The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow
Another beautiful start to the day with the sun streaming through the entrance to our tent and giving us wonderful views of the summit. Its still wrapped in cloud though, maybe it will be clearer on the summit itself.
The heat from the early morning sun was causing last nights rain to evaporate from the surrounding rocks, it looked like the clouds were forming before our eyes!
Which wasn’t so far off as by 8am, the clouds had rolled in again the the camp deteriorated once again to a drizzly mist.
The camp followers at this camp were a plague of striped grass mice, little balls of fluff who seemed unafraid of us, or anything else come to that, who came out in force for the scraps to be had around camp.
I’m still finding it hard to breath, getting in and out of the tent is exhausting and we’ve got a steep climb ahead of us, so I’m getting a bit stressed. Why is no-one else having problems with the thin air, is it just me?
I don’t want to fall behind again, if I can’t keep up at this altitude then what will I be like on the summit? I feel very frustrated and angry with myself. I take another diamox to help me to the next camp.
After another big breakfast we started off uphill for Moir Hut (4,200m). We have only gone about 10 yards when we decided to put our rain gear on and Arwen shows off her lastest creation, a rain skirt! The pace is pole pole so I’m finding it easy going at the moment. After about an hour on this trail, we bear left and continue to climb towards a wide ridge.
The path goes around the ridge and then drops down the side of it and we find ourselves heading down the side of a valley, we can see Moir Hut camp at head of the valley, snuggled in at the base of the cliffs.
In total the walk is only two hours, and we have a few hours to kill before lunch so Jennifer & I take a walk outside the campsite and explore the local area.
Moir Hut itself is right at the base of the cliffs and is an old rangers station. It is literally falling to pieces but that doesn’t stop Jennifer from running inside it and climbing about in there.
On the way back we saw some water voles (or at least that’s what I think they are) in little burrows alongside the stream.
After lunch the sun came out and everyone ran out to put their kit out to dry. It didn’t last too long, the clouds came back intermittently, so we kept having sun and then cloud. It’s a good team though and everyone is lifting each others spirits by joking and having a laugh at the weather… and each other!
We’ve got a couple of hours before our acclimatisation walk up to the Lent Hills, which look impossibly high and un-climbable, even the ridge they sit on looks impossible to climb.
Pete decided to head off for a walk on his own for an hour. He usually goes for a 10 mile run every day, so I think the slow pace and sitting around camp is making him a bit stir crazy, so he just wants to get some exercise in.
We spoke to David for a while who told us about his lad who has cerebral palsy, and David, Darren & Jeremy are doing this walk to raise money for his therapy group, which is entirely self funded. They have raised over £10,000 so far which is fantastic. Listening to the courage of his lad climbing the stairs makes me embarrassed for worrying about my health on this trip.
I remember how difficult it was for me (due to my asthma) to climb the stairs when I was younger and it would sometimes take me an hour to just to climb up those 13 steps each night. This mountain is just another set of stairs and it might take me a bit longer than the others but I’ll climb them.
Simon was bored, so as his tent has a river flowing through it last night, he’s decided to build a rain ditch around his tent just in case it rains hard again tonight. We all follow his lead, although his ditch looks like a permanent feature when compared to ours.
There were some large animal bones around the camp site, the guides reckon they are mainly zebra and eland, but what worries me is how they got there!
Around 3pm we headed off to the Lent Hills (4,700m) which overlook our camp from the nearby ridge. It was hard walking for everyone up the ridge, a long slow slog for about 45 minutes. I found it really hard but others appeared to be struggling too, so maybe we are all struggling with the thin air?
Once atop the ridge we had a short break to catch our breathe, and then heading up the face of the lent hills. Whilst these looked formidable from camp, up close there were plenty of hand and foot holds to allow us to scramble up them and we all made it up safely.
The views from the top were immense; our camp looked tiny and in the plateau below seems to stretch away into the distance, and at our backs Kibo peak rose majestically to the skies… well it would have if it wasn’t for the clouds…
We left the Lent Hills and made our way back to camp. I noticed Graeme had a very strong and efficient poling method. He looked really professional but he says he’s never used poles before, either way, it looks effective and I think I’ll try to copy his method as I need all the help I can get to climb this mountain.
By the time we got back to camp at 5.30pm the cloudy drizzle was back, but it didn’t affect our spirits, especially as Darren gave us an exhibition of banana golf.
It was another lovely dinner that night and we had a laugh with the guides who kept reminding us about the use of sunscreen, even though its cloudy, because we were so high the atmosphere isn’t cutting out much of the UV light. Jennifer & I are using P20 each morning, this lasts the whole day, rain or not, as it bonds to the skin and is even more effective that higher rated sunscreens as its permanently in place and will not rub off.
Another early night and everyone was in bed by 8pm. It was cold though and Jennifer was sporting the latest line in Ninja Pyjamas…
Tags: Kilimanjaro
