Two breathtaking sights. The glacier visible to our left and the Barranco wall towering upwards greeted us as we climbed out of our tent. True natural beauty! It is observing the change in the natural environment on Mount Kilimanjaro that causes hikers to be left wanting to return. Sadly the glaciers on Kilimanjaro's heights are shrinking slowly, steadily but visibly, and seeing this glacier, small from our vantage point, that guided us on our hike leading up to Barranco wall was a privilege. The glacier is named the Great Barranco glacier, and it is now a mere remnant of the icecap that once crowned the highest peak in Africa. It would be during the final meters before reaching the highest point, Uhuru peak, that we pass this same glacier.
Can we collectively change the trajectory of climate change and preserve these precious natural beautiful sights?
Starting Day 4, a 4.72km, 505-meter ascent, we embarked on scrambling, climbing, and passing the kissing rock on our way up the Barranco wall. It is called the kissing rock because of the close proximity of the rock due to a narrow ledge and tricky footing. Carefully guided on where to step and possible grasps areas by August, our trusted G2G Adventures guide, we reached the top of Barranco wall safely and exclaimed, "this was so much fun." The Day 4 challenge of Barranco wall was an adventure elixer shot.
The porters all had to hike up the breakfast wall with their heavy loads on mostly the same path. The only difference in the way the porters chose was created by their imagination to avoid losing momentum and accidentally losing their loads, tumbling down the wall and having to be retrieved, and also not sustaining physical injuries. I gained even more respect on the wall for the porters' courage to wake up daily with a smile and work so hard.
G2G Adventures, the name of the company that guided us on our Kilimanjaro trip, stands for "good to go." Up the Barranco wall, we took a short break, after which Benni or/and August called out G2G, then we answered, "good to go!" We set off on a gently paced hike crossing the Karanga valley, which changed from misty to clear skies. Passing the unique landscape with lava rock formation and the Karanga valley took us to a region filled with streams.
A final sting in Day 4's tail was the steep ascent, where I used my hiking poles to reach Karanga, meaning nut, camp, with the elapsed time for the day 4:22.
The nights became increasingly colder, and after a cup of steaming tea and popcorn, we washed and added extra layers of clothes to get a good night's rest.
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