After lunch we wrapped around the tower and began our trek down. This section of Kilimanjaro is dotted with beautiful trees similar to the “Joshua” trees Nancy and I toured at Joshua Tree National Park in California just last year. Cool! We then worked our way down to BARRANCO Camp where my tent was waiting. It had begun to rain so our timing was excellent as we settled into our tents and remained dry. By that point the rain came down hard and I was thankful of how fortunate we were to have avoided it. Overall, having been in the “Partial” rainy season turned out best throughout the hike. Typically, around 3:30 dry conditions prevailed and views were there to be had!
Hiking in full sun during the day on Kilimanjaro offers better views but is very uncomfortable and since that promotes sweat it can be very bad. Sweating means dehydration. Public enemy number one! You are also much better off keeping yourself and your clothes from sweat as you won’t shower for a week and are wearing various garments a few times. BARANCO Camp is significant as it is a merge of other trail options and a place where you are expected to see many more hikers camping out. It had many open plain areas with many outhouse options to accommodate hundreds of people. I counted about 20 people and again, relished my decision to do this now. I saw the Dutchmen at their site about 100 yards up the hill and approached to chat. I asked them how they did at the 15,000’ Lava tower that day and the said that they not only did well but they scaled to its summit! “Oh, so you must have been the people I saw walking around up there today”, I said. Must have been as only about 10 hikers came from that way today. They also said that before taking on Kilimanjaro they had just done mount Arusha, one of the 3 peaks that constitute the Kilimanjaro Mountain Range. It’s about a 13,000’ summit that did much to help their acclimatization. They mentioned that they had met the Czech guys and I told them that today was my birthday and they got a kick out of watching the video of the Czech guys singing to me earlier that day. The 2 Dutchmen then went into full gear singing happy birthday to me, 3 times in 1 day!
BARANCO Camp is the site where you first witness a view of the legendary BARANCO WALL that lies east of the camp site. A 500’ escarpment that appears to require technical expertise to tackle. As you pan your view towards the north, the mountains majesty forms a huge rock face that appears rather intimidating. Bottom line, BARANCO Camp is simply spectacular! The clear skies were above the blanket of clouds that hung over Moshi and I felt rewarded. As the confluence of trails were often populated by human habitation another species took note. BIRDS! COVID also deprived these birds of the livelihood they relied upon by hikers’ food scraps so they too were also having their second bad year. White napped ravens are pretty big and I found them cool at first but they began to annoy me so I began to shoo them occasionally.
Rich Citro Adventures 