Day 5 Karanaga to Barafu

Our last full night. My sleep, shallow and not restful. I sit and write these words, as they are in the present.

The anxiety of the summit hits me full boar and my mind is thinking ahead to the even less restful short nap that we will have on our midnight-start summit hike later today. My mind races as I intermittently nod off and dream crazy non-sense.

I am not sure if it’s the altitude or the anti-malarial drugs messing with my head, but so far I have been courted by Patrick Dempsy, been dropped over Niagara Falls, and journeyed to far-away places that exist only in fairy tales.

I must have been in a place resembling the Land of Oz when we were woken up to begin our hike to the last camp.

My legs feel the strain from the night before and because I have not been drinking enough water. I know, everybody told me to drink plenty of water, but honestly, I refuse to go out of my tent in the night to go to the toilet. Naturally I don’t drink enough water.

The seriousness of the hike hits us as one of the porters has fallen ill. It’s his first trip up the mountain, just like ours. The poor guy is crouched behind a rock puking incessantly. Poor think was surely embarrassed. All four of us just want to help him, but decide that the shame might be counterproductive.

Amazingly, despite my malaise, we make it to camp in record time! A mere two hours and fifteen minutes (even with the puke pit-stop).

Summit Night

Cold. I sit in my sleeping bag rubbing my feet together, trying to keep them warm. It’s 715 pm and I am supposed to be sleeping and resting up for the 1130 wake up call. But once again, I can’t seem to find the peace to fall asleep.

Day 4: Barranco to Karanga

Barranco was a cold camp. The sun seemed to have set early and rise late. We awoke to frosted tents and the sun rays at sunrise seemed to never reach is. We were fortunate to get to sleep in until 7:30 and enjoy our breakfast until 9. The cornmeal porridge wasn’t quite our thing, but with enough milk it actually was pretty decent. More our speed were the – get this — poached eggs! Some extremely surprising food came out of that mobile kitchen. They seemed to outdo themselves with every meal.

There were many super delicious items, but sometimes, these very foreign tastes would hit you; quite odd sometimes, actually. Case in point: the deep fried onion French toast. Sounds weird, no?

I was never really quite sure what it was, but many items had a peculiar flavor, one that we agreed is just a sort of slight Tanzanian musk: definitely nothing I’ve ever tasted.

Day 3: Shira to Karanguu via lava tour

Today, it was said, was to be the toughest day of the journey. We set out early, sometime around 8 (At this point in the climb I was still set to my ways of leaving the world behind, including my watch).

The trek started off quite mild with the traverse of the crater and up to the other side to camp Shira 2. We passed our camp to head off to a higher point for acclimatization sake. The trail did not let up. It steadily came at us, trudging up and up, as the top of the mountain came closer and closer. I was able to break away from the group a bit and it was a nice and powerful feeling of being virtually alone for miles and miles. The only noise was that of my footsteps as I paced myself one step after another, just reaching for small goals like the end of the next hill in front of me.

Day 2: Lemosho to Shira 1

Today’s journey was somewhat difficult. We trekked through the jungle up and down through some steep ravines. You could tell we were getting higher in elevation as the trees were becoming thinner and all of a sudden, without any warning we were out of the rainforest and into the moorland. The scenery changed so drastically, it was amazing. The giant lush trees and vivid ferns were replaced by giant pale green bushes. Their pale color seemed to indicate that they were conserving their energy from lack of water and oxygen.

The trail continued to be strenuous with some extremely steep sections challenging our sense of balance. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of climbing and scaling, we saw the top of the edge of the Shira crater, and from there it was only a short 45 minute hike to camp.

It was cool to see the camp from a distance. It spread out against the barren vegetation like a small compound holding inspiration and signs of life.

The well-organized team had a hot lunch waiting for us when arriving. There was no doubt we all felt quite spoiled as we carried our little day packs and were passed by the porters lugging gear. By the time we arrived at camp, our tents were set up with the bags inside and food ready.
Anyway, our lunch was a bit simpler, some bread, fruit and soup. Bellies filled and fatigue setting in, we turned in for a nap, albeit a shallow one. The hustle and bustle and endless chatter of the porters made it difficult to get much rest during the day, but then again, it really made for a very colorful experience.