Kilimanjaro Trek - Barranco Hut to Barrafu Camp (Day 4)
Day 4 was the beginning of our marathon 36 hours which would see us walk for 23 of those. As we looked out onto the steep slopes of the mountain we noticed some people scaling the heights without ropes “crazy fools”, I thought. I asked Abel what route they were taking. “The same route as us” was his reply. Ummm, okay. I don’t think my travel insurance will cover me for this so i’ll just have to try really hard not to die at this point.
This turned out to be one of the most fun days of the trek as we scrambled up the steep volcanic rock face of Barranco. For all of the reading I had done previously and since about climbing the Machame route everybody seems to dislike this day but for our crazy bunch we all seemed to love the challenge. We asked Abel if the final summit climb would be any steeper than this to which he replied “no”. This was the best news to hear at this point. If we could all manage the sheerness of todays climb then the next day should be a breeze.
We arrived at a camp that could best be described as hell. After a tiring days walk we were faced with walking on slate to reach our tents at Barafu Camp. I suddenly had a horrendous thought that we’d have to walk on this on our way to the summit. I didn’t ask the guides if this would be the case as I was too scared to what the answer may be.
The altitude was starting to drag a few people down. Nick and Naweeda were suffering the most with Nick having to go to bed with what he described as the worst headache he has ever experienced. It was not looking good that we would all make it to the summit on the following day but we were still hoping and praying that this wouldn’t be the case and the remaining fifteen would be resilient enough to get to the end.
During the evening meal it dawned upon me that we were at 4,600 metres and had another 1,295 metres before reaching the peak. That would be the most we’d have walked in all the time we’d have been there. Once again, I tried to blank this from my mind. We retired to bed at the unusually early time of 7pm to rise again at 11pm to begin the summit climb.
The 3 season sleeping bag finally came into it’s own as temperatures plummeted to below freezing and I could get enough sleep to feel a little refreshed by the time we were awoken by our porters delivering us a lovely cup of tea.