After breakfast we will trek from Shira Camp to Lava Tower (4600m).
Our climb on the moorlands eventually comes to an end and we follow a rocky path leads us towards Lava Tower.
We've been told that if the weather’s good (and if we have the energy) we can ask our guide to take us to the summit of the Lava Tower (4688m) where the views are supposed to be magnificent.
Lunch is normally taken at the foot of the tower.
The rule for acclimatising is to climb high, sleep low, so we'll descend and overnight at Barranco camp.
Distance from Shira to Lava Tower is 7.0km (4 hours). Distance from Lava Tower to Barranco camp is 3.7km. (Elevation is 3950m)
When we arrive at camp we can freshen up. We've been told that each couple will be supplied with a bowl of hot water for washing (Yippeeee) and enjoy dinner prepared by our cook with passion! Peanut butter sarmies & popcorn anyone?
This is reportedly one of the most difficult days - so wish us luck!
THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:
After another good night's sleep we were woken up at 6:45. After the usual breakfast and getting our gear organised we were ready to go by 8:15. You can see it's taken us an extra 30 mins today to get ready - between the cold and the thinning oxygen everything takes a bit longer to do.
The weather was fine we we got going and some of the views were amazing too. You can see again how the terrain and the flora have changed along the route.
From here to Lava Tower the weather turned and we walked in rain and hail for many hours.
It also started getting very cold. On the way to Lava tower Marco started experiencing some headaches and sense of humour failures. Ali throwing a snowball at his head didn't go down too well (even though we thought is was funny)
Ali was also dealing with migraines that seemed to come and go. I was very fortunate that I hadn't felt any problems as yet.
The walk from Shira camp to Lava tower took us 5 1/2 hours. Again we got to the lunch spot long after everyone else had left. So ours was another quick lunch before heading off again.
The weather was really bad and we couldn't even see the top of Lava Tower so there was no point in going up.
To be honest with the headache that Marco was having and as tired and cold and miserable as we were getting the best thing to do was to move on to Barranco camp.
In the photo below we walked all the way down through the first and second valley you can make out in the centre of the photo.
This portion took us another 2h15 and was all downhill.
Today we walked up to 4900m at Lava Tower and then almost back down to the same altitude as where we woke up: 3950m at Barranco camp.
Again, this is all to help with acclimatising. On the way down were saw lots of strange plants - this was a good distraction as the way up was mostly barren.
I started getting very pressing headache on the way to Barranco camp (which, even though we were at a much lower altitude than Lava Tower, is apparently normal.) I took 2 neurofen and that was the end of it. I was very fortunate not to have any further affects from altitude for the rest of the trip.
On our arrival our porters were singing and dancing again for us. This did help put a smile on our tired faces :)
We had arrived back at 4:30 in the afternoon and with no more hikes planned for the day, I took the opportunity to have my first "bath". This is to say that I cleaned from head to foot with LOTS disposable wipes. This was my first and last official bath of the trip. The rest was just a case of washing hands and face - where possible.
I got into clean clothes (I'd been wearing the same trousers for the past 3 days - I had only managed to change underwear, socks and t-shirts) so this was quite a treat. I started feeling much better and we walked around this absolutely AWESOME campsite.
The thinning oxygen was becoming very apparent. Marco and Ali both dashed from the mess tent to our tents to put gear that had been drying back in the tents when it started pouring with rain (again). They both came back exhausted as though they'd just done a 1km sprint!
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