It's 4 PM at Mandara Hut, elevation 9,000 feet. We left the park gate about 10:15 AM and arrived here around 2 PM. All day I was breathing through my nose as I hiked which kept me towards the back of our group. In the morning I hiked with one of our guides, Sanford. He’s 44 years old and has climbed to the top as a guide over 40 times. We passed quite a few people coming down, and I would ask them if they made it to the top. It was about 50/50. We stopped for a break at the picnic table and there was a toilet so I went to use it - it was a door to a hole in the ground, literally.

There were incredible amounts of fog all day blowing through the trees and across the trail. When we arrived at the huts, I couldn’t even see some of them through the fog. The huts are little A-frame cottages scattered across a clearing. Today we climbed 2700 feet in altitude over a distance of 6 miles. It was an easy day but I was glad that I took it slow and paced myself.

Dinner tonight was good - potato, leeks and carrots, bread, soup, rice, and tea of course. Tomorrow we’re off to Horombo Hut where we’re staying for two nights to get better acclimated. On the “rest” day we might hike up to the Saddle and then back down to Horombo to sleep.