katikaa 
We all had our own private “hotel rooms”. My tent number was 9. I slept otherwise well but had to wake up a few times to go to the “bush” because I had been drinking so much water due to being dehydrated the previous day. Guideline was to drink as much water as you can to get rid of the altitude sickness symptoms so I was just doing as I was told.
I didn’t really mind waking up and going out since it was not too cold yet and when everyone is sleeping it’s s peaceful and quiet. Most nights the sky was clear so you could see every single star shining bright. It was so beautiful that I wanted to just lay down on the ground and keep staring up. Living in the city you seldom see that view of the sky so every time I “had to go” at night I didn’t really mind and stayed for a while to stare at the stars.
I was happy to wake up without any symptoms from the previous days headache so assumed it was caused by dehydration and not high altitude OR if it was caused by high altitude at least my body had clearly acclimatized already to this altitude (around 2645 m Simba camp).
We had breakfast at 7 am and left right after it as it was going to be a bit longer day today. Second leg was 6,12 kilometers and it was still hot, but getting cooler already so more familiar to me and I did not sweat that much. We started from around 2645 meters and climbed up to 3494 meters (according to my sports watch). Altitude gain was 746 meters so a lot more than the day before. Vegetation was getting a bit more scarce and low grown, but still above head level so not much views in any direction.
Again we were greeted by our crew at the Second cave camp with song and dance. We were all feeling pretty OK and didn’t have any bad symptoms. Some had a bit of head ache and mostly upset tummies. I only had a bit strange feeling in my head and could feel that we are now higher and my body was working harder again as my average HR seemed to creep up again a few notches being at 81 bpm now (normal around 60-65).
We had lunch and measured our HR and CO2 levels. Mine was up a bit from the morning understandably CO2 was 96 and HR 92. So about the same as the day before which was a good sign that my body is still adjusting well to the “thinner air”.
Then the clouds subsided and revealed our snow peak destination. It looked both daunting (because it is still so far away) yet majestic and respectable. No wonder Kilimanjaro plays such a big part in everyone’s life here. It’s pretty hard to ignore!
Few hours of rest and it was time for the acclimatization walk around 4 pm. I felt perfectly fine so decided to go for it and kept my feet up during the break to get the fluids flowing which was apparently a good idea since the “bush” called me many times in the coming hours…
Acclimatization walk was 1 km from 3500 m to 3580 m up a small hill. Atop the hill we found mobile coverage so managed to send an SMS message home to say all is well hoping that I would receive a response latest by tomorrow when we will pass the same spot going up again. Got a response from hubby pretty much straight away so at least messages did go through.
After the acclimatization walk we enjoyed dinner and talked for a while. Some played cards, but generally when it gets dark there is not much to do so headed to tent early again. Tried to read a bit but to be honest was again so tired that hit the bed early. It was getting a bit chillier, but still not cold so no need to dress up too much with the warm sleeping bag I bought.
Next day we would be heading again higher up to 3800 meters so expecting it to get tougher.
