Day 2: The Trek continues...

We set off from the Machame Hut this morning and after walking 8km, climbing 800m (to 3800m) experiencing the first waves of altitude sickness and performing Yoga at over 4000m; we're now at the night camp, ready for dinner and bed! The guides insists we take it "pole, pole" (pronounced pol-y, pol-y, translation "slowly, slowly") and the team have been making a good pace and everyone is well. This afternoon we climbed to over 4000m to practise Yoga in order to improve our breathing in preparation for the higher altitudes tomorrow before descending back to camp at 3800m.

Today we all felt the altitude sickness is various guises. Harriet and Sallie have reported a hard day, working unknown muscles, feeling tension headaches and experiencing nausea but say they are not deterred and are looking forward to tomorrow. The climb today has been steep; a little harder than expected and we all agree that we are anxious about tomorrow.

A round-robin revealed no blisters- yet! We have quickly gotten efficient at washing with only a couple of inches of water and are enjoying camping out at night. Although, most of the team only achieved four hours sleep because of the night time noises in the viscinity. Izzy reports spotting a monkey- but the rest of us are unsure as to the validity of the claim because Izzy was the only witness...

While the weather is cloudy, it does gets cold but we soon feel the heat when the sun comes out. Layering up and down with the weather fluctuations, we're all wearing three layers at the moment, and walking in one or two layers.

We're sure you're all wondering about the toilet facilities. Well, Sallie is keen to report that she fell in love with a traditional shaped toilet latrine! She advises that whilst her thighs have been benefiting from the low squatting, she appreciated the brief 'relief' of a 'normal' loo. Generally we're going to the loo in the bush, and as staying hydrating is of the utmost importance, as a result, toilet breaks are a frequent must.

We're all getting along really well so far and are relaxing with each other, so much so that Andrew has felt comfortable enough to reveal his cuddly-toy monkey, which is now our mascot and featuring in quite a few of our photographs!

Izzy experienced a 'wobble' at lunch time. She left camp this morning wearing thermals due to the cold weather and began feeling nauseous with the altitude and weather changes. In the 27 degree heat she began to feel the rapid onset of heat stroke and was very nearly relieved of her breakfast but after lots of support from us and plenty of breaks, she's now fine.

As a team we're bonding, and all joined in chuckling at Andrew when he fell victim to an exploding tin of cocoa powder, which hadn't coped very well with the changes in pressure.

We're being extremely well fed with soups, meat (or fish) and vegetables daily. We're in excellent hands and having the 'little things' taken care of allows us to focus on the much bigger task ahead.

Over & Out.

The Kili Challenge Team