It was raining when I had drifted off to sleep. It was cold this morning. I woke up before Adam's and Innocent's usual wake-up call and was in the process of rolling up the sleeping bag, inflatable pad and repacking the bags when my back came into contact with the side of the tent and I could hear this peculiar sound of something sliding down the side of the tent. Now, what could that be? I found out soon enough when the Adam entered the "foyer" with the coffee. Snow, and plenty of it. We started off that morning with the snow still falling and visibility limited to less than 50 yards. Bernard had shown us the route the evening before and I remember asking him whether it was absolutely necessary to "climb up there." Couldn't we just walk around the hill, especially since we were descending to 18,200 ft at Pofu. The path, what little we could see of it that morning appeared to be even more steep. We clambered over wet rocks in nasty conditions to a new height of 14200 ft. That was not easy. It soon stopped snowing, but the sky remained overcast. Bernard asked us to wear our dark glasses. One does not realize it but the snow is awfully bright and the glasses were absolutely essential unless a spot of snow blindness was in one's request list. 
It was a six hour walk to lunch. (You know I would time that). About midday Bernard asks Ken and me to go ahead at a faster pace with G'Love. Renee was having trouble walking. Ken, G'Love (Goody), Prosper and I set off at a faster pace. Arriving at the bottom of a rather steep slope we had a rest stop when Goody and Prosper put on an impromptu recital! "Jambo! Jambo Bwana! Habari gani, Mzuri Sana, Wageni, Mwakaribishwa, Kilimanjaro, Hakuna Matata …" And these guys have rhythm in their genes. Ken joins in … It does not take very long before the rarified atmosphere makes us curtail the entertainment. A little short of breath we make our way to the rendezvous with lunch. Just as we get there, I realize the bottom end of one of my trekking poles fallen off somewhere. Prosper, the great guy he is, immediately sets off to find it, re-tracing our footsteps. I felt terrible. The guy did not even have lunch. He was gone a while but soon caught up with us with the missing tip. Bernard had found it and handed it to him. He just walked over to me and handed the tip to me with just a hint of a smile. People here send a lot of time on greetings, hands clasped exchanging news and conversing for minutes on end. Not so when it comes to expression of appreciation. Someone, not well versed with the local culture might take offense, as they barely nod their head with a mumbled, "Asante" (Thank you). It's not that they are not grateful, its just the way of their people.
Pofu camp was a total of about seven and a half hours trekking. It was a welcome sight. The girls catch up about an hour and a half later. Renee is absolutely exhausted. She's shaking like a leaf and has a bad cough. I suspect its due to broncho-spasm. After talking to Bernard I give her a dose of Advair and that helps. She has very little dinner. The pumpkin soup was awesome. Richard had also cooked up one helluva lasagna. I am not very fond of lasagna, since, for a few years in the early 90's I had been brought up on a diet of hospital canteen made lasagna, which left, forever, a distaste for the dish. So, it was with much trepidation that I served myself a small helping. It was good, really good. And it was unfortunate that, except for my small helping and an even smaller serving that Renee and Norah had, the dish was returned untouched. Renee's face is also badly sun-burnt. And I had drugs for everything under the sun except burns. I later gave her a tube of Analpram, and I am glad to report that it did wonders to her face. I had only heard the rumors of Preparation-H being used for facial application, and this was my first experience in this off-license application of the drug.
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