We reconvene as she reaches Baranco Camp and goes onwards to the summit!
DAY 4: Today begins early with an intensive scrambling exercise up Baranco Wall. Following the sheer 700ft ascent, we continue on towards Karanga Valley and Barafu Hut. We arrive at camp early for an early dinner, and go to sleep for a couple of hours to be woken at 10:30pm in preparation for the final ascent. Before midnight we begin the steep and enduring climb through the darkness; as the temperature drops to around -20c, many people began to hallucinate and the group falls apart. One member is reported to have caught hypothermia, while another has been taken back due to severe altitude sickness. I myself become separated from the group, feeling disorientated and confused with exhaustion. Just then, a porter rescues me from my state of miserable despair and offers to carry my rucksack as I follow his guiding footsteps. Gradually pressing on with him, slow and steady, I begin to realise the harsh severity of this austere mountain – and, perhaps for the first time, to respect the great consequence of its challenge.
DAY 5: By sunrise my porter and I have reached the initial peak, Stella Point. I myself have little sensible recollection of how I got there – and to my greater surprise, I am one of the first. A small handful of us congregate here, from which point a further 1 hour traverse leads us round to the absolute summit of Uhuru Peak at 5895m. It is an incredible feeling to have reached the top with so many of us reunited on the “Roof of Africa” and celebrating together in the radiant sunshine, especially given the dark and lonely preceding hours when this had seemed near impossible. Following an easy, cheerful descent to our previous campsite at Barafu Hut, we continue along to spend our final night camping at Mweka Hut.
DAY 6: After a leisurely breakfast we pack up our things and begin the 3 hour descent to Mweka Gate, the terminus of our epic journey. Today is by far the shortest and easiest day of trekking and everyone’s spirits are high – jubilant, even! Those members of the group who hadn’t managed to summit are still with us, themselves caught up in the spirit of relief and celebration. It has been an inimitable experience for all involved, and I will never forget those strange and wonderful days on Kilimanjaro. Nor will I ever forget the tough work of the heroic porters, without whose help none of us could have made it alive, and to whom I say (in layman’s Swahili): “Asante, asante sana!”
(Made it!)
Again, massive congratulations to Elizabeth for reaching the summit and all for such a fantastic cause in Childreach International!
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