070916 - Third day of the trek. My flu and cough was starting to worsen. I remembered it was this day, I had to stop many times along the way and blow out my thick mucous into the ground because I did not have any cloth with me, and my mucous was seeping into my buff or flowing into my mouth. It was so bad.
Today morning, I woke up at 5am as usual. We saw the pale sunlight appearing from the horizon and have to walk to the toilet to pee. Even walking to the toilet was a task to me. I was huffing and puffing to walk from the toilet to my tent although it was just 100 metres away. I could not breathe properly because of my thick mucous.
On the other side of the tent, the sun rays were strong and glaring from Mount Kilimanjaro. My sister told me not to look at the sun. It was a sight seeing Mount Kilimanjaro.
For breakfast, we have hot Tanzanian porridge made from red kidney beans, pancakes, bread, scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs. Carbo to fuel the body. Protein to repair all the muscles from the walk. So stuffed. We had to send a long message after our breakfast. Haha.
We started the trek at 8.20am. It was supposed to be 8am, but we were occupied sending messages. Haha. The sun was so glaring and we generously lather our faces with sunblock, but I still got very bad sun burns and wind burns on my face that my skin peeled on my cheek bones after 7 days. So painful you cannot imagine (but it was 'fixed' as new by using Vaseline for 7 days). My sister said I did not reapply my sunblock every 4 hours. It is cold, and hence, I am wearing gloves.
We are heading towards Lava Tower (4,600m) to get our body acclimatise to the high altitude, and we will descend to spend the night in Baranco Camp (3,900m). It was just rocks along the route. Dust and rocks. A buff is necessary. The sun light was also reflecting from the earth and hurt the eyes. A pair of sunglasses with UV ray protection is very important.
In this photo, you can see my sister is actually approaching me with my flask of hot water. She was carrying it for me, because my bag is heavy from my water. She is giving me the hot water because I was coughing too much (from the strong wind) and had to stop. I was blowing my mucous at the same time on the ground. My nose was red from the mucous wiping. I washed my nose and my fingers were freezing. I also noticed my mucous did not get absorbed into the earth. It sort of rolled away with the dust. Odd. Must be too cold.
I blew my mucous out, and got myself ready to move, and mucous formed again. Gawd, it was so annoying that I just ignored it, and chose to 'drink' my mucous as it dribbled into my mouth. Yes, it is gross. My ears were also freezing from the cold wind. I use my buff (I brought 3 buffs) to cover my ears but it was sliding down and blocking my sight. I had to adjust my buff a few times.
My sister in action taking a video of Eden, our guide to explain on our route. We were heading towards Lava Tower, and it was going to be another 1.5 hour. We thought we could reach there by noon, but looks like not. Initially, we thought of having our packed lunch behind one of the rocks but the wind was so strong at almost every angle that Eden decided we should just proceed on to Lava Tower instead.
This is the junction to proceed on to either Lava Tower or Baranco Camp. The porters will proceed to Baranco Camp route to set up the tents. Going to Lava Tower is only necessary for the trekkers to acclimatise.
Can you see Lava Tower? It is the black rock on the right side of the photo. The route looks so easy. A straight route. But it was gradually ascending. Wind was strong. My mucous flows on, or I suck them in and I swallow them instead. It was dusty. It was glaring. I told myself - I will get there eventually. Just keep walking.
At 1.30pm, we reached Lava Tower. 4600m. 7km from Shira Cave Camp. 5 hours. We saw lots of mess tent set up for lunch breaks. Also, saw a few tents but I was unsure if trekkers were camping here. It is so cold and windy.
Located a little over 15,000’ up the mountain along the Lemosho and Machame routes, Lava Tower is a large rock formation that was formed from lava, back in the days when Kilimanjaro was still an active volcano (though Kili is dormant these days, and hasn’t had a major eruption in around 150,000 years, fumaroles near the summit crater still emit gases, and there was volcanic activity on the mountain just 200 years ago).
