Day 6 - Karanga Camp, Barafu Camp

Facts

Starting altitude (Karanga Camp) = 4,200 m
Campsite altitude (Barafu camp) = 4,550 m
No of hrs walking = 3 hrs & 15 min
Distance covered = 13 km

Worshiping the sun! :)

After another freezing sleepless night, I was looking forward to that hot tea, hot water and hot porridge. I unzipped my tent and looked outside. Wow, it was all clear again. No clouds, no mist. We were lucky, otherwise hiking through that thick cloud wouldn't have been fun, since you would miss out on scenery all around you. Something that made us laugh was that the previous night, the toilet looked so far away, but this morning under clear condition, it was just a few steps away from our tent! Also those big rocks looked ridiculously close as well! This made us all laugh again, since last night I had told them about my adventure walks and the big rocks somewhere in the mist! :)

Worshiping the sun ! :)

Outside the tent was extremely cold. The tea and the hot water helped just a little. We were impatiently waiting for the sun to come out behind the mountain. My tent was the first one that got the rays of the sun, so all of us jumped over there! That first weak rays of sun felt so warm, that we started worshipping the sun!! :)

We set off at 8:45am and reached Barafu camp after 3 hrs and 15 min. It was almost all uphill, but we were going so "pole pole" (slowly) that I didn't find it difficult at all. In spite of this, the rest of the team were complaining, though I never knew whether they were serious, or just joking.

Barafu camp is at the altitude of 4,550m and is the last camp before the summit. Tonight we'll be starting our summit and I could already feel the excitement. The camp site was on a steep slope and extremely windy. We had to wait sometime for our tents to be set up, since the previous group who had done the climb this morning were still there. A couple of them were still in their tents and looked exhausted. After they finally decided to get up and start their descend, our tents were setup and we had our lunch. Wilibard told us that after having some rest, we'll be go for acclimatization walk at 5pm. We all went inside our tents. I was there lying down and listening to the mix of noises, the wind shaking the tent, the porters, the hikers and a voice inside my head telling me how close I was to the roof of Africa! I was way too excited and could not get any sleep. After about an hour, I could not take it any more and came out of the tent to explore the area.

A Porter carrying heavy load

This was a very big camp site and there were various groups and many tents. I could see on the mountain high above me that there were still people coming down. They had started their climb the previous night. We could not see the people, but the path of dust indicating to us their route. We will be coming down on the same route tomorrow morning. After walking around a bit, I sat down near the edge and absorbed that mesmerizing scenery in front of me. The summit was very close, it looked like a giant overlooking our camp site. Below me  was an arid rocky valley and the wind was pushing the thick clouds towards us. A number of white-necked ravens were flying up and down the valley. The clouds seemed to be getting closer and closer. At this point, it looked as if it was going to cover our camp site within a few minutes and I doubted that we would be able to go for the acclimatization walk. The wind was getting very strong and I was feeling very cold sitting up there.

Having a short break

Later on the wind decided to change its direction and forced the clouds backwards. At 5pm, we started our acclimatization walk. We had just started going uphill when we heard the shout of a girl from above. I looked up and saw two girls and three porters some way up above us. We could not recognise what she was saying. We continued going up and her shouts got louder.

"Stay there! Don't come up!..... I said don't come up!! These people are dangerous!"

We all looked at each other puzzled by what we were hearing. "What the hell is she talking about?!" We ignored her and continued to walk upwards, getting closer to them. She shouted again in an agitated tone:

 "Don't come any closer! Go back to the camp and call for help!.... One of them is armed!"

We all looked at each other again, not knowing what to make out of it. At this time one of the porters said something to Wilibard in Swahili. Wilibard then turned around and told us that these girls have been affected by altitude sickness badly and that is the reason they are behaving like this. They had been in high altitude since last night, ie more than 17 hours and now they are not trusting anybody and are not coming down to the camp.

Barafu camp site

All four of us were listening to what Wilibard was telling us with astonishment and also hearing her shouting in the background made us realise that this was really a serious case. Every step we were making, made the girl shout louder and more agitated. The other girl was more quiet and I had the impression that she was under the influence of the louder girl. At this point I felt that I had to do something here. These girls were affected badly and could not trust anyone. Being the only female, they might have more trust in me. I walked quickly upwards and asked the guys and Wilibard to stay behind. I told Wilibard that I will try to convince her to come down.

I got close to them and introduced myself. I told them briefly about my group and I told the girls that they can trust my group and my guide. Both girls looked simply exhausted, frightened and lost. The loud girl kept saying that they have been kidnapped by these people and now they've lost their group. She said that a guy from their group was still up there and the porters have got him as well.  I told Wilibard that I will take the girls down and will find their group. Wilibard asked Scot to come with me and they decided to go up and find the other guy.

As we started going down, she kept looking backwards and shouting:

"Look! look! They are still following us!!"

