The Barranco Wall
A scramble is an under statement
It was a good news and bad news day, today, the
bad news was we had to climb up 500 metres to get over the Barranco Wall, we
named it “the climb from hell”, near the top you have the "kissing rock" so named, I guess, because you made it, but in fact you are standing on a ledge less than a metre wide and a drop of 500 metres, do not look down, and you have no choice but to kiss the rock as you squeeze by.
The good news is, it will only be a 5 hour
climb and we should be at our next camp, Karanga Valley, for lunch, at least we
did not have to carry our lunch. There was still more bad news that at that
time we were not aware of. One of the reasons for the Karanga Valley stop was
to give us more time to acclimatize by spending an extra day over 4000m
The morning was bitterly cold and rolling up
and packing our sleeping bags and getting our down jackets back into their bags
was a major challenge, who would think such a large item could fit in such a
small carrier bag, well mine did not and was packed half in and half out.
The climb up the wall, nearly sent us up the
wall, we had virtually been on our own for two days, and we were now joined by
groups taking the Machame route with climbers of all Nations, the worst, not
surprisingly, being the Americans, we could not wait to get ahead of these
groups who knew everything and made sure everyone within 100m was enlightened
accordingly.
We are now in the Alpine Desert, hills and plains
of lava boulders that the locals called “Maui Mingi” (Many Rocks). Whilst it
was a comparatively short hike today, because of the strenuous climbing, we
were urged to carry as much water as possible so we both had two litres in our
backpack bladders. In addition to a wet suit (trousers and jacket), snacks,
gaiters, sunscreen, camera, binoculars, and medication.
Maui Mingi (Many Rocks)
The climb was very tough and it was important
not to look down as vertigo was a real possibility and I doubt anyone would
survive a fall. Denise fell three times, but luckily downhill slips or tripping
over boulders, the terrain demanded total concentration, which is difficult
when you are exhausted. The bleakness and vastness of this part of the
mountain is difficult to describe and it is only the beauty of Kilimanjaro
itself that ensures that you do not get too depressed.
We saw the benefit of having the right clothes
today and the meaning of a new word to us “wicking” which means repelling perspiration instead of trapping it in the clothes.
A lot of groups were going right through to
Barafu Hut today, which is the base camp. Denise and I were very grateful that
we were taking the extra day to acclimatize, especially when we came across the
sting in the tail, testing climb out of the Karanga Valley to the campsite. Stings in the tail seem to be the order of the day on this trip
On arrival at the camp, we were greeted with
another gourmet meal, quite incredible
achievement by Charles our chef. For the first time, we had an afternoon to relax, because tomorrow
we would get very little sleep, we thought we would try and have a nap, but for
a place that can get so cold, it can also get very hot especially when you try
to sleep in a very small tent.
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