Our ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro some 25 years ago was a week-long adventure. From the cloud forest jungle of the lower slopes, we climbed to the Shira plateau (around 11,600′). It was a rainy dreary day and the mist limited our visibility during most of our climb. But once on the Shira plateau, the clouds broke and we were exposed to a beautiful extinct volcanic crater.
The vegetation is thick, mostly bush and grasses, a terrain known as montane moorlands. Much of the vegetation here is unique to the mountain and some exotic and interesting plants are found here.
We spent two nights on the plateau to help with the acclimatization process. The first camp was the Shira Ridge camp at around 11,500′. The second camp was “Fischer’s camp” on the eastern edge of the plateau at around 13,000′, named in honor of famed mountaineer and trailblazer, Scott Fischer (who had died in the infamous Everest disaster of 1996).
(Views of the Shira Plateau, as we’re about to leave it)
From the Moorlands, we climbed higher and left all plants behind us, entering a land of rocks, ice and snow.
