Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch
June 25, 2008 – Up and Over the Lava Tower
camp – looking at the famous wall and top of Kilimanjaro
Hi! This is John Bank checking in from about 4000 meters (15,000 feet), Wednesday night in Kilimanjaro. We had a great day today and left Shira this morning. The sun has been shining all day with just a few clouds but not too much. We are back from our acclimatization climb. Today we climbed up to 15,000 feet, which was the highest on the mountain we have been yet. Also for the benefit of acclimatization, we climbed to the top of the Lava Tower, a little rock scramble for an additional 50 – 100 meters. On the way down to Barranco Camp there is a stream that we were able to swim in at 14,000 feet to clean up. We are now at camp and everything is well.
This is Ellyn. I want to update everyone about last night. When we got into camp yesterday, that was day two, the wind was ferocious. I had a lot of wet clothes (that’s another story), and I hung them all about on some tree branches to dry. It was a funny sight! Everything was out, lingerie, colorful clothes and so on. At night we huddled in our sleeping bags as the temperature dropped to below freezing and we listened to the fierce Everest type winds. Our porters did a very good job securing our tents, which by the way was very nice. At 1:00 am the wind stopped, just like that. I then went outside and couldn’t believe it, I saw the beautiful moon against the dark night sky.
I think John updated you a lot about today. It was a long arduous but really eventful day. We got in about 8 miles, actually hit 15,000 feet of elevation. We had a leisurely lunch, scrambled up the rock face of the Lava Tower (that’s optional for hardcore only), cooled off in the stream and we were delighted to have our first view of a magnificent plant found only in Tanzania called Senecio. As the day clouded over, and as we continued to descend, we were surrounded by the Senecio and many other fabulous plants, one called Lobelia. Once at camp with our view across the way, John was really awestruck by the Barranco Wall.
That’s about it. We just had our nice leisurely dinner and are about to settle into our sleeping bags and tents. Tomorrow is a light day with plenty of rest.
Asanti, lala salama - Thank you and good night (in Swahili)