Kilimanjaro Day 5 – Wednesday August 20
Last night was cold with a capital brrrr, most certainly the coldest yet and required the use of thermals, but still a reasonable sleep. Callum’s advice to put the clothes you’d be wearing the following morning inside your sleeping bag at night so that they’d be warm when you put them on had proved useful. Viz Top Tips #42 in a series of millions. Jarrod declined his washy-washy this morning as it was too cold and was immediately dubbed the ‘great unwashed’, and then promptly downgraded to the ‘distinctly average unwashed’.
Today’s walk saw us descend 600m from Lava Tower into the Great Barranco Valley at a height of 3,900 metres (12,800 feet). The descent into the valley saw a significant change in vegetation with the landscape dotted with large groundsel trees, with their trunks like palms and topped with spiky leaf rosettes, as well as the giant lobelia, a cactus-like flowering plant. I’m not normally one to pay any attention to plants but these groundsel trees suddenly made it feel like we’d been transported to Arizona or New Mexico, such is the diversity of environments on Kilimanjaro.
We stopped at the bottom of the valley for lunch. In front of us stood the Barranco Wall, a steep and exposed ascent of around 300 metres. The wall is near vertical, but the path cuts across it on a diagonal, so the ascent is more a scramble than a climb. So while some of the porters would stroll up it barely using their hands, for us it represented the most physically challenging effort so far. But it was also the most rewarding when we finally reached the top, as the extra effort made it feel like you were earning this ascent. Mind you, like so many sections of the trails, it seemed interminable at times. Much like watching Newcastle play, it was fun at first, something of a test in the middle, and merely tiresome by the end.
But the views were again spectacular, Kibo rising above us and the plains stretching out below, way off in the distance. There was a text-book view of a hanging valley, where both a tributary glacier and the main glacier have retreated leaving the tributary valley suspended at right angles way above the main one. Forgive me Mr. Matheson if that description was not entirely correct, but at least something from A level geography has sunk in. That week spent tramping around the glacial landscapes of the Lake District was not entirely in vain.
We were by now back in a vegetation-free landscape of volcanic scree, and an undulating trail led around the south-eastern flank of Kibo, with views of the Southern Icefields above. There was one more sharp descent to negotiate and an equally sharp ascent and then we reach Karanga Valley campsite, at a height of 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), which must have made for our toughest day so far.
As we descended into the aforementioned valley we encountered one young lady flat on her back by the side of the trail, clearly in some distress, although with two guides by her side. It seemed staggering to me that the route she was on will have camped at Barranco Valley last night, climbed the Barranco Wall this morning, will be bypassing the Karanga Camp, heading straight to Barafu Camp, and beginning their ascent on the summit that evening. The poor lass could barely stand at that stage, so what chance did she have of pushing on through? We were once again grateful for Terry’s choice of a route which afforded us more time throughout.
Yes, it took more time and cost more money, so may not be an option for people with limited time or limited money, not that any of us had unlimited wealth, but neither were any of us skint or unduly concerned about the cost of an extra night. And while Shira 7B can be done in six days our trek included an extra day, partly to give us more time and opportunities to acclimatise and also to put us out of kilter with most of the traffic from other treks. Lord knows whether Mr. Garry was truly aware of the implications of his selection, but they had served us well.
That said, Kevin was by now struggling. Over the last day or so he had found the acclimatisation walks difficult, been struggling for breath, and had developed a nasty, rattling cough, a possible sign of fluid on the lungs. There were regular consultations with Christopher and Dr. Martin to check his situation and assess his future progress, but when he coughed in the night it didn’t sound good. We all wanted to succeed in this adventure together, so we were willing him on, but as Kevin himself observed there were greater things at stake than saying you’d climbed a mountain.
The campsite at Karanga was far busier than those of the last few nights, given the convergence of the Machame, Lemosho and other Shira routes there. So there was some noise at night, mainly from the porters, but when you realise they’re up and about preparing things for your benefit – and smoking a few joints – you couldn’t complain. Besides which exhaustion meant that I barely managed a few pages of my book before falling asleep each night.
Go to Chapter 10: No cards tonight please