Day 6 Karanga Valley Camp (13,235ft) to Barafu Huts Camp (15,295ft)
Unzipping the tent after the 6.30am wake up call reveals a cold, damp and misty Karanga camp. Despite the dark weather however, my spirits are high and I am starting to allow myself to believe that I am going to get this job done. My head is OK with no nausea, I seem to be acclimatising well and the last couple of days I have felt good. Today we will reach base camp and at midnight tonight we will ‘pull the trigger’ as Joshua likes to say on our summit bid. All I’ve got to do is keep well, keep hydrated and keep putting one foot in front of the other. ‘Pole Pole’ is the Swahili catchphrase on this mountain and ‘slowly slowly’ is certainly the way to do it. We will see.
AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) is the big danger on any walk to altitude. Water leaks into your lungs or brain if you don’t allow yourself to acclimatise and, if you don’t lose height it can be fatal. The best way to acclimatise is to gain height slowly and give yourself time at altitude for your body to adjust before going higher. The problem on Kilimanjaro is that there are no opportunities for a rest day. In Nepal there are plenty of villages and towns, Namche Bazaar being the most obvious where you can stop for a couple of days, drink coffee, eat cake and enjoy the scenery whilst your body grows red blood cells to adapt to the lack of oxygen. On Kilimanjaro, there is nothing like that, your tent is your home for the duration so the tried and tested way seems to be to keep moving all the way to the top and hope for the best. In saying that, because I want to actually get to the top I have given myself eight days to do it. More expensive, but I figure if I am spending a considerable amount of money to climb Kilimanjaro, why not spend a fraction more to give yourself the best chance of achieving that goal. I am also taking Diamox (plenty of debate on the internet) as I did in Nepal. By the time we get going the Sun is out, the sky is blue and it’s a steady incline up the trail and away from camp. Looking back, Mount Meru can be seen in the distance poking out above the morning cloud.
The days walking consists of a steady 2,000ft of ascent spread over two miles and takes us about three and a half hours. The mood amongst us this morning seems fairly contemplative, there’s not a lot of talking and we are perhaps all thinking about the long night ahead of us and the climb to ‘The Roof of Africa’. As we move round to the South of the Mountain to prepare for our summit bid, Mawenzi, which lies to the East of Kilimanjaro comes into view. About 6km from Kili the two mountains could not be more different. Mawenzi is sharp and spiky whilst Kili is rounded. At 16,893ft it’s the third highest mountain in Africa after Kili and Mount Kenya.
It’s a short day and we arrive at Barafu camp by early afternoon and so have the luxury of enjoying lunch in the tent for a change. After lunch we take a walk up the summit path for about twenty minutes to some rock steps that Joshua described as the only difficult part of the ascent. It also gives our bodies a chance for that little bit more acclimatisation.
We are now in a good, ‘end of school term’ kind of mood. This is a bit strange because we have a long night and the hardest climb ahead of us but, we have all made it to base camp, we are all feeling good and two miles and 4,000ft above us is the mountain we have come to climb looking so, so close. The weather is dry and sunny and I take some pictures of Joshua, Richard and Gasper larking about and get some shots of Mawenzi, prominent on the skyline.
Barafu camp sits at 15,300ft above sea level, 4,000 ft below the summit of the mountain. Barafu means ‘Ice’ in Swahili and when the Sun goes down its easy to feel why. It’s not a camp designed for comfort. If you imagine pitching your tent in a refrigerated gravel pit tilted at 45 degrees you are not far off the experience. Apart from that, it’s home from home. It’s also the last camp before the summit. I spend the afternoon sorting out my summit gear. Keeping the camera and GPS warm so they don’t freeze on the ascent means wrapping them in a couple of fleeces. Water bottles are stored upside down as water freezes from the top and I pack my fruit pastilles and Snicker bars for that all important sugar. Before dinner Joshua gives us an extensive, inspiring briefing about when we are leaving, what to take and what is expected from us.
Dinner is at 5pm and bed at 6pm ready to be up at 11pm for the adventure of a lifetime.
For map and route of this walk click ‘learn more’ below.
