We're back from our safari. It was awesome, but I'll talk more about that in a different post. Now back to our reguraly scheduled program... Day 4 on the mountain.
First, here's a picture of our fearless leaders. They were with us throughout all of the climbs, so I want to give them proper credit. They rocked!!! (L2R: Moshi, Jamaica - Main guide, JJ)
Let's talk a little bit more about the porters that we have. They are awesome! I already told you about the morning wake up routine. In addition, before we're even up in the morning, Jamaica sends a few of the porters on to the next campsite so that we get the best spot at each campsite, away from the toilets and with a great view. Speaking of toilets, we have one porter, Sherema that is dedicated to maintaining our own toilet. Basically, it's a little short port-a-potty that is in a small tent. When it gets full, we call Sherema and he dumps it out in the one of the outhouses at each campsite. God bless him!!! We always had a nice, clean toilet. Needless to say the man was tipped well at the end.
OK, so today's hike was exhausting! 9 hours of hiking. We started out at Shira II (3860 m). We began the hike in the moorlands, which is land that consists of small shurbs and rocks. From there we went onto the 'Alpine Desert', which looks really eerie with these large boulders and nothing else. The clouds were coming in as well, so there was a mist that fell over everything. It looked like we were hiking on the moon or something. Some of the lava rocks have orange moss on them. Jamaica says that they are nature's toilet paper. Watch out for the brown colored moss!
Our hike took us to Lava Tower (4600m, 15,180 ft) and then down to Baranco Camp at 3910 m. The trip back down from Lava Tower was very tiring, we had to go over lots of rocks and boulders that were really difficult to traverse. We all had a bit of a headache on the way down, just due to the altitude. After 9 hours of hiking we were so happy to finally catch sight of our camp. Just as we saw it, here comes Shabe and Alex (another porter) carrying juice and snacks for us!! 
We thanked them profusely but we just couldn't stop as we were so close that we had to push on. How wonderful! Once we got into camp, we crashed into our tents and rested for about have an hour.
Of course our camp was in an amazing spot, but it was all the way on the far side of the camp, which made it so hard to get to after our long hike! Once we had settled in a bit, Justin and I asked for a bowl of warm water in our tent. We used it to wash our hands, feet and underarms. It felt SOOOOOO good! You get so dirty on the mountain from all of the dust. Our hands, feet and clothes were black. My cream colored fleece was basically black at this point, and we were only half way there!!
Tomorrow we have to traverse the Baranco Wall... we can see it from our camp... (shaded area mid-right of pic!)
First, here's a picture of our fearless leaders. They were with us throughout all of the climbs, so I want to give them proper credit. They rocked!!! (L2R: Moshi, Jamaica - Main guide, JJ)
Let's talk a little bit more about the porters that we have. They are awesome! I already told you about the morning wake up routine. In addition, before we're even up in the morning, Jamaica sends a few of the porters on to the next campsite so that we get the best spot at each campsite, away from the toilets and with a great view. Speaking of toilets, we have one porter, Sherema that is dedicated to maintaining our own toilet. Basically, it's a little short port-a-potty that is in a small tent. When it gets full, we call Sherema and he dumps it out in the one of the outhouses at each campsite. God bless him!!! We always had a nice, clean toilet. Needless to say the man was tipped well at the end.
OK, so today's hike was exhausting! 9 hours of hiking. We started out at Shira II (3860 m). We began the hike in the moorlands, which is land that consists of small shurbs and rocks. From there we went onto the 'Alpine Desert', which looks really eerie with these large boulders and nothing else. The clouds were coming in as well, so there was a mist that fell over everything. It looked like we were hiking on the moon or something. Some of the lava rocks have orange moss on them. Jamaica says that they are nature's toilet paper. Watch out for the brown colored moss!
Our hike took us to Lava Tower (4600m, 15,180 ft) and then down to Baranco Camp at 3910 m. The trip back down from Lava Tower was very tiring, we had to go over lots of rocks and boulders that were really difficult to traverse. We all had a bit of a headache on the way down, just due to the altitude. After 9 hours of hiking we were so happy to finally catch sight of our camp. Just as we saw it, here comes Shabe and Alex (another porter) carrying juice and snacks for us!! 
We thanked them profusely but we just couldn't stop as we were so close that we had to push on. How wonderful! Once we got into camp, we crashed into our tents and rested for about have an hour.Of course our camp was in an amazing spot, but it was all the way on the far side of the camp, which made it so hard to get to after our long hike! Once we had settled in a bit, Justin and I asked for a bowl of warm water in our tent. We used it to wash our hands, feet and underarms. It felt SOOOOOO good! You get so dirty on the mountain from all of the dust. Our hands, feet and clothes were black. My cream colored fleece was basically black at this point, and we were only half way there!!
Tomorrow we have to traverse the Baranco Wall... we can see it from our camp... (shaded area mid-right of pic!)
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