Today we had hoped for a shorter day, yesterday took quite a toll on my knees, but actually despite a restless night, I woke feeling good...there was some amusement that I was busy scribbling in my diary at 6am over breakfast, but I hope by now it's appreciated :-)The plan today was to gain quite a lot of height, in fact up to 4600m, which would be about the same height from which we start on our summit night. It is also about the same height of Mount Meru, which was prominent behind us as we walked, and proved to be a good measure of our progress.
The landscape at this height is completely barron, and we were walking through fields of rock, and dust. Kilimanjaro ahead was looking ever closer, but gradually the cloud came in, until at about 11am she disappeared from view. Our target today was the Lava Tower, an outcrop of rock, deposited over millions of years, and standing probably about 100ft in height above the ground line. By this time, as we approached 4600m the impact of the altitude was beginning to tell for most of us. Principally leaving us breathless, but there were a couple of nosebleeds, the odd headache, and unfortunately for some, a loss of appetite.
Actually we seemed to reach the Lava Tower quite quickly, where we stopped for some lunch. Once again, our porters encouraged us to join them in some singing, and dancing.....and this time we were beginning to meet up with another group who had started so actually we had quite a party, much to Dominic's dismay!!
"At this height we should be preserving some energy...."
Hmmm....Dominic looks like he was practicing self control??
I love this pic, (thanks, to whoever I stole it from).
There are definitely two styles of walking being established in the group today, which has given Dominic and Nelson some problems....the slow, slow (Pole, Pole) but keep going and don't stop much type, and the march on, but stop more often, and for longer type, and so Dominic advised us over lunch that tomorrow we would try to accommodate both styles, so that everyone is at a pace which best suited.
Anyway, when we left the Lava tower, it was immediately steeply back downhill, in fact a long way down into the first of many deep valleys, full of huge cactus like plants, Giant Groundel and Labellia. These are really strange trees, growing in their hundreds all about us, in yet another very distinctive zone on the mountain.
We got to camp tonight at about 16:30...so still 9 hours trekking today, although we did spend rather longer at lunch than planned. I think it was a blessed relief for some in the group, Cudgie was beginning to struggle with his knees, and both Richard, and Tim had been suffering with nausea today. Dinner of Spaghetti Chicken and vegetables was fabulous, as was the cucumber soup which proceeded it. I'm amazed at some of the food that the porters were able to put together up there. Unfortunately not to everyone's taste...and Cudgie decided to use one of the army ration packs that he had brought...Chicken Tikka I think... but I didn't see any chicken, and he didn't eat any carbs? (I wrote in my diary, "I think he may regret that, you can't climb this mountain if you don't eat) Trevor reckoned we'd used over 20,000 calories already!! (Day 3)
The biggest dinner time laugh of the night though, Ceri, Trevor, Hannah, Kerry and I launched into a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.... Nelson came running into our food tent expectantly, but we had to confess, that actually, we'd heard the laughing next door, and had decided to do some attention seeking of our own :-)It was a great end to a really good day, and tomorrow we had the Baranco wall to look forward to... I must admit, from where we stood, there didn't look a clear path up it!
