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DAY 4 - 5 August 2009 - Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp

We awoke as early as ever and emerged from our yellow tent beneath our personal Senecio to an absolutely freezing cold morning, crystal clear skies and frost on the ground.  It was so cold that after only a couple of minutes taking photos our hands were like blocks of ice and we dived back into the tent to wait for our team to emerge, as there were no signs of life from their tents, nor for that matter from any of the other tents scattered across the steep valley.  We used the time before the rest of the campsite awoke to get organised for the day ahead without feeling rushed.

It wasn't long before tent doors began opening and we found out why they were having such a late start.  We had added an extra day to our itinerary to split the trek from Barranco Camp to Barafu Camp into 2 shorter days rather than 1 long day to help us acclimatise and to give us the best chance of making the summit.  This meant that we had only 4 hours ahead of us and Fred's plan was to allow those going straight to Barafu to go on ahead, leaving the route less crowded when we finally set off.  Well that was the theory...

By the time we had struggled through our usual early morning feast, the sun had risen above the massive peak still towering ominously high behind us and was warming everything and everyone.  Down jackets and gloves were packed away and we waited on a rock, ready to set off for the fabled Barranco Wall - a 300m high cliff, through which a rugged path has been picked and, if the reports are to be believed, the toughest challenge so far.

It was about quarter past nine when we set-off through the rapidly dismantling tents and after a few minutes dropped down to and crossed a river before arriving at the bottom of a very high looking cliff - welcome to the Barranco Wall.

The first few minutes went reasonably smoothly but then we arrived at the traffic jam.  There must have been at least fifty climbers, guides and porters waiting for their turn to negotiate whatever horror was around the corner, so we joined the back of the queue and began admiring the view.  We were going nowhere fast and on striking up conversation with fellow climbers we learned that some people had been waiting for more than 30 minutes. 

The queue had formed because just round the corner was the first of many hands-on climbing sections, which a large number of people seemed to find somewhat daunting, hence the log-jam.  We don't know quite what Fred did or said but somehow, after what sounded like ordering porters and others around, he manoeuvred us towards the front of the queue and we quickly scaled this first difficult section.   

Although technically climbing it was not as difficult as some of the pitches we had negotiated in the Alps and we quickly began to make real progress up this cliff face, passing many of the slower and presumably less experienced climbers.  The porters were also experiencing difficulty manoeuvring their heavy loads. Some managed to keep their loads on their heads or shoulders, while others had to accept help from colleagues.

Over the next couple of hours we gradually weaved our way up the rugged path, negotiating one climbing section after the other, until the terrain began to level and we emerged onto a broadly flat area with groups of climbers resting and taking in the fabulous views.  In one direction was Kibo, with its glaciers glistening in the brilliant sunshine and still towering 1,800m above us, and in the other direction was the ever-present sea of clouds but this time with Mount Meru piercing the otherwise white undulating vista.

We rested for a while before setting off again in the direction of Karanga valley and our next camp, perched high up on the other side of the valley.  In theory it was downhill all the way as Karanga Camp sits at about the same altitude as Barranco Camp but as always in the mountains the path was a long, dusty, undulating affair until we arrived at the lip of Karanga valley where it became very steep, requiring sure footedness and something of a head for heights.

Vegetation was mixed. The landscape was mainly barren and stony but interspersed with the odd heather and senecio.  The views were amazing as we continued our way along the southern circuit with Kibo and its glaciers on our left, the clouds out to our right, Meru now behind us and the clouds forever swirling in to obliterate the views in all directions before receding again as they were beaten back by the midday sun.

After an hour or so of dropping into one little valley, then up the other side and onwards to the next we finally dropped about 100m down into the Karanga valley, crossed the river - the last water supply on our march to the summit - and up the final 100m to Karanga Camp and the end of day 4.

Fred had suggested the trek would take about 5 hours, based, presumably, on our rates of progress on other days.  In the end we negotiated the stretch in just over 4 hours, which is broadly in line with the guidebooks and helped by the fact that Barbara was not feeling as bad as she had on previous days.   Whether this was because the day was shorter or because whatever had been causing problems was subsiding was unclear but it was good to hear that things were looking up.  It was also encouraging to realise that we appeared to be fairing better than many around us.  Perhaps things were on the up...

We arrived at camp at about one-thirty, expecting to collect our packed lunch and munch on it in our tent.  We were therefore surprised when roast chicken, homemade coleslaw and real chips appeared.  Yes, we were sitting outside a tent at nearly 4,000m metres, 4 days from civilisation, and somehow they had kept chicken fresh and hauled real potatoes all the way up here, not to mention the equipment to deep fry the chips - just amazing!

As usual there was far too much to eat and it was heartbreaking to send back such fantastic food but one can only eat as much as the body is willing to accept.

Having eaten we had the rest of the afternoon to sit in the tent, outside on our stools or to wander around camp soaking up the warming afternoon sun and the views of Kibo from yet another angle.  Every now and then the clouds would blow in and the temperature would drop by ten degrees or so, so it was a case of down jacket on when the sun was gone and off when it reappeared.
 

The afternoon was a time to catch up on diaries, enjoy singing from a group further up the steep campsite and to contemplate what the night ahead would bring for those who started on the same day as us but for whom tonight would be summit night.  Our thoughts drifted to the fact that had we opted for the 6-day climb we would still be trekking towards Barafu Camp a whopping 700m above us.  At the rate we had been going that would probably have taken another 5 or even 6 hours, meaning that it would have been almost dark before we reached high camp, leaving only a few hours to rest before the summit push. 

For the first time our decision to add that extra day seemed vindicated but even so our summit push seemed very close and we could only hope that the improvement in Barbara's condition would continue and that the jelly legs would hold off, not to mention the need for us both to cope with the extremes of altitude that were still to come.  It is probably fair to say that a sense of apprehension was beginning to develop - it was all getting very close now.

While listening to the singing at about 17:30 we were called back to our tent for more food - oh no!  The quality, as usual, was fantastic and this time it was soup with pancakes, followed by spaghetti and mince, then desert.  Again, it is probably best not to think for too long about how they keep the meat fresh with sub-zero temperatures at night and temperatures in the sun reaching over forty degrees during the day but suffice to say, we survived and didn't have a hint of tummy upset, so well done to our climbing team and in particular our cook Moses!

As the sun began to set we remembered that this was the night of the full moon so we hauled ourselves out of the tent to witness the full and very bright moon rising through a notch cut in the ridge we would be climbing the following morning.  Having taken a few long-exposure photographs of this amazing scene and around the campsite generally we, as ever, got our heads down by about eight.

This has to go down as the best day yet!

You can view all of the pictures from day 4 here.

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