Jason turned on a small speaker clipped to his packstrap. The speaker pulled tunes from a phone. It bounced as he walked. So did we. And we sang. And it was magic.
Breakfast scramble
Valley of the giants
Shark fin and teeth
And we ate it too, twice
Acclimatizing
A stone-cold cauldron
On elevating
The CIA
On the shira
Hakuna matata
What we heard next was spectacular. The porters treated us to a welcome song in Swahili. It was a Kilimanjaro version of "Jambo Bwana," a local tune. To our delight, the phrase Hakuna Matata ("No worries!") was repeated throughout. It would not be the first time that I felt as if I was living out "The Lion King" in Tanzania. The only thing we lacked was a meerkat.
Creatures of the night
A hobbily start
Although the day had seemed long, most of it was spent sitting in a cramped position. We had ridden several hours by bus, waited for official clearance at Londorossi Gate, reboarded and ridden for what seemed to be another hour on the bumpiest road yet. It was mid-afternoon when we finally arrived at the drop-off point beneath the Shira Ridge.
