Kilimanjaro 2009

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DAY 5 - 6 August 2009 - Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp

Elevation (approx)	3,930m to 4,600m
Height gains	777m
Height losses	107m
Distance	5 km
Duration	4 hours
Habitat	Alpine Desert

We got up and got ready to the usual ritual and it was just before nine when Tino's voice rang out to signify time to go. So, this is it. Just 4 hours to Barafu Camp, a few hours rest and then the culmination of all this effort when we head for the summit at midnight. It really was getting serious now and the mood around camp was quite sombre.

Although it doesn't look that bad in this picture the path felt very steep right from the off and looking around it was not just us. Everyone was moving very slowly and saying pole-pole (slowly slowly) but frankly anything other than slowly was not an option for us as Barbara was feeling dreadful again. We plodded up this first section at the top of which the gradient flattened and we rested for a while with Kibo rising majestically above us.

We then continued on easier undulating terrain until we arrived at the top of a gentle incline from where we saw a long one hundred metre or so descent followed by an obviously very steep incline leading up to the still far off, Barafu Camp and Africa's highest WC perched on what looked like the edge of a very long drop. No wonder they they call them long-drop toilets!

As we neared the top of the incline and 4,600m Barbara had to dig really deep. She made it to camp after a 4-hour trek where it became apparent that the reason she had been feeling so bad was that she had contracted a virus. Although timing could not have been worse, at least we now knew what had been causing the symptoms for the past 3 days and just hoped that she could muster enough energy to reach the summit.

Having eaten we laid back in our warm tent with a cooling breeze blowing through the open vents and drifted in and out of sleep for a couple of hours. We woke feeling refreshed and began sorting out what we had to carry for the dash to the summit and what we could safely leave in camp, e.g. we reduced the first aid kit to bare essentials. Clothes were also sorted and placed in 2 small piles so that everything would run like clockwork at midnight.

Fred arrived to brief us for the night ahead and when he asked how we were feeling Barbara explained that she now knew she had an infection and all she wanted to do was sleep. Fred asked whether she still wanted to attempt the summit and her response was, of course, a definite "yes". We chatted with Fred for a while and when we were done it was about six and we climbed into our sleeping bags and tried to get some sleep before the planned wake-up call at eleven.

Trouble was, the afternoon snooze now came to haunt us as we were not tired enough to drift straight off to sleep, especially with the chatter from the porters and their radios blasting out music of various interest to us. We are not sure whether it went quiet at about eight or whether we simply drifted off to sleep but sleep we did, only to wake at 11:30 wondering why our team had not given us that eleven o'clock call. It is fair to say that when we realised the time pandemonium broke out in the Coombs tent!

You can view all of the pictures from day 5 here.

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