Kilimanjaro Trek - Day 3
Late post: Day 3 into the kilimanjaro trek, it was from Shira 2 camp 3800m to Lava tower 7km/4600m (a 300ft tall volcanic rock formation - see the background in 2nd picture) to Barranco camp 3km/3970m, this aids in acclimatising to lower oxygen levels at the higher altitude. Landscape was primarily alpine desert and the weather was gloomy and it rained intermittently. By the time we reach lava tower we were all soaked nicely.
I had mild headache while having hot lunch, just before lava tower, which is pretty much normal at high altitudes and usually due to dehydration, so indulged myself with lot of hot fluids like honey+hotwater, hot water plus milo with milk powder. Headache disappeared by the time we reach the tower, unfortunately we were not allowed to go up the tower due to risk of rock fall so after clicking few pics we started our descent to barranco, it started with steep and rocky down slope that levelled out to flats as we reach barranco.
Same as the previous day, we spent a wet evening at the barranco camp site. My instincts told me the rest of the days and evenings could also be rainy so rather than praying for sunshine to set the mind to be prepared to face the rain every day. So I started separating trek clothes as wet and dry other than warm clothes. so the idea is to reuse wet clothes again for the next day since most of them are dry fit they will dry out when I keep them in the enclosed tent space outside the sleep chamber. Dry clothes are spare for later. This is just to trick the mind to not stress out about spending the trek in wet clothes and it was a huge relief.
I used water resistant gaitors, so sock and shoe interior did not get wet. Loosened up the pant few inches above the gaitor, this acts like a sink for excess water to drip of outside the gaitor rather than leaking inside.
We had cozy hot dinner around 6 that evening that lifted our spirits pretty much to prepare for the next day.
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