Well, we finally made it to this highly anticipated day. First, it was Stephanie's birthday. Second, it was a short, 5.9 km hike to School Hut, our base camp, but the steepest yet elevation gain of 750m.
We started off every morning with song and dance with our porters and guides which was just a magical experience. So many of them had such good voices, the songs were fun and catchy, and the dance moves were hilarious. Today I got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to Steph as well. She felt awkward to be out on the spot but secretly loved it. We all danced and pumped ourselves up for the day.
The hike was tough. It was very visible how steep we were to climb for the day. School Hut was visible the entire time from our previous night's 3 caves camp. Juli found it helpful to keep her "eyes on the prize" and continue to look towards the end goal. Stephanie much preferred no looking ahead, just one foot in front on another. Both strategies worked as we got there in decent timing and good spirits.
Along the way, our guides took us to see a buffalo carcass that they had discovered around 1.5 years ago. We were expecting some ribs and a skull, or something that resembled an old dead animal. However, when we approached the site our jaws dropped at the actual beast.
First, the buffalo was massive. Second, it had died around 4500m, which is extremely high for such a large animal like this. Apparently, this buffalo had come to this small cave to lick the minerals from the rock and got its horns stuck on the low rock ceiling. Whether it was head injury, exhaustion, freezing, or whatever else, the buffalo never recovered with her snack and still lay in that exact spot.
The skin and fur remain in the body. One horn now loosely sits on top of the head as the other has gone missing. Her brain, eyes, and other organs have obviously rotted gone, but we were in shock with how the altitude and cold preserved the rest of the body.
Kirsten wanted to determine if it was a male or female and goes to the head of the animal to measure the distance between where the horns used to sit. Frederick immediately goes to the back of the animal and looks at her confused. "Not from back here?" He questions with a serious tone. All 5 of us broke into uncontrollable laughter, harder than any other time on the mountain- or at least recently- that we could remember. Even Willie, our cool and serious assistant guide giggle uncontrollably at Kirsten vs Frederick's impressions of how to determine the sex.
Perhaps equally amusing, Kirsten's strategy was inconclusive and we had to let Frederick do it his way. He grabbed the carcass by the hind quarters as we all plugged our noses, and he lifted the carcass up. A nasty rot, dust, and other funky situations were visible and we were all grateful we had our noses and mouths buried deep into our scarves. It was a girl. "Lucy" would be her name.
We continued on to school camp where we had time for a short rest to nap or read. Then it was time for one last acclimatization hike, as we hiked 100 meters even higher up the mountain and then back down to camp. Azizi and Hilari, from our porter pack joined us and we got to know them much better. Poor hilari had some sort of second (or third or fourth) hand hiking boot/shoe combo that was full of holes. He asked if we were going to leave our shoes in Africa, as he has small feet and could wear women's shoes easily. He all told him that we were attached to our boots and would need them for home. But promised we would find him a good pair of boots in the US and would mail them to him. His eyes lit with excitement "you will?!?! That is very! Very!" (His English needed much improvement and e never grasped the concept of "very good" still requiring the word "good" with it). So if anyone has an old pair of men's or women's hiking boots (men's size 7-9? Women's 8-10?) we will happily ship them to sweet Hilari. I know his cold toes would be very grateful.
That night eating dinner was difficult as the altitude increased, so did our lack of appetite. For 3 females who generally eat heathy food and controlled portions back in the US, we did an impressive job of encouraging each other to force food, water, and nutrition down. We left each meal uncomfortably full, but it was the only way we received enough fuel for the next day.
I had been keeping a burning secret the entire climb up the mountain and that was a double chocolate fudge cupcake and birthday candles in my backpack. When Stephanie left the mess tent to grab some medication, I got some matches from nick and we all sang happy birthday to Steph with her very squished, but delicious cupcake.
When reality hit, we noticed it was 7pm and we were supposed to wake at 11pm for our night time summit. We were able to get in bed by 730, but the 3.5 hour night of sleep was not nearly enough for the strenuous day we had ahead.
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