Kilimanjaro, Hakuna Matata - Part 2

01.01.2015 Baranco Camp - Karanga Camp (3930m / 12393ft)
Scrambling on the M5 on a Friday afternoon

It had taken a while until I finally drifted off to sleep. Must have been around 10pm. I woke up only two hours later hearing a countdown from three and happy cheers. Ah. New Year's Eve. Luckily the cheers didn't last long and I could go back to dream country again.
Had to get up for a wee in the middle of the night and the almost full moon over Kili made me forget the freezing temperatures for a moment. How majestic he looked in the moonshine. Walking back to my tent I could see the lights of Moshi spread out wide about 3000m down on the plain. What a beautiful sight. Would've loved to just sit there and stare at it, but my snug sleeping bag was too tempting.

The famous Baranco Wall - a grade 1 scramble - was our first objective on New Year's day. It is notoriously congested since all the porters have to scale it as well and it feels a bit like the M5 on a Friday night. We set off later than ususal but still got into heavy traffic. Had to wait more often than not, couple of steps, wait again. It was still great fun and I would've loved to do it all over again, when we were up on the top.

Despite the delay, we reached Karanga Camp within 4.5hrs after setting off, having seen it long before we actually reached it, since there is a steep drop and equally steep ascent "protecting" the camp.

Karanga Camp looks close, but there's a massive gap in the way

Lunch time, relax time, tea time, relax time, dinner time. Lots of resting today. I couldn't sleep since the camp was quite busy, but didn't mind just lying around in my tent. Clouds prevented any kind of view and a slight rain any venturing about. I felt pretty good, but then there was not much of an elevation gain. As summit day was getting very close now, I grew more and more confident, that I would make it and not run into any health issues.
We talked about summit day over dinner, what the schedule would be, what we should wear, take with us etc. Again Mungo proved to be an excellent guide and instructor answering patiently all our questions.

02.01. Karanga Camp - Barafu Camp (4600m / 15091ft)
Getting close

A beautiful sunny morning greeted us and we were in good spirits. The weather was changing, getting rid of the clouds and it looked very promising for summit day which was now less than 24hrs away.
Again the night had been frosty and I had had to dig out my liner to get some extra warmth. Was quite satisfied with this little helper who will from now on accompany me on my nights out in the wilderness.

Mt. Meru visible for the first time

We set off to climb steeply up to about 4400m, then down through a beautiful valley and up again to Barafu Camp. We overtook the group of loud Americans we had seen a couple of times before and made sure to stay ahead of them.
A cold breeze was blowing but it was sunny most of the time. It was colder up here but also clearer. Kili was close now and I felt very determined to make it to the summit. I still felt really strong and good and confident to succeed.

Barafu Camp was - unlike the other camps which were situated on even plains - a very rocky camp so most groups had their own secluded space. Our tents where on the edge of a short drop overlooking a gently falling slope with mighty Mawenzi rising on its far side.

Rear window view of Kili

Front window view of Mawenzi

Unfortunately the ground wasn't level so whenever I moved I slid downwards on my Thermarest. Very annoying. We had another three hours of rest after lunch just after 1pm, then an early dinner and went to bed again at 7pm. I really regretted now not bringing a book. I had really thought I'd be too tired to read and didn't expect to have that much time to kill. So I lay in my bed waiting for sleep which finally came around 10pm.