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.