Being a rest day, breakfast was served at the much more sensible time of 8:30 and then about 10:00am we went for an easy stroll onto a nearby peak. Given the shortness of the walk I decided to go without my rucsac and carry the water and camera on my belt which worked a treat. Everyone else had packs but couldn't have had much in them. Mind you, I was the only one with a water bottle holder. Andy and Thomas went off to recee the route onto the Western Breach to see if it was okay for tomorrow. With hindsight I should have gone with them as I felt fit and it would have been a good opportunity to see what was in store for the morning - we will climb most of it in the dark which is a shame, but unavoidable.

I left my solar panels charging the battery and was delighted to find it fully charged on my return - excellent news. We (Pete and I) concluded that it needs plenty of time in direct sunlight to function properly.

Lunch was chicken and chips followed by melon - how do they do it? After lunch I read for a while then took a stroll up to the Ranger Hut and back via a track that led over to a couple of good free-running streams - so that's where they get the water from. Back at camp, more reading and relaxing. For a while I put my book down and sat and reflected on 'stuff'. I have to confess to a teary eyed moment when I thought of my late Father and remembering my Mom saying how proud he had been when I conquered Aconcagua - how would he have felt about me climbing Kilimanjaro? I'll do it in his memory and know that he would have been very proud of his son.

The rest of the evening followed a similar pattern of reading, dinner of meat, veg and pasta, then bed-time around 8pm for some more reading and finally another fitful sleep.