Day 4 Barranco Camp - Karanga Camp
Day 4: Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp. Had the best night sleep yet last night (slept for 4 straight hours before having to get up for my midnight pee - drinking 1 1/2 gallons of water per day makes for a regular pee schedule). The stars were out as usual and I was treated to a meteor. The lights from Moshi and the countryside down below seem to keep spreading as we get higher. Back to bed.
Got up around 6:30am (my tentmate, Mark, and I were usually the first ones up). Mark is 6 months into a 9 month stint working in Fallujah, Iraq driving a water truck. Very interesting dude - he was on Jeopardy in July 2001. Everyone on this trip has been great - very interesting people and no one bitched or complained at all. Not bad for a group of 28.
Started out hiking at around 9am this morning.
The weather was beautiful and the infamous Barranco Wall stood before us still hidden in shadows waiting for the sun to hit it. Also known as the “breakfast” wall, because many hikers loose their breakfast about 1/2 way up - I didn’t see any chunks flying, though.
It took both legs and arms to climb the 1000′ foot wall - lot’s of traffic jams, so we were able to go slow and take our time (which is always a good thing, Pole Pole is the mantra - meaning “slowly”).
The mountain showed itself off and on as the clouds gathered and rolled up the valleys - no rain today. The mountain is getting more and more intimidating as we get closer. We continued hiking through moonlike landscapes with clouds blowing around us and catching glimpses of the top of Kili.
There was the occassional stream and waterfall, and more Dr. Seuss like trees. One last steep climb up to Karanga camp at about 13,800′. Got to camp at 2pm so we had plenty of time to relax. People were playing a mean game of “hearts” in the mess tent. I got up around 1am to pee and the stars were out above and below (Moshi town). I also heard a rockslide up on the mountain. I didn’t think much of it, but it was about 3 days later that those 3 Americans got killed in a landslide.
Tags: The Climb, Travel
