30th August Day 4, The Baranco Wall, Jump Shots & it starts to get cold!
Altitude: Start at Baranco Camp @ 3840m, ie 485mmHg of O2, 63% O2 available at Sea Level, My SPO2: 84%
Finish at Barafu Camp @ 4550m, ie 444mmHg of O2, 58% O2 available at Sea Level, My SPO2: 83%
Max Altitude Reached: 4550m with my exercising SPO2: 76%
Distance walked: ?? km
Total time: 7 hrs 48 mins with stops
After an early breakfast everyone was keen to get walking to warm up from the chill. Baranco camp is in the shadow of the mountain and it is a while before it receives its warming morning sunlight. After a short walk to the base of the wall we began to climb steeply. This was the steepest climb of the journey so far. I was really enjoying the little bit of the scrambling. We often had to stop to let porters go past. A couple in our group were a bit nervous about the height but if the focused on the looking at the wall and climb rather than down or back to Baranco camp they were fine. With the effort of the climb we were all soon striping off all the layers we had put on for the early morning cold. At the top of the wall we had a bit of a rest and water break. A perfect place to take a few “jump shots” with nothing behind us but the cloud base approx. 500m below us. Jen, Wavy Dong & I took a few too many pics and were a little close to the edge for Mo’s liking. It took us 1:33 to the top of the Baranco Wall.
After the wall we set off again with a bit of descent. We all began to despise descending as we knew we would have to climb all the descended meters again at some point. About 30 minutes after reaching the top of the wall poor Richard began to vomit. He had been struggling to eat and drink enough and that is tha last thing he needed. Nuru took his day pack with Mo carrying some of his water and we set off again. Marc had started to feel a bit better and was no longer needing toilet breaks as often. Again every meter of height gained, every meter further revealed another stunning vista. Too many beautiful places to stop and photograph all of them. We stopped for lunch at Barafu hut where the mess tent was set up. The hot soup was welcome as it was starting to get cold. Poor Richard once again ate nothing, he was losing a bit of weight and Kim was worrying she was going to go home with a scrawny wretch as a partner. Cuddling Richard would be like cuddling a bicycle, pedals, handlebars, spokes and all.
The climb after lunch was a slow drag up a gradual slope through the Alpine desert onto Barafu camp. Unfortunately on this stretch the evidence of previous climbers was there for all to see. “White flowers” of discarded toilet paper everywhere. And you had to tread carefully at every pee stop to avoid the piles of human excrement. After a while the walk leveled out for a approx. 1 km. We could now see Barafu camp in front of us with its long drop toilets perched on the edge of the cliffs. To our left was Kili herself, but hiding away behind a white table cloth of cloud. We slogged up the side of the cliff with Wavy Dong and Jen driving the pace. When we got to what we thought was the top, it was a false summit. Just like the nursery rhyme; “The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain and what do you think he saw? He saw another bloody mountain.” Davy struggled on that last few hundred meters which was very unusual for him as he had been so strong all trip. I felt good with the occasional bit of a headache, but as soon as I had a small sip of water from my Camelback it went. We reached Barafu Camp and were relieved to find our campsite near the Camp office where we signed in. We saw other groups climbing up to the office to sign in and then descending back down, perhaps 150 meters that they would have to re-climb on their way to the summit.
It was very cold at Barafu. Cold and desolate. We moved into our tents that the porters had already set up, put on lots of warm gear and had a rest before dinner. Good hot soup again for dinner with fried chicken and chips. After dinner we had a short briefing about our next stage – the trek to the summit which would begin that night. You could sense the excitement and the nervousness amongst the group. We agreed to make sure we were all on time for the 11pm start of the climb so we could set off immediately without standing about in the cold. We all went to our tents and did the final packing of our day packs for the assault on the summit.
I decided not to take my tripod for pics and use my daypack as a cushion/ tripod to save weight. I had 4.5 liters of water, spare gloves, energy gels, camera and 2 lenses, a can of Kilimanjaro beer and a miniature of Famous Grouse whisky which were for celebratory drinks at the summit. I had wrapped my 1.5 liter bottle of water in my Ocean Free & Freedom tee-shirt to stop it freezing. The tee-shirt was for pics at the summit – some free advertising for the boss. Davy & I went to sleep about 7:30 but I think we both just lay there and rested rather than slept. It was too early for bed and we were both excited about the summit attempt. I also had that feeling that I was going into a vital/ high profile rugby match or before a race. You knew you had a huge physical challenge in front of you.
