Kilmanjaro Part 4b

August 23, 2009 (Day 3 on the mountain)

Continued...

We’re headed to Fischer Camp (in retrospect my favorite of all of our camps) and today is truly ours on the mountain. After early morning we see no other hikers, and Fischer camp is ours alone. Because there are no permanent bathroom structures here, very few companies use it. It is a small camp nestled in a protective valley.

Papa sends us on a little extra hike, as the axiom of ‘go high, sleep low’ is another way to acclimatize well. Then we have a great dinner and beautiful sunset. Papa joins us for dinner and as he tells us of the local Chagga barman who brews the banana beer, we learn maybe our favorite Chagga word of the trip. Aya. It means ‘ok’ or ‘allright’. Apparently, if you go into the bar, have a drink, and tell him his beer is good today, the barman will grin and say ‘Aya’. And if you go in, have a drink and tell him his beer is bad today, he will grin and say ‘Aya.’ Always ‘Aya’.

Another cold night, more beautiful stars. I decide to peek into the cook’s tent to say goodnight—I feel we know each other well enough by now. I open the flap and there are 12 men, sitting or standing shoulder-to-shoulder around a propane burner cooking their nightly meal—ugali—a thick maize porridge, like grits, but so thick you pick it up and roll it into a ball, dip it in hot sauce and salt and have yourself a meal. Real stick to your ribs. They laughingly return my ‘Lala Salama’ (Sleep well) and we all end on a chorus of ‘AYA’.

Back to the tent for an out-loud rendition of Hemingway’s ‘Short Happy Life of Francis McComber.’ I think Fischer Camp is the best night of sleep any of us will have on the mountain. A magical little place.

Altitude covered today:

Shira 1 Camp 11, 417 ft.
Fischer Camp 12, 746 ft.

Photos: Clouds licking the sides of the Plateau. Sunset over the clouds at Fischer Camp.