Kilimanjaro: Day 3

June 5th, Friday!
Hooray! I slept through the night at 12,610 ft
S 03 04.038'
E 037 16.583'

I woke up at 6am to pee. It was mostly dark, sun (jua) just beginning to rise. There was a little wind last night and this morning, but not much. I was also happy to discover some little birds (Alpine Chats) that make a lot of noise. Their fluttering wings sound like the snorts and growls of something big and dangerous.

The ravens outside sound like crows.

I feel fine, no headache or anything; slight one yesterday walking to Shira Camp after we reached our camp, but I mean "very" slight. My blood oxygen level reads about 90% (bouncing between 87% and 93%).

I packed all my stuff and washed before breakfast of a cheese, veggie, omlette sandwhich, half of a sausage, some cucumbers, oranges, and watermelon. The oranges here have green rinds:
The walk to the lunch spot was long and tiring.
At one point, we reached the junction with the Lemosho route, and at this point I was still in pretty good spirits.
The lunch spot was the camp site for the Lemosho route, right by the Lava tower at 15k+ feet. I drank tons of water along the way and peed tons of times as a result. My super mild headache turned into an oddly soothing sensation of pressure, and that only lasted a few minutes.

It was so cold at Lava Tower, our lunch spot at 15k+ feet, I only took one picture of it, a foggy picture. In fact, if it weren't for Godfrey, I would have missed this picture because at this point I was a bit out of sorts:

The first 10 minutes down from there were steep and required poles. There were patches of ice and it was freezing cold. My hands (without gloves) felt like they were going to fall off. Before we headed down, Godfrey gave me his big fleece because my Cap1 and R1 were no match for this cold. The sleeves were long enough to cover my hands over the poles, but I was still freezing.

We came down quickly and the flora came back after the long trek up over what looked like a lunar scape scattered with rocks.
Groundsels and lobelia were back as we descended into the Karanga Valley.
So beautiful, but mostly foggy. Yellow Warivia (gerbera family) came back too and some Erica bushes. I took some pictures here and saw a big (freezing cold) waterfall. Here we are resting near a bunch of groundsels.
We got to Barranco not long after that, and the breach wall was half covered with clouds. Thank God because today's walk was exhausting enough without having to see the ominous wall that has to be climbed over tomorrow.

I signed the camp registration and then Godfrey wanted me to send a text message to my friend Peter in Nairobi which took me forever because all of the letters on his phone have been worn off! I managed to send "indy.is.at.camp.barranco"

Today, I was sooooo tired. Godfrey, Abus, and Willie let me sleep for an hour before dinner instead of my usual cooking and Swahili lessons.

I made a quick run to the restroom and talked to the South Africans before laying down for a bit before dinner. I'm trying to remember what we had for dinner: Cucumber soup for sure, macaroni (elbow) and some stew. I didn't have much of an appetite.

It was definitely time to start the diamox. Even Godfrey reminded me, so I did my best to bite one of the pills in half before bed and prayed I didn't have any side effects that would impact my sleep.

Of course, right before I went to sleep, Godfrey yelled from the next tent not to be alarmed by dogs sniffing around the tents in the middle of the night. They were once hunting dogs that got loose years ago and now live wild in the area. Two weeks ago, one of Godfrey's pots was stolen by one of these dogs when it was left out after making ugali. Yuma tried to scare it off, but didn't chase it in the rain.

I'm nervous enough about leaving the tent in the middle of the night to use the pit toilets, and now dogs?! I did get up around 2am. No sign of dogs then, but our neighbors were talking about the dogs the next morning.