Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2022 I don't remember as much as I would like to from this day but I do remember the hiking seeming so much harder than the day before. Up, up and up, it felt like forever. Scrambling with three points of contact more that I ever have hiking in my life. That morning felt like a novelty as it was our first time waking up on the mountain. Everything felt new. There was so much for our sense to explore: see, hear, smell, touch, taste. Saidi, one of our trip leaders, shared that every morning we would eat breakfast together, then briefly talk through the plan for the day and then try and start hiking around 8 or 8:30am. I remember most days we left camp at least by 9am at the latest. Every day got a little harder than the one before as we were tired from hiking all day, enduring whatever elements the weather and terrain had in store and the altitude. This day was no different. When we hiked into Shira Cave Camp that afternoon, it was so foggy that we had to call out for our porters to find our camp. Even though they had much heavier loads that we did, they always reached camp before us. There were a hundred or so people, grouped in to their own camps with the hikers in their group and their porter teams. We knew our tents by the orange and tan colored segments and soon found our camp among the others. Each day on Kilimanjaro felt like it's own whole trip. Weather in the morning was different than the weather at lunch was different than the weather in the afternoon was different from the weather at night. And the higher we hiked, the more it felt like we were on another planet. Once the fog started to clear and everyone was stirring from their much-earned afternoon nap, our porter group celebrated the day by sharing traditional songs with us from their cultures. We didn't stray too far from camp as we were on Shira Plateau, one of the major three features of the Kili mountain region. Check out more here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1791652. We wandered around the area, taking pictures of the breathtaking views and watching the birds of the area stake their claim on any droppings left outside of the kitchen tents. This camp was also our first experience with the helipad that we saw or heard at almost every camp. An older woman (older than us at least) was walked by her porters and her family to the helipad as the helicopter arrived to take her back down the mountain. Our porters told us that seeing her walk was a good sign. The sound of the blades was somewhat deafening as they took off, cutting through the silence of awe of the audience at camp. Fast forward to the morning ~ we were up early (Jason, first!) taking pictures of the spectacular sunrise over Kili's peak and the surrounding area. We ate breakfast and were on our way before 9:00am. Little did we know what an adventure today would be! We hiked from Shira Cave Camp up to Lava Tower for lunch to help us acclimatize as we hiked to prepare for summit day. Our guides were a team, always working together and keeping tabs on all of us to see how we did with the altitude, in order to set realistic expectations for summit day. When we arrived at Lava Tower for our lunch stop, our porter team had already set everything up and ready for lunch to be served. It was maybe 10 degrees Fahrenheit and snowing (wet snow!) and so we were relieved to have somewhere to sit down inside and enjoy the hot beverage of our choice. Shiraz, our server for the trip, always had a hearty offering of hibiscus tea (my favorite!), coffee or hot chocolate. It was a quick pit stop for us to refuel, use the bathroom and get ready for the second half of our hike that day. We navigated down a rock slide area, with the snow turning into rain and melting water through all the cracks. It was slippery and a little steep but we made it and were motivated to keep going. Our final destination: the notorious Barranco Camp, located at the base of the Barranco Wall, also referred to as "the breakfast wall." We would find out why the next morning. Barranco Camp seemed to be a mystical place we would never reach. Every twist and turn we took as we hiked down from Lava Tower seemed to predict Barranco Camp as 'just around the corner' or as Saidi would lovingly say, "Only 45 more minutes" in the caring accent that I will never forget. He was the father of our group, making sure we were all as on time as we could be, that we hiked safe and that we also had a good time. Check out more here: www.tranquilkilimanjaro.com/places/barranco-camp/. And then, after miles and miles and hours and hours, we see what feels like heaven, the colored specks of the various camp tents in the distance, and we knew we would soon be home. For the night. Once the sun went down, you could see the lights from Moshi town far down in the valley, sparkling in the dark velvet night sky. We were surrounded by various features of the mountain, Barranco Wall on one side. Waiting to be scaled the next morning. It was time to eat and go to sleep. We would need all the energy we could the next day. Since I drink so much water when I hike (from habit in Colorado), I wanted to use the bathroom before wrapping myself up in my sleeping bag for the night. It was cold and relatively quiet out, as I snuck my way to our group's private toilet tent, thinking "I'm not sure I've ever had better views from my bathroom, anywhere." See you in the morning! Summary of the Day (as recorded by my Garmin Venu Sq):
*This is the only documentation I have for the day. It's from Shira Cave Camp to Lava Tower Camp, the first segment of our day. The second segment was from Lava Tower Camp to Baranco Camp. It looks like I didn't turn the tracker on my watch for that half.
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