Day 3 Shira 1 camp to Moir Hut

---

Day 3 was the longest (distance wise) hike of the whole trip. It mostly consists of making up the rest of the westward travel towards the base of the mountain by crossing the shira plateau. This was the first day that the affects could be felt in full force. Multiple applications of sunscreen were neccessary and it was very wasy to feel it beating on you as you hiked. There are very few spots for shade across the plateau. The Moir hut doesn't get used by very many groups because it's 'out of the way' to get to the summit. We basically went north and then traveresed back south the next day to go to the hut. The rocks in this area had some salt on them that animals will sometimes come and lick (none showed during my hike). This was the first time I was able to see people carving their names into the rocks in the park. It made me sad to see it, but I'm also not sure how to police it, very unlikely it's done by anybody on a group hike.

We also also crossed the shira road during our hike. This is one of two routes used to get people off the mountain who might be in bad shape. The road is the faster of the routes as it can be accessed by a car for a good portion of it. After reaching camp, we had a short acclimitization hike up a ridge near camp that was an additional about 200m. We hiked up, rested at the elevation for about 30min, and then came back down. This was the first day I started to feel the elevation as I had my lowest pulse oxycimeter score (around 80%) and got a little dizzy after the acclimitization hike. Before dinner, the group of porters sang to us a song that many groups hear as they climb, a borrowed version of a kenyan song to welcome visitors. You can find many versions of it on youtube, just search jambo bwana.

---