Altitude: 3,995m (13,106ft) - 4,673m (15,331ft)
A slow pace to from Karanga Camp from Barafu camp gave us some excellent excellent views of Kibo and Mawenzi peaks between the rolling cloud cover.
It is a
slow, tough hike up to Barafu camp, which means, "ice" in Swahili.
Much like yesterday we have some valleys to deal with that we hadn’t really
mentally accounted for. The air starts to get quite thin at this stage and
breathing gets a little tougher as you climb out of the Karanga Valley. It is
extremely cold at this altitude. We muse about the people who do the Lemosho
Route in 5 nights instead of 6 as they would have tackled yesterdays Barranco
wall and today’s Karanga Valley in one day before attempting the summit the
very same night. We are glad of our decision to take the extra day and allow
ourselves at least some rest before the final push.
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| Closer and closer! |
We arrive at Karanga Camp in time for lunch. This is an the busiest camp we
have been at due to the fact there are people both arriving to attempt the
summit and also returning triumphant or otherwise from Africa’s highest point.
Our porters have secured us as secluded sheltered area off the beaten track and
I’m sure that Sera has worked his magic again. As despite being at such a busy
camp we again have one of the best spots.
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| Barafu Camp |
There really is a hierarchy up here and it appears the guides are king. Sera is very firm that we should NOT speak to people who are on their way down .. he doesn’t want us to hear anything negative that may put us off. He wants us all to have the best frame of mind to tackle the night’s challenge ahead of us. He knows this is going to be particularly challenging for Linzi and I as we have a tendency to talk to everyone.
So when we
first arrive at Karanga, the amount of scrambling over rocks we had to do to reach
our part of the campsite surprised me, however after we arrived I concluded it was likely by Sera’s design, as
it was far too much effort in this thin air to climb back out and make new
friends.
We settle
in for an afternoon of rest and preparation for the night ahead, sleeping much
of the afternoon.
Sera sits
Linzi, Megan, Meran and I down ahead of Jitu’s arrival in camp to tell us that
Jitu has decided not to attempt the summit at night because it is going to be
too cold for him. This has given Sera a bit of a dilemma, as he can’t be with both
our group and Jitu at the same time. He is insistent that he will set off with
us at midnight and turn back at some point during the night to collect and
guide Jitu come the sun rise. He is
going to leave us in the capable hands of, August, our assistant guide and one
of our best porters Douglas, who has almost completed his training to be a
guide.
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| Night at Barafu Camp |
We are all sad that Sera won’t be coming to the summit with us given the
journey we’ve come on together to get this far. It’s bittersweet when he tells
us that he wouldn’t let us go all the way to the summit with just, August and
Douglas, if he didn’t believe we could make it. The four of us head to bed
after dinner determined not to let Sera down .. and that come tomorrow we will
reach Uhuru Peak because he believes we can!
So its off to bed for a few hours sleep before we get up again to set off for the prize!
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