw up I felt much better, and it was the turning point for me.

Thank goodness today's hike was easy: 4 hours on a  relatively flat and easy trail. We just had to hike up a little hill before getting to Fischer camp. Prior to our trip, Theresa would have called this a steep slope. However, she was a hot shot now, having conquered the steepest areas on our first day of hiking. Nothing fazed her anymore--just wait until the Western Breach. She made it up this hill without problems, especially with her expert usage of her dual hiking sticks.

Remember what I said about the heather zone is known for its mist and fog? Here it was. This is a just a few minutes away from camp looking down at the trail where we came from.

I was relieved when we reached camp. I skipped lunch, and Theresa forced some soup down me for dinner. So no pictures for the remainder of the day.

After the his tragic death on Mt. Everest, Shira Plateau camp #2 was renamed to Scott Fischer Camp. He  frequently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro because he often leads clients from Mountain Madness. Scott founded Mountain Madness, an adventure company based in Seattle. The Shira Plateau/Western Breach route was supposedly pioneered by him and Wes Krause, who is also associated with Wilderness Travel. So Fischer Camp was our home for one night. I just wish my stomach will be as strong as Scott's :-)

  Sun has not risen as of 6:47a.m. I had a better night of sleep: I only had to get up to go the bathroom 5 times, which was an improvement for me. The best news was that I did not throw up!

Last night I thought about this was Doyle's SECOND trip up the mountain. He was crazy to do it for the second time. I may have been on this mountain the first time due to my ignorance and stupidity, and I'll never climb Kili for the second time. Not for a million dollars! Do I still feel this way as I write this WEB page? You just have to wait to read about my reflections in the epilogue.

Kibo does not look too far away. Could I reach the top of Kilimanjaro?

Hey, I must be feeling better. When is the last time you saw my picture of food? I still felt a little weak and still lacked appetite. However, I did manage to eat 3 bowls of hot oatmeal and a cup of all-popular herbal tea.

 What a beautiful place to camp. We can see both Kibo and also Mt Meru. According to Lonely Planet's "Trekking in East Africa":

at 4566meter(14,979ft), Mt Meru is the second highest mountain in Tanzania, although it is overshadowed by Kilimanjaro, its famous neighbor, and frequently overlooked by trekkers. But Meru is a spectacular classic volcanic cone, and well worth a visit. A trek to the summit involves hiking through the grassland and lush forest on the mountain's beautiful lower slopes, followed by a dramatic and exhilarating walk along the knife-edge rim of the horseshoe crater.

Samia, the president of a mountain guides club called Club Mountain Lions, told me that during the off-season just for fun the guides will get together for some fun activities, including climbing up and down Mt. Meru in ONE day!

 Every morning we woke up when the porters came to offer us coffee, tea, or hot coca. Our routine involved changing into the appropriate hiking clothes for the day, organizing the duffel bags (with everything in many zip-lock bags it often took several frustrating minutes to find a particular item or piece of clothing that we needed), putting on Molefoam/second skin for preventing/curing blisters (I had none! Theresa has a chronic skin problem that caused itchy and painful blisters after much hiking! She went through so many Molefoam and Second skins we had to ratio them.), putting on suntan lotion and chap stick, putting on socks, lacing up hiking boots, tightening gaiters, washing our face and hands with the thankfully warm water and soup (you can see the bucket of water and the red/blue/green bowls in this picture), brushing our teeth with filtered water, rolling up the sleeping bags, zipping and locking up the duffel bags, and dragging everything outside the tent. The most important thing was to do all the above tasks slowly in order not to hyperventilate due to the increasingly lower amount of oxygen as we camped at higher and higher elevations. I had to concentrate on slowing down if I wanted to avoid a headache. At this point I'm a expert at deep breathing: inhale, count to three; hold my breath, count to three; exhale, and count to three! Here was Theresa zipping up her backpack, putting on her gloves and hat, gripping her hiking sticks, and getting ready for today's hike toward Sheffield Camp.

How was I going to feel for the rest of today? Was I going to throw up some more? Was I going to get evacuated?