Explorations

A couple of days around camp and I'm pretty stir crazy. It's an interesting lesson in reliance upon electrics and although the first day was sunny and I could partially recharge gadgets with my solar charger, the next day was dreich. This really was a test and I eventually gave in and Rajab pulled some strings and got one phone recharged at the ranger station. I brought a pad to draw in but there really isn't anything to draw. That's the problem of being the worlds biggest free standing mountain: there really aren't any views to speak of, apart from extensive clouds and stars. And as we're in the alpine desert region there's little to no wildlife and only really a load of dust and boulders. And tents. And rubbish. Good news though- no creepy crawlies.
So day three of nothingness and I convinced Rajab to go for an acclimatisation hike up the mountain. We followed the hundreds of porters balancing all sorts on their heads and the slow congas of gortex clad trekkers up to base camp. This is perched on a ridge stretching from 4500-4700m and sounds a pretty miserable place to await the midnight call to arms to set off for the summit. Not for us today, though, and we wandered through and onwards and upwards eventually calling it a day at around 5000m. There were plenty of folk making their way down after their summit bids, a fair number looking the worse for wear. I felt reasonably good getting to this altitude, but of course there was another 800m between me and the summit... I guess I'll find out what that feels like in 2 nights time.
A rapid descent into the clouds -unlikely to loose your way if you just follow the toilet paper and other detritus- saw us back at a dreich Karanga by mid afternoon. The cloud level seems to have parked itself a couple of hundred metres above the level of Karanga ( ie so we are in the cloud not beneath it: Kilimanjaro seems to be the only hill I know where there is more cloud (and rain) lower down and less higher up : all topsy turvy round here..) which is a bit frustrating.
A combination of intermittent rain, the first moderate winds and feeling pretty trashed after my trip led to a miserable evening- but a good nights sleep.Read more