- Hike to Barafu Camp -

Journal:

"September 10, 1998 - Trek to Barafu - Last night I looked down the valley, the sea of clouds below had gone and I could see the lights of Moshi - surreal, a sharp contrast to the surroundings we have become accustomed to.  Solomon comes to us with our warm bath water in a bucket, "Jambo" he says ("Hello" in Swahili).  We wash and have breakfast.  The tents and bags have a think layer of frost on them and we spread things in the sun to dry.  Éle approaches me "You carry your things today?" (seems he has more faith in me). "Yes" I reply.  He smiles, "You are strong man, but go pole-pole ("slowly-slowly")".  I happily agree.  As I begin to strap on my pack, I realize that both of my hips are bruised with light gray patches - it will be a long day.  The Aussies have changes plans and instead of doing a day hike from camp and back to it, they will travel part of the route to the next camp and the other half tomorrow - doing in two days what we will do today.  We hike down to the stream passing through the Barranco Valley and hear the Aussies encouraging us with a "koo-whee" as we approach the Barranco Wall (the Aussies got the call from the Australian natives, apparently the sound travels well over distances).  The Barranco Wall is a 100m. (~310 feet) lava rock wall that is a nearly vertical ascent - a class 3 climb, so it is not technical, more of a scramble, but still difficult with a pack.  As we climb, we look down on small waterfalls from the stream below and see the tents of the Aussies growing smaller.  After an hour we reach the top, turn, and give the Aussies our own "koo-whee" so they know we have made it - we hear a return of congratulations.  We hike for another 2 hours, traveling down into a valley, up the other side, and back down the next.  When we finally stop for lunch my altimeter reads 3930m. - 10m. less than where we started!  My legs are very tired and I continue to sit after lunch while John and Dave gather water with my filter.  As we prepare to leave and trek on we hear a "koo-whee" from above - the Aussies have caught up with us.  We wait for them and find out they will be camping at this spot tonight.  Also, Chris, who planned to stay in Africa a week longer than Roger and Dianne, has agreed to join us on our safari when we are off Kilimanjaro - he will be a day later than us but we will wait.  We exchange addresses and let Chris know how to reach us when he descends.  The Aussies give us a final word of encouragement and a vote of confidence - they have some idea of what we will face tonight - and we are off again, immediately up another steep face.  We are even heavier now as this was the last water stop before tomorrow evening - we each carry about 3-4 liters.  We continue to ascend and descend several times, then, when we reach the top of one of the valleys, a sign points up and down the ridge indicating the Mweka Route - this is where we switch from the Machame Route we have followed so far to the Mweka Route which will take us to the peak and back down to Mweka Village and off the mountain - we start to walk up the ridge.  I cannot keep pace with Pumps and Brislin and encourage them to continue without me - Éle has already pointed out where the camp is: two ridges above us, not the one behind the upper cloud layer.  The ridge seems so close, but it is 45 minutes before Pumps and Brislin turn behind a rock wall near the ridge.  I press on for another 30 minutes, but have to rest twice, my legs are so tired.  Éle has stayed with me but he looks a bit tired as well - I must be hallucinating.  The ground grows steeper and progress is even slower, the valleys on either side just seem to go up and down forever.  I now have to rest every 100 feet.  We are amongst huge rocks and a rock wall, Éle whistles and Solomon and Good-Living (the assistant guide) appear to take our bags - in a panic I think "NO!", I have to do it on my own, but I cannot fight it, I know what lies ahead and it is more important than carrying this bag - so I pass it over.  We walk about 100 feet, turn a corner, and there is the camp!  I had made it!  Éle had called them to start setting up camp, not to get us up the mountain.  This is the highest point my things will go - we attempt the peak from hear and return to here afterwards.  It is now 4:30, we have hiked for 7 hours today and reached a final elevation of 4600m. (~14,000 feet).  Now we will rest until 11:30pm this evening when we will have a final cup of hot tea and some crackers before the summit attempt.  With this little amount of time, I do not unpack but merely take my sleeping bag into the 2-man tent with Pumps and Brislin and try to sleep what I can in the few hours I have - my legs are so tired."

[Previous] [Next]