Day 3 03/09/2012

Day 3

I woke up in a good mood but freezing cold. Our camp was on a wide, open area with nothing to stop the wind in its full force.

Even though it was a very cold morning, spirits were high. We had breakfast, the usual apple porridge, which I found disgusting but had to wolf it down, because if you didn't eat you'd regret it later! On a few days we could also have a small amount of omelette with one hot dog sausage -- oh how we felt lucky on those days! Every morning we also had cold toast (the bread is different in Africa, sweet tasting like it's made with sugar) with a choice of peanut butter, marmalade, or butter. Problem for me was that one of the girls on our team was viciously allergic to nuts so we couldn't use the peanut butter, I don't like marmalade and the butter was rock hard and very hard to spread.

 After a couple of stretches, we commenced our 8 hour walk.

 Physically, on our way to lava tower, I was feeling fine; the altitude was not really affecting me. Of course breathing was harder but differences in breathing were apparent from day 1 (I'd really notice it at night, when I was laying down going to sleep, I could feel my heart beating really fast and each breath took a bit of effort.) As many people are aware, the biggest challenge for people walking up Mount Kilimanjaro is altitude sickness; suffering from this is the main reason people can't make it to the top. A few of our team did feel like shit (to put in bluntly) because of this. I was lucky in that it had little affect on me (is this because I've been skiing previously? I'm not sure). There are tablets available from the doctors that help with altitude sickness but I personally think that's cheating, no?

On day 3, we were going from 3900m to 4600m and then back down to 3900m. This was to acclimatize our bodies. The terrain wasn't very steep, near enough flat, so it was easy on the legs. Even though it was freezing before we set off, once we had started walking we got quite hot, and I regretted putting so many layers on. At one point I was just in my thermal top and trousers. But every time we stopped for a break it would once again turn very cold.

As we were getting higher and higher, I started getting hopeful that the altitude wouldn't affect me at all. Some people had already been sick, others had headaches. I was feeling fine. That was until we got to about 4200m, when we stopped for lunch. I started to get a slight headache and was feeling tired. I could have happily fallen asleep on my chair as we waited for lunch.

 But we had to head on.

In this picture you can see the summit. We saw the summit on our walk every day, and although it started getting closer and closer, it still felt a million miles away. Even though I was on Kilimanjaro, walking to the summit, I still found it hard to believe that in a few days I would be stood on the top of this monstrous mountain. I wondered whether it would it actually ever happen? Or would I give up before I get to the top?

Plant life was little to non existent by now, just the small shrub here and there. The landscape was wide and spread as far as the eye could see. It felt like I was walking on another planet, not something that had been placed on this Earth. It was a surreal and fascinating.

Eventually, after around 4/5 hours of walking, we reached Lava Tower, and we were at 4600m. I had a slight headache. I decided it would be fun to climb Lava Tower, but as I got a few metres up, my fear of open heights kicked in. I realised how easy it would be to slip and fall and so slowly descended down. As I got to the base I wiped my nose, only to realise I was having a small nose bleed, which wasn't too great, as it meant that I was getting affected by the altitude. It was nothing major though and went away quickly. 

As we started our walk down, my headache got worse. Not having taken anything for it was a mistake. Walking down sounds like it'd be easier than walking up but it really isn't. And with each step I took as I was going down, my head pounded, because you're putting the force of your whole body on each foot. Sometimes it was like you were sort of going down steep steps. I started getting tired and annoyed and just wanted to be back at camp. It was windy and my feet hurt because my toes were sliding to the front of my boot. As soon as we got back to camp, for some reason of which I still do not know to this day (I blame it on the altitude), I just burst in to tears. I was crying and I didn't have an exact reason, but I just felt down, tired, my head hurt and I missed my mum (I hadn't spoken to her for the whole time I was in Tanzania). After dinner, we looked at the night sky. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. But I found it very hard to really appreciate it as I was still feeling rubbish, and cold, and just wanted to go to sleep straight away.

Barranco camp.

Height: 3950A.S.M.L