Charles remarked, “Slight climb, then easy”! This wall is a vertical rocky one. It is 257 meters (843 feet) above sea level and extremely rocky, so one would need to scramble. How was this going to be easy? It had a threatening and frightful appearance. Although no technical knowledge is required, it appears that you must be physically fit and have strong mental endurance. You must be fairly adept at allowing fast climbers to pass because some sections are extremely narrow. Those would definitely not be me, but the porters!

The climb was enjoyable and not too monotonous.But it wasn’t easy!  One lesson I learned is to avoid looking down. You reach the Karanga Valley and the Karanga camp once you’ve scaled the wall. It’s extremely icy and harsh. Very few plants can be found here because of the altitude, and most of the climbers have begun to experience altitude sickness. I eventually developed a swollen face and tingling fingers. I felt a little hungry despite some of us losing our appetites. I keep drinking water,  the morning porridge( I looked forward to this hot tasty porridge) and soup did a great job of keeping us hydrated.

Here, we were more exhausted than ever and lacked any energy for cleaning, dressing or unpacking and packing. Yuma gave us water in that red bowl on a regular basis. If you messed around, it was useless because the hot water started to cool down so quickly. Despite continuing to smile, we started to annoy each other much more. We came to the realization that we hadn’t even brushed our teeth in a few days. Our muscles and flexibility were put to the test as we crawled in and out of our tents. It was agony and we were pathetic!

One thing we remembered religiously to do was: use face wipes, treat our puffy faces every morning with face cream, sunscreen, apply a little foundation( I used HUDA, easy to carry and no leaks), and I would apply a little hair oil on my head. I used my fingers to unknot the knots in my hair, just forget using a hairbrush. Oh, Trish makes us laugh with her eye lash curler, which in my opinion is the best invention ever. Her eyes really stood out in the photos, and her lashes were stunningly long. We applied some lipstick, Trish had her eyelashes curled, and I had some mascara, exactly like those cartoon characters with the long lashed eyes and chubby faces! We still have to look good on the mountain!

Talking about leaks, I was called LEAKY LAKS as a lot of my stuff normally leaks however tight the lid is. Once my hand cream was all over everything and it was such a chore to wipe it all off  using a million wipes. No one asked me for anything because of this. Most mornings, I parted Trish’s hair into two sections and she elegantly managed to french braid them!  I oil Sid’s hair with NUXE oil( I had the tinniest bottle) at night before sleeping. Grooming is key on a mountain and even more when you are climbing one! 

One of our tent light failed, and the batteries were quickly running out. We made an effort to balance and organize, since Sid had brought several portable chargers! They were  required to last until summit day or lets say 8 days. I had two mobile chargers. My new Fitbit was functioning well. The Apple Watch would have only lasted a day. I decided to leave my Canon DSLR in Moshi. I think this was a good decision because the last thing I wanted was a weight hanging around my neck and me developing that ‘pain in the neck’. Hehehe! Just picture yourself climbing over those Barranco rocks with that DSLR and causing all those unneeded scratches on  the precious lens.

Anyway, POLE POLE we made it to Karanga and the D-day was drawing nearer! It was a beautiful day today and we were still smiling!

And there are more days…