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Well the rain that started falling last night stayed with us for the day. It felt more like being in Ireland than Tanzania with the cool temperatures and deluges. Todays walk, though being less of a climb, felt a little tougher for me. I felt a slight heavyness in the legs but it wore off as the day unfolded. I had a slight headache also which was quickly sorted out by a neurofen.
We moved out of the rainforest into the more scrubby terrain, more bushes than dense trees. I spotted some "red hot poker" plants real name "Kniphofia thomsonii" for the boffins. There were also Impatiens here and there also, but given the weather conditions I had the camera stowed for most of the day. Senecios and Lobelia trees also emerged from out of the mists. We moved at a slow pace so everyone was strung out in a long line. We christened the party the plod squad !
Arriving onto the Shira Plateau, we had a bit of trouble trying to locate our campsite. There was a large group of us wandering around trying to find our tents while trying not to freeze at the same time. We ended up talking to a porter from another group, who led us to a cave where we could wait, while he went off trying to find our group of porters / guides. After about 20 minutes order was restored, Helen met up with us and brought us back. Dived into the mess tent for a bit of warmth and a feed of popcorn and peanuts. Best quote of the day was the the description of the weather, Andy remarked that "it wasn't raining it was just cloud water"...Oscar Wilde would have been impressed!
Andy was also having a great day, with the sole of his boot coming off. Fortunately, it turned out that the head guide Meckson was a cobbler in a former profession and sewed his boot together ! He must have done a great job as he made it to the top and back with all his toes in one piece...
It rained continuously for at leat 10 hours, so much so that there were channels of water running through the camp. In a few cases peoples tents were flooded due to the groundsheets failing. Riad who was having a great start to the trip (recovering from an injury sustained prior to the trip) had a flood of water coursing through his tent. He wasn't alone though as Charlotte and Jackie also reported treading water... Myself and Pete were lucky in that our tent was fine for the whole trip. The porters helped ease the situaiton by digging trenches around the tents which at least stopped the situation getting any worse. At least peoples spirits were high anyway, and we stayed up playing cards for a few hours while peoples gear dried out.