Day 4 was definitely a different day because this was the only time we were going to be rock scrambling. We started the day at 6am (again another sleepless night for me and I finished my audio book so I really didn't have anything to do but stare at the top of the tent). The campsite was so nice to wake up to. The view of the mountain and the wall are a great way to start the day. Breakfast was similar again with porridge, eggs, hot dogs, and bread. Everyone seemed to have smaller appetites.
Again we got a late start so we constantly had a line when starting up Baranco wall. Baranco wall is very imposing and looks like it would be difficult to climb. I think our group found the wall as one of the highlights of the trip. This is the one part of the hike were you get to rock scramble. I really enjoyed mixing it up and getting to do something new. I also really enjoy any hike that allows me to rock scramble. I am so glad that I have started to overcome my fear of heights or this would have freaked me out. The climb wasn't difficult, but it was slow as we kept having to wait to let porters through.
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| View at the beginning of the hike. I couldn't wipe the smile from my face. |
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| And a view of Baranco Wall. |
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| The scramble was slightly challenging, but so much fun. |
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| The porters yet again were incredible climbing the wall. |
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| And the views continued to be great the entire time we were climbing the wall. |
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| Happy tent mate. |
We spent a lot of the morning climbing the wall. We received a long break a the top of the wall and we used this time for a lot of photos. The view was yet again, incredible and we were celebrating making it up Baranco Wall.
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| Group shot with the top of Kilimanjaro behind us |
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| Group selfie |
The hike to lunch was rough. We descended down into a valley and then walked right back up to get to lunch. It was steep on both sides and challenging. I think we were all thrilled to get to lunch and rest for a bit. Lunch consisted of chicken, cabbage, and potatoes. I normally don't care for cabbage, but I really liked this version.
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| Going down |
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| And then right back up |
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| Exhausting but beautiful |
The post lunch hike to Barafu camp was really rough. It was a 3 hour climb up the ridge through very windy weather. The fog decided to come on strong and you felt like you were walking at the end of the world. The wind blew dust everywhere and it dropped the temperature significantly. This is when I noticed people getting very quiet and tired. This is also when I realized how much energy I still had. I sang a lot of songs in my head to keep me positive and to try not to bother the others. I cannot count how many times I sang all of the Lion King songs. Hakuna Matata really does mean "No Worries" in Swahili and we heard it often, therefore I sang the song often. But it was a 3 hour climb, so I turned to other Lion King songs, then other Disney songs, then any song I could think of.
It had the feeling of a 3 hour death march. The views were beautiful, but you had to consciously remind yourself to look at them. The worst was that you could see the campsite at the top of the hillside, but it never seemed to get closer. We took several breaks, but for the last break, Corinne and I decided we just wanted to keep pushing on since the campsite looked so close and we didn't want to deal with adding a layer if we stopped. One of the guides kept going with us. After what seemed like forever, we reached what we thought was the campsite, but our guide just kept walking. Turned out the registration area was further into camp and our campsite was pretty much the furthest spot we could go. It was also completely unprotected at the top and the wind was insane. You really felt like you were on top of the world and the wind wanted to push you off.
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| The never ending climb up the ridge |
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| The fog did make it seem like the end of the world |
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| You can see the campsite at the top of the mountain on the left. It really wasn't close. |
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| Breaks were to catch our breath and rest, but also gave the best time to enjoy the views and take pictures! |
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| We made it! |
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| The view of the mountain next to Kilimanjaro. I vaguely remember them talking about it being created by a volcano, but I could have that wrong. |
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| Incredible that we would be at the top the following morning. |
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We were exhausted, but we all made it.
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The campsite was on a windy ridge and it was an adventure just getting to the private toilet and the dinner tent. It was also so loud listening to the wind rushing by. We had dinner as soon as we got to camp so we could get to bed early. Dinner consisted of zucchini soup and spaghetti with vegetable sauce. A few chose to skip dinner to get more rest. Also we had been enjoying using Katie's oxygen meter to see how much oxygen we had in our blood each night. Holly always seemed to be handling the altitude well, but the measurement tool really didn't say the same. All of the guides came into the dinner tent to explain the next day and give us a pep talk.
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| This wasn't a good reading, but luckily she was feeling pretty good and still smiling. |
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| The guides trying the device on me and explaining symptoms that would prevent them from letting us climb. Luckily we were all good to go. |
We went off to our tents around 7:30pm to get to bed as quickly as possible since we were getting up at 11pm to start our summit climb. It was an exhausting day. It was by far the hardest day of the trip and we only had about 3.5 hours of rest before taking on the summit climb. The wind continued to howl during our "nap" and the temps continued to drop. I was so cold that night and made sure to wear extra layers to stay warm. Corinne and I laid out all of our layers and gear needed before starting our nap so there was no confusion before getting started. I was so excited for the summit climb!
