Baranco Camp- Day 3

Day 3 Baranco camp

As I laid down in our tent, my Fitbit reads 26473 steps, 11.6 miles,3481 calories,147steps,285mins of exercise for today. Honestly, my Fitbit maybe inaccurate because in truth we hiked from 7:45 am to 5 pm with an hour lunch break at Lava tower where we were at a higher elevation, about 4000 ft precisely, to help with acclamization. So far this was the hardest day we’ve had! First Adaeze and I started having headaches as we hiked to the highest elevation so far on our trip …Kilimanjaro is just under 5000m above sea level, aka 19,500ft. Then after lunch , Amara started with a headache that had her crying and unable to keep in her pace down from the lava tower. She felt miraculously better after ibuprofen and pee break and the she tapped the whole way down the mountain to Baranco camp. The oldest three were champs and literally zoomed down the mountain with the help of our guides, while DH and I stayed back to nurse Amara back to health which didn’t take much thankfully.

Ada said her headache went away after increasing hydration with Gatorade and some trailmix snacks. I on the other hand did not get relief from trail mix or hydration or even ibuprofen sadly, I felt exhausted by the time DH, Amara and I arrived camp and literally fell asleep right after we reunited with our other children who were in such high spirits. Where the heck did they get their energy?! They were settled in at dinning tent eating popcorn and yapping away to one another when we arrived . It was so good to see them warm and safe as I kissed each of their faces as if we hadn’t just left eachother a little while ago on the trail when their sister got sick. The guides had wanted them to keep their pace to get down to lower elevation as soon as and as safely as possible , I understood this somehow but didn’t help my anxious mind when I couldn’t easily follow them with my eyes down the mountain.

DH and the chef Amosi woke me up for dinner an hour later , I was grateful for the rest but could have slept longer . The kids played shadow puppet and put your on a show for us after dinner in the dinning tent right after our senior Guide Propser came to brief us as usual about our schedules the next day. We had contemplated skipping the next camp and hiking all the way to a further camp tomorrow . We thought this could give us a whole day of rest at base camp but after reviewing all the logistics including that once at base camp, we would be required to attempt a summit the following early morning for various reasons including scarcity of water at base camp. We decided it best to take our time to stay at Katanga camp tomorrow night before proceeding to base camp the next day and this would also avoid fatigue since the hike tomorrow would be about 4hrs instead of about 10hrs followed by an attempt at summit before sunrise , yup that would be doing wayyy too much in my opinion.

The kids moved their show and play into the girls tent, playing UNO card game and coming up with the cutest and silliest dares for eachother. DH joined them with the game while I lay next to al of them in our crowded but much warmer tents thanks to all the family together in a small tent. Alex was witty as usual but more quiet , he now complained of a headache while Alan and the girls were going full speed laughing and carrying on. DH and I urges them to wrap up the game as it was getting late and the boys did goodnight to us and headed next door to their own tent. Minutes later , due to the cold outside, I begrudgingly get up to go use the out house bathroom one last time before bedtime only to find Alex had puked right outside their tent….Oh Laud!  I help him clean up all the while praying that he just over ate at dinner and this is nothing serious.

All is quiet now , my headache is lessened in intensity, the camp site is sleeping, the porters and guides have also all quieted down their chatters in their tents, you can hear snoring from nearby tents while the starts shine so bright over head. The southern cross and the Milky Way appear so close, so beautiful. I send a prayer for safety for the rest of our journey. I also pray and call by names loved ones near and far for blessing. I especially ask God to keep my family and I safe and healthy on this mountain.

Until tomorrow…. thanks for reading.