We sleep in a little this morning as today’s hike is an easy one — merely four hours uphill to Karanga Camp.

Full disclosure: I slept terribly last night. I was freezing and my sleeping bag wasn’t warm enough; I couldn’t get comfortable. My sister slept really well and managed to stay warm. Perhaps it’s because we’re using different sleeping bag liners — mine is silk and hers is fleece. Silk will be better for the remainder of my Africa travels in warmer climates but for the moment I’m kicking myself.

Today we will climb up the Barranco Wall, pictured in the photo below. It’s one of the tougher stretches of the Machame Route and my sister and I have been mentally preparing ourselves. Bethany is not a fan of heights so she’s especially anxious about this morning.

Here’s a closer look at the Barranco Wall — I’ve highlighted our route, which takes us around 90 minutes to complete (it should take an hour but we have to stop and wait often for people ahead of us to move, since it’s too narrow for anyone to pass).

After breakfast, the sun has crested over the Wall and our whole campground is beautifully illuminated.

And… we’re off! The light is spectacular at this hour and I put my camera to work.

I glance up at the next stretch of the Barranco Wall, a narrow ridge over our heads. The line of trekkers is backed up because of a particularly steep area that requires careful navigation.

This shot conveys what it’s like to climb the Barranco Wall: a hectic progression of hikers / porters practically stepping on each others’ feet in a push to get to the top. It’s not a typical path, either — there are boulders to climb over and sections that require scrambling. I use my camera sparingly now because I need both hands to carefully navigate this part.

See that guy in the photo below, stretched out like a starfish as he straddles the rock? That’s one of a few trickier sections that require both hands and careful placement of feet to avoid falling off the face of the Wall.

In the moments where we pause to wait for people in front of us, it’s lovely to admire these views.

A look back at where we began today’s hike:

Finally we’ve reached the top of the Barranco Wall, triggering a big sigh from all of us, especially Bethany — she was a trooper.

This group below is from different parts of the States, all extended family members who have met up to hike Kilimanjaro. They are super friendly. By Day 4, you start to know other people on the trail because we’re mostly on the same schedule. It’s nice to recognize faces and wave hello as you pass someone or they pass you. We even meet another couple from Connecticut! What are the odds?

The perfect spot for a jumping photo:

Another look at what lies ahead — in two days we will be at the snowy summit of Kilimanjaro. (Fingers crossed.)

Now we have another 3 hours of gentle ups and downs over this part of the mountain. It’s very pleasant terrain.

Our final push for the day en route to Karanga Camp is to hike DOWN the path on the left below, and then UP the path on the right below:

I use my iPod for the first time. It takes me six songs to hike up that final stretch. I will neither confirm nor deny if that was Audra McDonald singing Climb Ev’ry Mountain six times on repeat.

We are greeted with this incredible view above the clouds at Karanga Camp:

I should take a moment here to explain that THIS is our extra day on the trail. The Machame Route can be climbed in a total of 6 days, but we have opted to do it in 7. If we were to hike it in 6 days, then instead of setting up camp at Karanga right now, we would press on another three hours to Barafu Camp (which is where we’ll go tomorrow morning instead). And then after sleeping from 5pm to 11pm, we’d be waking up tonight to begin our overnight trek to the summit. That is ridiculous and I’m so glad we opted to break up this stretch! Major props to the intrepid hikers who do the overnight summit bid following a 7-hour day of trekking with just a few hours of sleep in between. My sister and I essentially get an extra 24 hours to rest at this altitude before we’ll attempt to summit overnight.

Since it’s only midday, we eat lunch at camp — chicken, salad, chips, and fruit. (Bethany, the vegetarian, gets other veggies instead of the chicken.)

View from our tent:

I should take a moment to explain how our tent is set up — Beth sleeps on one side and I sleep on the other, and we put our stuff in the middle. Those green bags are what the porters carry during the day — they hold our clothes, toiletries, sleeping bags, blow-up pillows, and other miscellaneous items. We just carry a day pack with cameras, water, snacks, and sunscreen. Zara Tours provides the tent, sleeping mats, and duffel bags for the porters to carry. Our porters put up and take down the tents so we really have nothing to complain about — the work is all done for us.

Today I even “wash” my hair for the first time all week, by dunking my head in the warm water basin provided by our porters. They bring each of us warm water when we arrive at camp to wash our hands and feet, but today I decide it’s time for a quick shampoo instead. I have the rest of the afternoon for my hair to dry in the sun.

After reading my book and taking a nap, it’s time to watch the sunset. The light is spectacular and it’s thrilling to be so high above the clouds.

Our tents:

Beth peeks out from our dinner tent:

Dinner that night was a comedy of errors. Within a 60 second time span, the following happened — our candle fell over, and while rushing to grab it I spilled my soup. Then I tossed my bowl aside in frustration and it CRACKED… no more soup for me. Amidst this chaos our container of hot chocolate powder somehow tipped over and emptied on the ground, which stinks because we use that each morning in our coffee. But we could not stop laughing. How could all of that go wrong in less than a minute?! We turned on our head lamps and I desperately tried to clean everything up (soup and chocolate powder) before our waiter Ernest came back in to see the damage. Luckily he laughed it off with us.

With that incident behind us, we head to our final night of sleep before the summit. Tomorrow morning we’ll hike a leisurely 3-4 hours to Base Camp and spend the rest of the afternoon sleeping. We’ll wake up for dinner and then go back to sleep until 11pm, when we’ll wake up and prepare for a midnight departure to the summit. The plan is to hike all night and reach the top of Kilimanjaro around sunrise at 6:30am — it will be completely grueling and hopefully our bodies are up to the task. So far we’ve had no signs of altitude sickness and fingers crossed it will stay that way.

Many thanks to Zara Tours for discounting my Kilimanjaro trek in exchange for photography and blogging. Opinions are my own.