Lava Tower is what’s known as a volcanic plug; at some point in the distant past, lava shot out a vent at the base of where Lava Tower now stands, cooled, and hardened, thus stopping up the vent beneath. On active volcanoes, plugs like these can increase pressure below the surface, leading to more explosive eruptions, but so far, even with this geological “cork” stuck in its side, Kili’s stayed quiet.
The tower is around 300 feet tall, and previously, climbers were able to hike up it (a scramble that could be treacherous on icy days). Because of safety concerns, officials banned trekkers from climbing Lava Tower earlier this year, but according to folks who were lucky enough to have made the trip before the ban, the views of Uhuru Peak from the top are truly remarkable. Source from Thomson Treks.
The orange mess tent is from a new trekking agency according to Joseph, the assistant guide. Well, the mess tent does look pretty new.
While others eat in mess tent, my sister and I ate our lunch behind a huge rock, next to Lava Tower. We had sandwich, hard boiled egg, banana, fried chicken, muffin, biscuits and an apple juice. I ate all except the egg because I was just too full, and sick.
Right in front of me, a group of porters was setting up a mess tent. They set it up in less than 8 minutes.
During my lunch break, I saw the 4-striped mouse coming out from the rocks. They must be looking for food. They look cute. My sister identified the White Necked Raven which were in abundance in most of the campsites because the birds were looking for food. My sister said she is happy when she sees the raven in the sky because she knows she is close to camp. One should not feed these birds because the birds will rely on human to give them food, and they will lose their natural instinct to search for food which will make them die (when the human food is not available). As explained by my birdwatcher sister.
After an hour break, we descended from Lava Tower which were made up of loose rocks. We have to be careful in coming down and the wind was even stronger as we scrambled down the rocks. Gosh, as I was looking down to watch my steps on the rocks, my mucous also flowed down and I had to suck them back in or let it seep through my buff. Yes, my buff was full of bacteria. I was gross out by my own wet buff.
En route to Baranco Camp, we saw more of the Giant Dendrosenecio Kilimanjari trees. If the plant is endemic to Kilimanjaro, the plant has the name Kilimanjari. The plant can grow to a maximum of 10 metres and can be found at an altitude of 3600 - 4275m. The plant produces cotton but it cannot be used for textile production because it cannot be brought out from the National Park. Can you imagine what happen if the cotton is taken to make cloth? This plant will be extinct. Human is greedy.
At 4.30pm, we stepped foot onto Baranco Camp. 3900m. 3km from Lava Tower Camp. 2 hours walk from Lava Tower Camp. In total, 8 hours on our feet from Shira Cave Camp. We queued up to register ourselves at the ranger's office.
Our campsite. My sister was having a headache. My flu and cough was getting from bad to worst. Both of us did not have any appetite for dinner. We did not feel like eating and told Eden. He did not allow it and told us to take our medicine and rest for a bit. My sister ate 2 panadols and I took flu pill and my ginger tea. I had ginger tea twice a day, morning and night, everyday. It did not help but it may have maintained my condition.
For dinner, we had pumpkin soup, spaghetti and vegetables. Eden said that this is a light meal and we need to eat for the energy. I know I have to eat because I need to replenish my energy and replace my dead muscle cells.
Ta-da, this is how bad I looked! Red cheeks from the sun. It hurt. I applied Vaseline at night but it did not make much improvement because I was exposed to the sun the next day. Red nose from mucous blowing. Flat hair from wearing my buff and cap. Do I still have any market value? Haha.
Tonight, we sleep early. And I had the urge to pee just as I was getting comfortable in my sleeping bag. I actually contemplated if I should pee, and my sister I should just pee because I will need to pee eventually. I peed, and I got back to the tent. Sat for a minute. I told my sister - I need to pee again.
Damn you, Diamox.
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My sister did a video of our 7-day Trek in Kilimanjaro. You can watch the video here (https://vimeo.com/184126352) or click on the below video but the quality is not as good as the one in the link (because the upload size is limited to less than 100MB). Hopefully it works.
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