Of course the porters were following, since they had been made responsible to bring these two girls down to the camp. I told them not to come, but they knew little English. So I shouted to Wilibard and ask him to tell the porters not to follow us, since they were frightening the girls. I tried talking to the girls to calm them down. The loud girl was called Anita and the quiet one Jes. Jes was more conscious and not a problem at all, but Anita was just out of control and had totally lost it! I had never imagined that altitude sickness could have such an effect. Anita was suspicious of everyone and refused to cooperate. It was difficult to keep her in one place. She simply did not trust anyone. Just a few steps before we reach the camp site, she stopped in her spot!

"I am not going there! See, they are all the same... I don't trust any of them..."

Barafu camp was located on a steep slope. This is the last
camp site before the summit.

I tried to convince her to come along. I told her that she could wait over there with scot and that I would ask the people in the registry office about her group. First she agreed, but then got agitated again and at one point ran off to a higher ground. Scot was also shocked and didn't know what to do. He suggested to find Gideon, as he could at least speak to the porters and should be able to know where the girls' group was. Meanwhile I tried to talk to them more and to take their minds away from the current situation. Apparently they were a big group. They said there are 30 of them and they all came from UK. Their tour was called "Really Wild". At times she would point at a group of tents and would tell Jes: 

"Jes.. Look! I found it! That's our group! Let's go there!"

She wanted to run down the hill and I really had to grab her and calm her down. As I was doubting her judgement and I wasn't sure that was her group.

View from the Barafu camp. That is the route we had been walking the
whole morning to reach the camp.

I came across Gideon by chance and explained to him the situation. I really liked the way he spoke to the girls. He was very calm and gently introduced himself and asked them their names and where they came from. Jes was responding normally, but Anita was giving him this suspicious look. I told Anita that Gideon is our assistant guide and that he knows where "Really wild" camp is and that he would take us there. I asked Anita whether she can trust him and she said:

 "No!... How do you know he is not with them!!!"

With much difficulty and with the help of Gideon we eventually managed to take them to their group. The first person she recongnised was their cook and then all of a sudden she got paranoid and blamed him for being part of the plot. She then tried to run and three people had to grab her to keep her still. Their guide then came over and she recognised him. First she greeted him and then she asked him:

"Why did you leave us? Did you know about this too?"

At this moment, Wilibard, Eitan and Ryan arrived. They had found the other guy. He was not in a good condition either. Wilibard then asked us to return. He said that these people are with their guides now. There is not much we could do here. On the way back, he explained to us that this has happened most probably because the tour was not organised properly and did not have enough guides for the number of hikers in that group. He said that the girls have to be taken to a lower altitude immediately, otherwise it could have a lasting effect on them. I just could not imagine how they could manage to take Anita, specially that it was already 6pm and they had already spent more than 17 hours on their feet in high altitude and most probably were dehydrated as well.

Just reached Barafu camp - Waiting for our tents to be set up

By the time we got to our tents, it was too late to go for acclimatization walk. We were joking that we were a rescue team. After dinner, Wilibard came to the tent and gave us our final briefing before the summit. First of all, he told us to forget what we had experienced that afternoon. He said we need to clear our minds from that event and simply concentrate on what was ahead of us. He also said that no matter how much reaching the Uhuru peak is a dream to us and no matter how much we want it, it is not worth losing our life for it! He said that at any stage of the climb, if he thinks that any of us is not able to continue and if he asked us to stop the hike and to go back,we should listen to him. He said he has got enough experience to judge when someone has crossed the line. When that line is crossed, then he/she must not take any steps higher and should immediately descend. In fact I liked the briefing he did that night. I thought he did it well and made an impression. 

Our luxury toilet. This was the most decent looking toilet out of all other camp sites. For some reason
it was located right on the edge of the cliff. The weird thing was that the wind was somehow
coming through the hole on the ground, so you had to be careful that the toilet paper
you were intending to drop in there, would not fly back and hit you!!!
It took some effort to drop the toilet paper in there!!! :)

So we all went to our tents and by the time I lied down in my sleeping bag, it was about 7:30pm. We had to get up at 11:30 to start the climb at 12 midnight. So only 4 hours of sleep. But I could hardly get any sleep as I was extremely excited. The wind was also very strong and shaking the whole tent and it felt as if any moment, the whole tent would be blown away. Even though I tried to do what Wilibard had asked us to, I could not clear my mind from this afternoon's event. My mind was going over it again and again. I guess I still hadn't come to terms with the shock of seeing the real effect that altitude sickness could have on people. I was so awake and I felt like starting the walk right there and then.

Finally 11:30pm arrived and they woke us up for the hot tea. We had half an hour to get ready and start the climb. We were about to take our first steps towards the summit... And for me personally, this was a big test ahead of me... I was very curious to know how my body would react in that altitude... I could feel my heart beating fast with excitement...........