I slept like a very fat baby girl!
Stretching and taking note of all the joint aches and pains I realise I don't feel so bad after such a hideous day before. And then I open the tent.
Last night in the dark I missed seeing the Great Barranco Wall we are camped at the base of. Now I know up until now it sounds like it's been all uphill, but it's been undulating, steep up, steep down, some flats, some slow decents, some slow ascents. This is something else.
The Barraco Wall is almost a sheer rock face. We are told to take it easy that morning after such a painful day - so we watch the procession of headlights attempt the climb whilst we had brekky. Sunrise arrives and we are instructed to compact our poles and put on our light gloves... this is a trek that will require literally climbing the rock face..... ummmm sooooo glad we are doing this with natural light.
But...... Daunting as it sounds, its actually turns out not too bad - you cant really go fast when you have people stopped ahead of you and its single file most of the way. The trek itself is made up of about 90% porters and 10% tourists climbers..... sureal really. It's about 5-1 support crew to climber, I kid you not. Just when you are feeling exhausted and ruined, you have a 50yr old porter run past you (up a hill) with 25kg of water on his shoulders and you think, yeah, I probably shouldn't sook so much. At the top of the wall, the trek is undulating with great views of the Southern Ice Fields. The track turns to scree and you notice the change to sound at this altitude. The scree (thin rock type shingle) - sounds like glass when it clangs together. Everything is sharper..... but quieter? If that makes sense. Today is a short day really - didn't check the time as we left but I dont think we walked more than four hours. We hit Karanga camp by lunchtime at 4,100m and ask this young girl from Sydney 'Alex' if she'd have dinner with us as she is walking alone. Her waiter brings all her food to our mess tent. Funny dudes. Today was a good day.
