About 2 am a small animal wakes me as it is sniffing and grunting around my tent. I am tempted to try and get a picture of it then I think better. It will likely run away or bite me. Either way it is not worth exposing myself to the freezing outside temperatures to try. I find out later it dropped to about 20 degrees this night.
We got our coffee and bath water on schedule but were told to be ready to leave early at 8:00. We tackle what is known an the Baranco Wall this morning. It is one of the most dangerous parts of the trek.
I put on my fleece for the first time this morning (thanks Mark). It is very cold. I throw my wind pants in my bag in case it is too cold. This makes my pack heavier than usual. Our camp is in the shadow of Kilimanjaro so the first part of the hike, while in daylight is still very cold. We head down a few hundred feet in the first kilometer or so. Once we get out of the shadow and feel the sunlight it warms up quickly and we shed our outer layers. The sun feels good but my weary body feels the extra weight in the pack.
We hike downward for a few hours. Soon, from a distance we can see the trail of people and porters scaling a near vertical wall in the distance. (Zoom in on the photo, upper right of center and you will see dozens of people scaling the near vertical wall.)
We get to the base and store our poles. We use our hands instead of our poles for the climb. We climb up and sideways, between rocks and over precipice. For over an hour and 20 minutes, I repeat to my self: plant your foot, grab the next rock before you let go of the last, check the stability of the handhold before shifting your weight. I am carrying about 15 kilo today so my balance is a little off. There are some parts of the trail that are sheer drops of hundreds of feet. It is dangerous and very scary. Luckily I am not afraid of heights. I trust my foot holds and hand strength and continue up the path.
Before I know it we are at the top. The vertical ascent of the wall was about 1000 feet. We hike down the other side and met our crew for lunch. The Umgumu with the table and chairs has forgotten to stop and continued on to the camp. We had a picnic on the floor of the tent. Liberate was upset, but we just laughed and took it in stride. When we were done eating we laid down and took a short nap inside the dining tent.
After lunch we began another ascent, but it was more gradual. It turned out to be another 1000 feet up then a short distance of flat and a steep descent of 1200 more feet. On the descent about halfway down I stepped in some loose gravel, my foot slid from under me and I fell. I hurt my shin, my forearm and my index finger. All were minor scuffs so we continued the hike.
The last part of the hike was grueling. It was a steep vertical ascent of another 600 feet or so. When we finally signed in at camp I am more tired than I thought possible. I get my boot and gaiters off and crawl onto my pad and doze off. The camp is bustling so I could not sleep long. I got up when they brought the bath water. I scrubbed my fingernails with my brush until they felt raw. They were cleaner. I cleaned my cuts and scuffs and they did not look too bad. I have more bruises on my ego than my body. I am sore though. Once I finished my bath I emerged from my tent. The scene was eerie. A fog had rolled in and the camp and the summit were clouded in mist.
I wandered about until Tea and popcorn. Lisa and I had polite conversation while we each wrote. Dinner was served shortly: Mexican. The quesadilla was very good and so was the homemade guacamole.
The camp is at 13,321 feet, about 2000 feet lower than yesterday. It sounds like we went downhill, but it feels like we went up more then down today. I scored well on the test since we are at a lower altitude: 93 heart rate, 87% oxygen saturation. We got our hot water bottles and I went straight to bed. Tomorrow we head to Barafu camp which is the summit base camp.
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