Kilimanjaro trek day 3 – Shira II camp to Barranco Camp

07.December:
The sights from our camp this morning was once again stunning as we packed our stuff and left the camp at about 8 am.

overlooking Mt. Meru in the morning

the top of Kili in the morning sun

Today we turned east and continued to climb “pole pole” (Swahili for slowly slowly) through the increasingly rocky and barren terrain. The terrain changed a lot during todays walk and we would go through everything from valleys, open rocky desert areas and pass by old petrified lava streams. However, for most of the time we wandered through a montane semi-desert. We ascended the long rocky scree path to the Lava Tower (4630 m.a.s.l.) and sat down for a quick, but tasty lunch. I was walking along with Frankie and as we sat down to eat our lunch, heaps of small four-striped mice came running out from the nearby rocks. These lil fellas were far from shy and were running between our legs looking for crumbs and seeds. I gave them some small pieces of my lunch and a fight between about five mice broke out. These guys were everywhere and a few of them even let me pet them =)

one of the mice while having a snack

at the Lava Tower

While having our lunch the mist came in once again and it started to rain. We threw on our water proof  jackets and a rain poncho on top and started the more than 600 meter steep descent. Perhaps not surprisingly, walking downwards is a lot easier and as we kept a steady and fast pace we reached the Barranco Camp only some 45 minutes later. Although, walking downhill can be done pretty fast, I would recommend be alert and careful as it can be pretty tough for your knees and hazardous to your ankles if you’re not wearing proper hiking boots (you can easily sprain your ankle etc. if your boots doesn’t provide sufficient stability).

The descent would normally offer fantastic views and great photo opportunities of the Western Breach and the Breach Wall, however, the mist was so thick that I only had about 5-8 meters visibility – tough luck! Although we did see an occational giant senecio kilimanjari..

giant senecio kilimanjari

The Barranco Camp itself is set on a flat area enclosed on three sides by the Breach Walls and the Kibo massif itself. When we reached the camp it was midday and pretty damn cold. The walk up the Lava Towers was not very difficult, but fairly long and perhaps the most challenging part of the trek so far.

dinner time

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