Kili Day 4

Kilimanjaro Day 4

It was a long night in the sleeping bag last night and I managed to sleep pretty well. The headache of yesterday is mostly gone and I manage a decent breakfast. The start of today's walk is a scramble up Branco Wall, a 300m semi-vertical climb which is definitely the most interesting part of the walk so far. That takes about an hour and a half before a number of descents and ascents until we reach lunch spot at the same height we started at.

Lunch is pretty decent, a local delicacy is a chip and egg omelette which they inventively call "chippy eggy". It's actually ok and is a good source of carbs. We plod on after lunch for another 3 hours, still having nearly 700m to climb. It's been a big day with at least 1200m of ascent overall thanks to the yoyo ups and downs.

The last push to the camp is pretty steep for 100m or so, my headache is back and throbbing at every step and every breath. I take a paracetamol and half a diamox and hope this will clear. The prospect of a further 1300m ascent tomorrow isn't particularly inviting to my head despite having no physical problems so far at all. The simple fact is although a lot of people climb Kili, the acclimatisation is crap. You regularly have 1000m+ days which your body cannot physically compensate for fast enough. Ideally your body can acclimatise about 300-500m per day and that's about the plan for Himalayan expeditions.

On a side, the guide have been their usual chatty selves today. Chatty amongst themselves I should say and not so much to us. There's a point when me and Mick are both getting fed up with the constant noise and stopping and starting to chat with their friends. Fortunately lunch is upon us before we have words.