Believe it
or not, dawn is rising again. It’s 5:45 AM, and we hear the bell ringing and
again I didn’t sleep much. My mouth was so dry so I drank lots of water that I
had to go to the toilet in the middle of the night (around 00:40), and this is
when I fell thankful for having that little tent with a toilet inside.
Actually, the toilet is just a seat with 2 deposits: one with clean water and a
second one where the waste water is stoked. I can’t stop feeling sorry for
Arnold who needs to clean and carry the toilet from camp to camp. Don’t think that he's carrying it behind us while we walk, outside the camps you’re free to
choose your own pee-spot.
Getting
back to the sleepless nights, I now start getting used to it and apparently, it
doesn’t affect my performance. I am feeling good, no symptoms of altitude
sickness, I feel physically fit (I mean I hardly get tired or short of breath),
and my signals are OK.
The dawn
it’s very very cold, I can fell the wind striking through my bones. This
morning I put my gloves on to keep our hands warm and a wool beanie, but Jonas
doesn’t let us overdress thus when you walk you start warming up and then you
need to peel off lots of stuff and carry it.
We have our
breakfast at 6:15 and at 6:45 we are ready to leave the Barranco camp. I am
still looking at the that big wall and feel a bit uncomfortable about climbing
it. As we usually say: quem não arrisca, não petisca (kind of: no guts, no
glory). Barranco is a scarp 300 high, around 9 story building: it’s rather
impressive to look at it. If others made it before we can do it as well.
Today we
leave our trekking poles behind, as Jonas clearly explained we will do mostly
“Goat Climbing” and we won’t need them for the Barranco itself.
We were the
second group to leave the camp, we were very happy and proud of ourselves. The
trekking isn’t that hard, as you walk with your hands and feet on the floor.
It’s tiresome e and physically demanding in the sense that you need to support your
weight in the hands when you pull yourself and legs when you need to propel.
One advice: look where you put your hands!! There is lots of spit and sputum
everywhere, it’s disgusting.
We keep on
climbing until we reach the “Kissing Stone”. I kissed her good, but I found she
is too cold for me, so I just kept on going. Up to this point has been 20
minutes walk, we still have another 40 minutes to go to reach the top of
Barranco.
Reaching
the top is overwhelming. The view is so beautiful, we are above the clouds and
it looks like an endless cotton candy cloth. Here you can have a sparkle of
what infinity means.
We stopped
for a few minutes for a rest and to admire the scenario, and then we left. Lots
of people are now arriving and it’s getting crowded.
From
Barranco we descend into a valley and there is a brutal change in the landscape
once again: semi-Alpine desert. Some trees here and there, with some spots of lichens,
meaning that we still have a good air quality. Unfortunately, going down means
we will go high again.
Once again,
Jonas picks the garbage other groups left. It’s a noble attitude.
In some
places we cross water streams that are still frozen, this is how cold it is
today, regardless of the sun.
After 3:40h
we reached Karanga Camp and, once again, we were the firsts to arrive to the
camp site, according to camp’s records. Perfect timing for a “shower”: wash
hands, armpits and feet, and change underwear and socks. That’s all we get, and
we are thankful for that.
In this
Camp there is plenty of signal, so I can call home and talk with kids and
husband.
After some
rest, we had a wonder lunch: Celery soup, chicken with fries, sauteed vegetables,
lots of different fruit (watermelon, oranges and tangerine) to supply us the required
nutrients for us to keep fit for the trek.
Beatus, the
cook, makes wonders with the scarce resources available in the mountain and
Jonas is very careful when it comes to choose the ingredients and nutrients for
our daily meals.
After lunch
we can finally have some rest, read some pages of my book and had a nice nap.
They never let us sleep too long, as they want us to have a nice rest during the
night. I have been having problems to sleep during the nights: the mattress and
the cold make it very difficult to find a good position to sleep.
The
afternoons are endless…most of the times we arrive early to the camps, after
the trek, and we have lots of free time. Just don’t forget to bring your book,
your sketch book, whatever keeps you busy.
We gave a
nice walk through the camp site expecting to find some familiar faces. Here and
there we get to meet some nice people, from all over the globe. It’s incredible
how these camps look like a Babel.
By
misfortune, my phone cord doesn’t work anymore, what makes go around the camp
looking for people who are willing to share their charging cord with a perfect
stranger. Luckily enough our neighbors (a father and daughter from Australia
traveling together since Rwanda), are willing to lend me their cord, if I allow
the girl to use our toilet. Seems a fair trade to me. After some easy talk, we
agreed to stick together so they can use our toilet and I can charge my phone.
It’s a nice symbiosis.
Today Jonas
gave us a small stone, very dark from volcanic origin as a gift and souvenir. I
am going to label it so I don’t forget my Kilimanjaro experience.
Dinner was
vegetable stew, rice and green peas. Seems like we can’t have meet any longer,
as after a certain height our body doesn’t tolerate it anymore.
Our heart
rate and SO2 are very good and no symptoms of HAS. I am amazed. Having listened
to all the experiences of friends I was expecting to feel some kind of unconformable,
like headache or bellyache, but I am feeling surprisingly good.
And here we
are, ready for some rest again.
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