8th December – day THREE – 3,800m > 4,600m > 3,900m altitude – 10 km walked
Acclimatisation day! And I woke to a frozen tent! No wonder I’d been so cold during the night. But it also meant that the fog and clouds had cleared and the views were just stunning!
Used the washing water for a quick foot bath to heat up my feet before the normal morning routine and then we set off with the sun on our faces. Bliss! I had taken a few pain killers for the aches and pains and it seemed to help with the hip, but the hamstring was still very tight. After about an hour’s climb we left the moorland climate and entered what is called arctic desert. The sun had gone by then and the clouds and fog were sweeping in over the rocky landscape. Reminded me a little of a scene from Lord of the Rings…expected Mordor to appear any minute!
I had decided to use my walking sticks for the first time and although I didn’t hate them, we were not great friends when ascending – seemed to give me a bad posture and achy shoulders…
After almost 4 hours of climbing (felt shorter!) during which Roberto and their guide Mwinyi were teaching each other a few songs (not sure where they found the extra air to sing!), we reached Lava Tower at 4,600m. We spent an hour for lunch here, getting used to the altitude in preparation for the next day. And of course the porters and the chef had just carried the dining tent, cooking tent, food etc for us.
During lunch it started hailing, so on with the rain gear, as it was bound to turn to rain as we descended. The walk down started quite gentle and we were able to set a good pace, but soon it became steeper with a lot of rocks and the rain made it quite slippery. Somehow I ended up walking most of the way down with Mwinyi and we started a game of naming all the countries in the world starting with A. His world geography was actually quite impressive, and it was a good distraction from the rain etc. But I was getting tired…my legs weaker so I had to slow down a lot to avoid slipping…which didn’t quite work – had a little slip, but landed on my bum which has great padding, so no harm done. Mwinyi’s comment ‘try not to fall’ – as if I was doing it on purpose! 😄
Just before we reached camp, it was toilet break time. Was complicated and a lot of hard work in rain trousers and with poncho over rucksack, but rather that than using the camp toilets… 😷 You’d think that there’d be a bit of money from the $800 park fees that each person pay to climb to pay someone to clean those toilets once in a while…?!
Anyway, I digress – the last 15-20 minutes I really did struggle, and finally I started loving my walking sticks! They really helped keep me steady… Mmwinyi called it four wheel drive! We reached Barancu camp almost 7 hours after leaving Shira Cave and I must say, I was beat! In addition to the general exhaustion, I had started coughing halfway through the day as well…not a great sign!
I considered a nap before dinner, but decided against it as I really wanted to have a good night’s sleep. Instead I started arranging the tent so I could sleep better… Put the mattress diagonally (the tent was not made for tall people) put a bag at the end of the mattress so my legs would not touch the tent walls. Put my ski trousers in the bottom of the sleeping bag for some insulation for my feet…and then I opened my advent calendar, listened to some music, watched an episode of The West Wing! Tent life was maybe not not that bad after all!?!
Health check… No nausea, no headache, stomach in good shape, hamstring issue still there, sore throat and a cough, aching shoulders, tired back, nose back to being blocked. The official health check showed low enough pulse and high enough oxygen levels to be given OK for the next day…
Last prep for my sleep was to get hot water in my flask to use as a hot water bottle…it worked a treat! But after a couple of hours of sleep it was time to pee – of course! And I woke up in quite a sweat…and that’s when I realised that I had a fever…slept OK after the pee break though, so not a terrible night at all…but…
– Day three highlight: good energy in the legs when getting to Lava Tower
– Day three lowlight: waking up with fever
9th December – day FOUR – 3,900m > 4,600m altitude – 10 km walked
6am start and we had great views with our breakfast… The night before had been foggy, but now we had a fab view of the top of the mountain…spectacular and scary!
Had taken some paracetamol to kill the fever and I didn’t feel too bad as we set off. The first hour was a lot of fun, climbing the Barancu Wall… Was cool to really feel like we were climbing and not just walking slowly upwards all the time. There was the hugging and kissing stone and the most wonderful view above the clouds when we got to the top – breathtaking!
After the wall, it was similar landscape to yesterday through the arctic desert landscape. We were pushing to get to ‘base camp’ as quickly as possible to get as much rest as possible before summit day but I was finding it difficult, my fever was getting worse and when we reached our lunch camp, I was already quite exhausted. Lunch helped a bit though – appetitive had gone, but managed to eat anyway…
…because of course we were getting served fried chicken and chips with coleslaw at 4,100m altitude! Beat that, Nando’s!!
The rest of the walk to base camp was a bit of a blur…just kept walking and was getting more and more nervous about what was to come. What if I couldn’t manage to get to the top? I know a lot of people don’t make it, but I really didn’t want to be one of them…
We finally got to Barafu camp around 3pm – giving us just a couple of hours’ rest before early dinner… I was exhausted, burning up with the fever – quickly swallowed a few more paracetamol. I had a bit of a cry in the privacy of the tent. The anticipation and fear was really kicking in…
I didn’t manage to eat much for dinner, but I was still given the go ahead to climb summit day as my oxygen and pulse levels were very good. I just had to manage the fever myself.
Back into the tent…four days of not showering, being ill and no proper toilets had made my tent smell… Felt like the only pleasant smell was my mouthwash, so I sniffed that for a bit whilst I did my own health check: fever, cough, sore throat, sore eyes, low energy levels, hip pain gone, tired back, sore shoulders, hamstring issue better, no nausea, no headache… not great, but I wasn’t going to give up and Kara and Roberto’s positivity was helping me keep focused on the task.
After a few hours’ sleep it was time…it was quarter past eleven, I readied my day pack, took some more paracetamol and tried to keep positive about what was going to be the most gruelling 18 hours of my life!
– Day four highlight: looking down at the clouds from the top of Barancu Wall
– Day four lowlight: fever!
BETINA IN AFRICA 