Kilimanjaro - My Journey to the Roof of Africa

Kilimanjaro (Day 5):

Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

I had a very hard day today. It was really windy all day. The wind was blowing the tent pretty badly in the morning.

I had breakfast in the dining tent with Andrew and Mio. I tried to eat as much as I could.

We couldn't get ready very quickly this morning so we left camp at 8:20. The three of us started out together with the two guides. They quickly left me behind though because today, I could only walk very slowly. The trail was very steep all the way and we were at high altitude. We climbed from 4,034 meters (13,235 feet) to 4,662 meters (15,295 feet) in 3.4 kilometers. It took me 3.5 hours so my speed was 1 km/h.

We are camping at Barafu Camp. This is my least favorite campsite so far. First of all, it's really windy. I don't think that I'll be able to sleep at all because the wind is constantly blowing my tent. It's also a very rocky place with no water. The porters had to carry the water here from Karanga Valley. Today, it was so hard for me to go that I didn't even step aside to let the porters go by. They had to go around me. Well, they are in so much better shape than I am and going around me for them took less effort than for me to step aside and let them go by.

I wasn't in the best mood when I finally got to camp. I snapped at poor Goodliving when he came to my tent and started with the "say poa" bullshit again. Every time he comes to my tent, he says "mambo" and I have to answer "poa". So today, I said it but he didn't hear it and then said "say poa" again and I yelled at him: "I said it already!".

Unfortunately, I have to eat in my tent again because they took the dining tent down to the next camp. By the way, I talked to Brian and learned that all three of them reached the summit this morning. I don't know how they did it; especially Andie who is sick.

Lunch was really good today. It was a big pot of soup and there were lots of potatoes and carrots and other vegetables in it. I ate the whole pot with three pieces of toast and after that all I could do was just lay on my bed for a couple of hours. I prepared my bed first thing after arrival. I had no problem blowing up my mattress at this altitude. I also don't have a headache which proves that I'm pretty well acclimatized. The only strange thing that happened to me is that I woke up with really puffy eyes in the morning. Both my upper and lower eyelids are swollen. It must be from the altitude. I also have a little bit of diarrhea. I hope it's not gonna turn into anything serious. Perhaps, I should take some Imodium before the summit climb tonight. It's after four right now. There is no chance to sleep with this wind and the porters yelling to each other outside.

I had a minor emergency today in the bathroom. I put my toilet bag in the window opening since there was nowhere else to put it and the wind blew it off. It got stuck on the platform of the toilets but there was no way to get to it because it was really high up in the air. Luckily, some porters hurried to my help. They climbed down the rocks and I could push the bag off the platform with one of the long cleaning apparatuses. Then one of the porters grabbed it and threw it up to me. I think, it's time to visit the bathroom again and then I'm definitely going to take two Imodium tablets.

Well, I definitely have diarrhea so I took two Imodium tablets. I sincerely hope that the diarrhea stops because I can't climb to the summit if it doesn't.

It's after 5:30 now and I have just finished my dinner. I tried to eat as much as I could because I need the energy for tonight. I started crying out of the blue while eating my dinner. I can't really explain why. I'm not hurting, I'm not too cold, there is really no reason for me to cry. I think, I'm just exhausted physically and mentally. This climb is much harder than I expected. There wasn't one day so far when I felt that this was pretty easy. Every day is hard. Some days are harder than others, some days are shorter than others but every single day requires a great effort to get from one camp to the next. I'm glad it's almost over. The toughest part is still ahead of me but tomorrow at this time I'll be happy that I did it. I conquered Meru; I will conquer Kili as well.