Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Distance hiked: 16.0 km / 9.9 mi

Elevation Gained (Lost): (219 m / 719 ft); End: 3,936 m / 12,193 ft

We are on what is normally an eight day hike, which has been condensed to seven for this tour package. The trekking company combines days 4 and 5. Yowza. This makes for a very long day. We had to reascend the “sunset climb” route from yesterday afternoon, but after that the charts said it would be relatively flat (see above). What made today so challenging was a) the distance, and b) the constant hiking up one lava ridge, down that lava ridge, up another and down another. Over the course of the day, we hiked the entire length of the base of the volcano from the western edge of it to the eastern, keeping Kili on our right the entire time.

And this is a BIG volcano. The largest freestanding mountain in the world. That makes for a lot of hiking. Nothing much else to note, other than I saw a lot of rocks.