Another restless night.  John snored very loudly and ended up keeping me awake for hours.  We were woken up at 6:30 again.  After a few minutes wiping myself with a wet wipe I made my way to the dining hut.

Again we all had a huge breakfast and felt ready to take on the world.  Everyone in the group seems to be fairly fit and the acclimatisation day seemed to do the trick.  I’ve got some sunburn so I need to wear a long sleeved top and gloves.  Because my neck had been burnt as well I had to wear my Inverness Caledonian Thistle scarf as well despite the incredible heat.

We collected our bags from the ceiling hooks (which were there so that mice didn’t get our food!) and made our way to the starting line at 8am.

The trek started out just as yesterday's did and it wasn’t long before we started to feel the effects of the high altitude.

After about two hours we reached Mawenzi Ridge where the landscape changed to an even more dry and arid desert than we were used to.  The wind had picked up by now though and we were all adding layers for protection against the cold.

At our lunch stop we used possibly the world’s worst toilet (even worse than the one in Trainspotting!) and saw lizards, mice, ravens and buzzards all circling and waiting for scraps of food.

We kept on through the desert and Kibo Huts (at 4,700m) came into view.  Caroline had gone racing ahead of our group in order to book our dorm for the evening.  Like the porters, I have the utmost respect for Caroline’s fitness.

Over tea and coffee (although no one had coffee as it speeds up your heart rate at this altitude) we went through the plan for the attempt on the summit.

We had tea at 4:30 and went to bed at around 5:30.  My sleeping bag was packed with water bottles and all sorts of other stuff so as not to let it freeze during the night!

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