Day 5 - Barranco Camp, Karanga Camp

Facts

Starting altitude (Barranco camp) = 3,950 m
Campsite altitude (Karanga camp) = 4,200 m
No of hrs walking = 4 hrs
Distance covered = 7 km

Dinner tent

There is absolutely nothing like washing your hands and face in warm water under the sub zero temperature. Every morning the waiter would greet us with a hot tea and a bowl of hot water. It was so miserably cold outside that if it wasn't for that hot tea, I don't think I would've dared to leave the tent! Eitan was always the last one to come out and it was in fact really funny. The waiter would first poke his tent and say "Jumbo", means hi in Swahili. Eitan would hardly respond the first time, so the waiter would shake the whole tent and say "JUMBO", we could then hear Eitan's sleepy voice, "jumbo" and the waiter wouldn't walk away until Eitan opened the zipper and took the hot tea.

It was always so so tempting for me to have a cup of coffee instead of tea. But being the only girl in the group, it wasn't really convenient to go to toilet 10 times during the hike! :) So I had to stop myself from reaching out for that coffee specially during breakfast. It was right there on the table in front of my eyes and this felt like a torture! It was so cold that while holding that tea cup, my hands were shaking. I only used to get warm when the sun was out. Not to forget that the hot porridge at breakfast would help as well! We also had the option of hot chocolate for breakfast. It is called Milo and I remember we had exactly the same one on Inca Trail hike. The first time you try this Milo, it tastes so bland. It is simply tasteless. No matter how many spoons you put, it does not make much of a difference. But after the first day, somehow you get addicted to it. We drank it so much that we ran out of it on the last day! 

Climbing up the Barranco wall

Today's walk started off with climbing the Barranco wall. It looked very steep from the camp and it was in fact like a wall. We had to get rid of our hiking poles and use our hands to climb up. It was a bit like rock climbing and at one point we had to hug a rock in order to pass. Any mistake would've been a disaster. This path was definitely the most exciting part of the whole trip. I really enjoyed it. I was feeling great today. No headaches, no stomach upset and no tiredness. I hoped that I could stay like this for the remaining days. Only 3 more days left and I was already beginning to feel sad that it was going to end.

Porters carrying heavy loads having just climbed the Barranco wall

Porters and other groups having just climbed the Barranco wall

When we reached to the top of the wall, the scenery was breath taking. There were many other groups as well. Every one was happy and excited, except a couple of people who were not feeling so good. There was a girl lying down on the ground. She looked really sick. She had her eyes closed and when her friends called her for a group photo, it took her a lot of efforts to get up and take a few steps, and then she immediately lied down again. When we left that place, she was still there motionless. We were wondering whether she'd be able to continue at all. That was the most serious case I'd seen so far.

Above the clouds

All throughout the hike I had been learning more and more Swahili words and practicing with the guides and the porters. Towards the end I could have  basic conversation with them. The guys in my group used to make fun of me for doing this and at times, asked me to translate to them! :) I just found it fun, specially that there were many words similar to Arabic and Persian, eg kaka = brother, dada= sister. So while we were passing by the porters, every one normally used to just say, Jumbo=hi. But I used to say more than that, eg Jumbo kaka (hi brother). That one little word would make them smile and then I'd say to them, "Ume choka?" (Are you tired?). That would make them laugh and reply back... It was all fun! :) I asked Gideon more than Willibard. Wilibard was sometimes a bit weird, so I used to avoid him as much as I could! :) I learned to count up to 10 and some other simple sentences. Gideon taught us a couple of funny sentences and we used to say it throughout the hike and it would make us laugh every time:

Kchiz comandizi = cool like a crazy banana
Kchiz coma tango = cool like a crazy cucumber

Above the clouds

Just before we reached Karanga camp, there were two ways, a very steep one and a less steep one. Wilibard asked us to choose. Of course I knew which one I wanted, but this time I let the others say it. As soon as Ryan said, the steep one, I immediately shouted, Yaaaaeeee ! :) Gideon started leading. He was going with very slow pace to accommodate Scot (Ryan's father). This time I found it too slow and I felt like asking him if I could go faster. By the time we got to the top, I was not tired at all, whereas I could see the others have had enough and were so happy to have reached the camp. This had been the trend since the beginning. The guys couldn't wait to reach the camp site, whereas for me, camp site wasn't the target. In fact I knew every time we reached a new camp site, the hiking day for that day was over. I enjoyed every moment of every step during the hike and it did not matter to me if the hike took 3 hours or 7 hours.

View of Kibo's glacier

The camp was totally immersed in clouds, and because of this it felt very cold even though it was only 2:30pm. We were supposed to go for acclimatization walk in the afternoon, but the weather did not improve, so Wilibard cancelled it. The other guys went inside their tents to get some sleep. I lied down for half an hour and read a bit, but then I got so bored inside the tent. So I decided to come out and walk around. It was a big camp site and many groups were there, but because of the density of the cloud, I could only see a few meters ahead of me. 

Having a short break before attempting the steep path

My discovery walk was quite interesting. The camp was on a slope and our group was towards the bottom of the slope. By just walking up and down the camp site, I felt warm again. There was not much to see, but the feeling was wonderful. It felt surreal that everything was blending with the clouds. I went to the outskirt of the camp. There were huge rocks and the sound of the stream coming from somewhere down below was very relaxing. I sat down there for some time all by myself inside the clouds, breathing the clean Kilimanjaro air and listening to the sound of the stream.

At dinner I tried to force myself to eat. I was just not hungry. On these tours, they keep feeding you lots of stuff. In fact losing appetite is one of the signs of mountain sickness. So I suppose that was the reason. But every time after lunch/dinner, Wilibard would check whether we've eaten enough or not and he used to tell us off if we hadn't eaten much. :)

Karanga camp site

Every night when I went to bed, even though I was wearing whatever I had, I was still shivering in my sleeping bag. The cold was bitterly painful. I could feel it in my bones. I used to contract every part of my body inside the sleeping bag. I could imagine myself looking like a prawn!! :) It would then take about an hour before I could feel warm again and my body slowly started to relax.

Tomorrow we'll be going to our final camp site before the summit... We're almost there!