Kilimanjaro Trek - Shira Camp to Lava Tower to Barranco Hut (Day 3)
The sun shone for us again on Day 3. The climate was colder than the previous day and the first of the warm clothes were needed in the morning but later removed as we soon warmed up in the late morning sun.
The altitude and an ongoing cold was to prove too much for Charles as he had to forego the remainder of the climb. This was a sad moment for the group as we saw him walk away. We had been together for near on 6 days and felt that we would all be together until the very end. Unfortunately this was not going to be the case and we could only hope that no others would have to give up on the ascent due to illness.
We must go on and on we went across the Shira Plateau. Today was going to be a test of everybody’s fitness and how well their body’s would cope to the altitude as we were to climb to 4,600 metres and then back down to Barranco camp at 3,950. We were told this could be a demoralising day, with going up so high only to come back down, so our mental strength would also be tested.
Our lunch was set up at 4,000 metres and Nick was really starting to feel the effects of high altitude only managing a few cream crackers to see him through till Supper. Several of us were suffering from headaches at this point and all I could think was that my head may very well explode if I was to climb any higher. A few nurofen later and I seemed to be feeling altogether better and could resume the walk and enjoy the views.
The peaks seemed not to want to show themselves to us as clouds constantly blocked them from our view. Then out of nowhere was a break in the clouds and there they were. It actually seemed possible that we may reach the summit at this point and wondered why it would take the next day and half to reach the top. The reasons were evident as we started walking away from this beautiful site back down to the campsite, a further 500 metres down. I now knew why this could be a demoralising day for some but not for our group who were all progressing well.
After some good ole Cadburys chocolate , that had been with him since he set off from Leeds, Nick’s body finally seemed to be acclimatizing itself to the height (maybe another brand of chocolate would have done the same good deed on that evening but it was seemingly magic and that secret Cadburys recipe that turned Nicks fortunes around).
The view from Barranco camp was equally as impressive as what we had seen 3 hours previous. As we sat munching away on Nicks stash of chocolate we were greeted, in-between the thick fog that covered the camp, by further sites of the peaks of Kilimanjaro. “In 36 hours time we will be up there”, I thought to myself as I looked on.