Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp

 July 21

13200 feet – 15200 feet

2.2 miles, 5 hours

Only just over two miles to go today, but heading up to 15,000 feet again, so everything feels harder.  We made lots of stops as we walked and I was having trouble drinking.  At one pee stop, Jen took notice and made me drink a bunch of water right in front of her, informing Max that my pee was too yellow.  This sparked a long discussion about dehydration and more drinking, which I did, but grouchily. 

Desolate landscape today - nothing can really grow that high!

While we were taking our potty break, we also noticed a small black lizard checking us out.  I wasn’t quick enough to catch him, but I described him to Max and he told me it was an Alpine lizard.  Here’s the funny thing – every animal or plant I’ve asked about has had Alpine in the name, so I’m thinking he just likes that word.  I guess I’ll have to check up on that – it made me laugh at the time, now I actually want to know what it was!

We saw Noel again today and it feels so good to see him still going.  I know it’s hard, it’s hard for me, I can only imagine how it is for him.  I wish I had his email address or a picture, but all I have is the memory of our conversation.  He is a truly amazing man, carrying with him a Welsh Flag for a picture at the summit.  I hope he made it.

Again, I love Anderson.  He knows just how to guide me and keep me going.  I feel very safe when he’s around.

We had lunch once we reached the Barafu Camp, our home before our summit attempt.  We hung our pants out to freshen in the sun (good luck with that) and tried to do some snoozing before dinner.  Summit would start at 11:00 PM, so sleep would be hard to come by.  During one foray from the tent, Max asked me to ask Lillian if Brian could climb with James so his brother would have a job.  I said okay, but at the time I was torn.  I didn’t really like walking behind James, since he didn’t seem to pay close attention to the climbers, but something that happened later in the climb made me change my mind about this encounter.

Barafu is by far the stinkiest of the camps.  There are cigarette butts around (really, who wants to smoke at 15,000 feet??) and lots of the rocks have been used as potty stops.  The ammonia smell is pretty strong, though not close to camp, which was good. 

Our camp and the scary perched drop toilets.

Our camp was close to the drop toilets, which the men didn’t mind using but I never went near.  The hut sort of hung over the edge of the cliff and I had this image of me squatting over a hole with a view and a breeze and falling over from disorientation – terrifying.

We asked where our stuff would be kept during the summit – we’d like a porter to watch it since theft is a probability at base camp – all the climbers leave their stuff there for eight to ten hours – and we were assured that all our bags would be in one tent with a porter to watch them.  That was good.  I had brought locks, but I didn’t really want to use them.

We had a small dinner, then we snuggled down to sleep for a few hours.  I am blessed, by the way.  When someone tells me to sleep, I appear to have no problem doing so.  Three hours of sleep was an easy accomplishment.