After freezing nights once the sun rose we could take away the breakfast tent to eat outside before setting out bags for the porters. Day 5 began with the Barranco Wall - a seemingly very challenging rock face that was a most enjoyable scramble even for the joking porters like our resident artist Eric. At the top, elated by success, we posed for silly photos before continuing the mere 5k to Karanga Camp (3995m). By now, the rough sloping terrain for tents, the loss of one of our group and the impact of altitude combined to make sleep difficult and increase anxiety - would we make it? Day 6 was a morning 4k climb to the vast Barafu Camp (4670m). After lunch an acclimatisation climb of 200m was followed by a nap, early supper, another nap and hot drinks before departure at midnight for the summit. At -15C (-30C with wind chill) we only had the head torch column above to follow 'polé polé' (very slowly) for hour after endless hour. 2 of our group had to drop behind ... but as the sun rose we emerged after a 4k climb Stella Point (5745m) on the crater rim, soon joined by our 2 friends. Hot drinks, a foolish attempt at the twist (thanks Makeke!!) and then the final kilometre to Uhuru Peak (5895m) and total joy. Low cloud obscured some of the view but not the glacier snows of the peak. Some of us ran down the scree to Barafu and after a brief rest continued the huge descent to Millenium Camp (3070m). The tipping ceremony on Day 8 gave us our opportunity to thank our wonderful team of helpers and them the chance to sing for us ( listen here) before descending to Mweka road-head (1700m) and driving back to base for our certificates. To see the photos click here.

Photos Main Page - Introduction - Safari Background - Non-mammals - Mammals - Kili Days 1-4