More Monkeys and Confusion on the European Continent

Day 2: 9,000 ft -12,336 ft

We were awoken at 6:00 by Emmanuel bearing a hot thermos and a tray of sugar, teabags, instant coffee, etc… We made our drinks and changed into our cloths for the day; the same as yesterday except now we put on gators which our guides suggest to keep out the dust. Emmanuel returned at 6:30 with hot water to wash and then at 7:00 we ate a breakfast of bread, hard boiled eggs, “sausages” (all African breakfast sausages are in fact hotdogs of dubious origins) a rather yummy cornmeal porridge, fruit, and more hot water for drinks.

We got on the trail at 7:30, the first ones out of the camp, and almost immediately passed out of the jungles and into the heath and moorland. Smaller seemingly shriveled trees and large bushes which gave of an air of survivability and windswept toughness that the precious vegetation had lacked the day before. We hiked for another five hours that day gaining more than 3,000 feet in elevation. We climbed above the first layer of clouds that day and saw the mountain’s peak dominating the skyline as it would for the rest of the trip. We stopped and ate another amazing lunch at the “half way point” which stands about ¾ of the way between Mandara and Horombo. We had chips and a very mayonnaisey salad as well as everything of yesterday’s lunch. Stephen battled the wind for about a half hour before finally conceding and putting away our pink bouquet.

We reached the Horombo huts which sits on a windblown hill and is essentially the same as the Mandara huts except that the bathrooms are in the middle of the camp. Although to me these seem to be clearly labeled between men and women apparently the largely European population of the camp did not understand. I repeatedly found women in the men’s side of the bathroom. These women, far from seemingly feeling out of place among their y chromosomed counterparts’, looked unfazed.

It was much colder at the Horombo huts and as the clouds rolled in around 5:00 enveloped the camp in a cold mist my dad and I had to pull our more layers. Our cabin mates were the same as the prior night. Tory, a tall rather angular Swede, who hiked at a pace that scoffed at the pole pole (slowly in Kiswahili) advice of the guides in order to better acclimate and not to wear out the bodies of the climbers. He is a pilot who is now flying for Ethiopian airways and has a house in Red Lodge. Tory is a talkative and interesting guy. Andrew, a thickly built Brit is quite, volunteering no more information about himself than to answer my dad’s questions.

That night I rose myself from sleep and find a monkey. The moon was so bright I didn’t even take my headlamp. On my way back to the cabin I wandered over to the edge of the camp and stopped to see Moshi, clearly visible some 1000 feet below us. I could not believe the amount of lights in Moshi.