The morning was a complete surprise: sunny and not a cloud in the sky. The hike took us about 7 miles across the Plateau to Moir Camp, at 13,700. The landscape was littered with volcanic rocks from prehistoric eruptions of Kilimanjaro. It turns out the volcano is not extinct, but inactive. The crater at the top still emits hot volcanic gasses.
We saw some plants and flowers unique to this area. Some looked almost tropical but they survive in the cold, dry high altitude.
Lobelia deckenii
We walked through an area called Fischer Camp, named after the famed mountaineer Scott Fischer who is said to have pioneered this route up Kilimanjaro. Fischer died on Mt. Everest in the tragic events chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s classic book, Into Thin Air.
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