Kilimanjaro Flashback – Day 5 – Karanga Camp > Barafu Camp

Day 5 on Kilimanjaro, and after another restless nights sleep we headed off to the next camp Barafu (High Camp).  I started to feel really tired almost immediately into the walk, the sleepless nights were really starting to take effect and I began to trail off behind the rest of the group instead of with my normal walking group at the front.

Sensing something was wrong, the leader of the tour and a close friend asked me what was wrong, which was when i finally cracked (never ask someone that’s on the verge of crying, what’s wrong!)…Anyone who knows me will realise that it must have been bad for me to show any sort of emotion in front of people, normally it’s kept nicely bottled up!  Anyway after a good embarrassing cry, it seemed to do the trick and I was back to my normal self, just needed that release to keep me going!

The route to Barafu was not particularly hard but was quite rocky under foot.  The walk wasn’t particularly long either (hikers can omit the Karanga camp on Day 4 and head straight to Barafu).

Arriving at Barafu Hut (15239 ft), which seemed incredibly busy and buzzing with excitement from people preparing themselves for the summit and people who had just come down, we had lunch and waited to be allowed to move slightly higher up away from the other groups.  Our tour guide Tunzo is highly respected on Kilimanjaro and is allowed to camp higher up so we get a head start on the ascent to the summit.

After setting up camp, we had an earlier dinner and then had the serious summit talk, when really this is why we’re here, after 5 days, we will nearly be at the top of the World’s highest freestanding mountain!  We had the chance to get a few hours kip before we were due to be woken at 11pm to start the summit ascent….