Pofu to 2nd Cave (Day 4) (15th Feb 2011)

It almost feels like Columbus, OH.  It has been raining all night and we start off on the trek to 2nd Cave in pouring rain.  Today was an easy day, descending down to 11,800 ft at the camp.  Our first stop was the third cave where we had lunch.  Hate losing the altitude gained with all that pain, only to start climbing again in the next few days.  Descending is not any easier than climbing, and at times feels a lot harder.  The soil is mainly volcanic and the rocks are rough and coarsely pitted.  We pass a few dried river beds and a few areas where glaciers held sway in years past.  Now all that remained where moraines, with glacial debris strewn across the floor.  This was probably the "snow" that Rebmann first saw on November 10th 1848.

Johannes Rebmann is credited with the first sighting of Kilimanjaro by a European.  Johannes Rebmann was a German missionary, who along with his lifelong friend and fellow missionary, Johannes Ludwig Krapf were some of the earliest Europeans in Easter Africa.  On their earlier travels they had heard of a mountain "capped with silver".  They had no idea what that meant.  When Rebmann first saw the majestic mountain, the natives called Kilimanjaro, he still had trouble fathoming what all that white was on the summit; after all, in his mind, he was at or very near the equator and hence it could not be snow.  His guide did not know either and said it was, "baridi" or coldness.  It was then that Rebmann realized that the white was snow.  The reports of snow in Equatorial Africa was not well received in Europe, where there was plenty of skepticism, especially by the "experts" on Africa, some of whom had not even been to Africa.  Rebmann was vindicated when Europeans actually went up the mountain and confirmed the presence of snow.  He was honored by the French Societe Geographie and also the National Geographic Society.

Sometime during the morning the rain eased and it was mostly cloudy and then sunny for a short while.  There were a few good views of Kibo during this time.  The weather changes to fog by the time we arrive at the camp.

At 2nd cave we are back to the heather and moorland zone from the alpine desert.  There are signs of cape buffalo but no sign of the critters themselves.  The skull of a cape buffalo is prominently displayed at the entrance of the cave.  How it got there, I have not idea.  The caves are not used to camp in.  Animals lick the salt off the rocks in the caves and cohabitation with some of these creatures might not be mutually beneficial.

  

 Renee is feeling better today.  The denser air is doing her good and her face is healing.  The food is great as usual.  Dinner consisted of Spinach soup, rice and beef in coconut milk, fruit and dessert (yes we had desserts) was banana fritters.  Now isn't that cool or what.