Africa 076

We are up early again to get ready for a long day. Starting at 13,600 feet, our plan is to hike up to the Lava Tower at 15,000 feet, try to arrive by 12:30 p.m. or so, eat lunch, and then hike down to the Baranco camp at 12,800 feet. It will make for along day, but the big changes in altitude are all part of our guides’ efforts to get our bodies to acclimatize to the higher altitude (“climb high, sleep low”). In the morning, Hal has a slight headache again which is not responding to Advil. We leave the Moir camp around 8:30 a.m. and hike steadily uphill until lunch, gaining about 1500 feet in altitude. For the first time, we start to see other climbers as the Lemosho trail (the one we are on) joins up with the Machame route near Lava Tower. By the time we reach Lava Tower at 15,000 feet, Hal has a nasty altitude headache, which makes it hard to eat lunch. The others eat lunch at Lava Tower and then we start down the trail to the Baranco camp, arriving there about 4:30 p.m., dropping about 2200 feet in altitude. Shortly after we arrive at the Baranco camp (12,800 feet), Hal’s headache is gone. Everyone else feels great and is not affected by the altitude. The Baranco camp is in a spectacular spot, right on the banks of a glacier mountain steam (our drinking water) and just below the western glaciers of the Kibo peak (6300 feet above us). Everyone is tired after another long day of hiking up about 1500 feet and then down 2200 feet. The weather again is clear and cold at night with a full moon and lots of stars. We are in the southern hemisphere now so we see some constellations that are new to us.