This morning we woke up to clear skies and more singing by the porters "next door". We've been so blessed with great weather. This morning was a special one - Valentine's Day! I had brought some paper valentines from home, and during our climb we ladies had carefully searched the ground for heart shaped stones. Donna, Sara, and I got up a little earlier than usual and met in our tent to prepare a surprise for the gentlemen. We wrote each fella's name on a paper heart, and attached several heart shaped rocks with duct tape to the front. Then we snuck over to the food tent and carefully placed each one on a breakfast bowl. Upon arriving for their morning coffee, the guys were so surprised!!! We also gave a valentine to several of our porters, who said they celebrate Valentine's day in Tanzania.
After breakfast, we packed up our duffles (again!) and left Karanga Camp to head up to our final camp Barafu Hut (Cam #4), where we will rest a few hours before before the BIG CLIMB to the summit. Slow and steady we walked through what looked like the moon - wide expanses of dark dusty sand-like dirt called "scree" and small volcanic rocks. We are now in the sub-alpine zone. It was a very slow & stiff walk up and then down into valleys several times. On occasion we'd encounter other climbers - there were a group of Germans who seemed to keep the same pace as us. But for the most part we didn't see anyone else as we walked slow and steady for 7 hours, finally arriving at Barafu Camp - 15,100 feet.
While Kurt filled out the necessary forms at the park ranger's hut, we pretty much collapsed outside on a stone wall. Donna spotted a box of Coke cans, and we asked the price for one and were told $4.00. Note, at the previous camp they were going for $5.00 a can. We speculated that due to the high price they must not have sold any so economics being what they are, they lowered the price at the next stop! We paid $4.00 and gave the fella a $1.00 tip! Everyone was happy.
Soon we lumbered up to our campsite alongside a lot of other climbers and organized our tents. We had an early dinner, where Kurt set forth the plan for the FINAL Ascent! We would go back to our tents on the early side, as we'd be sleeping only a few hours tonight. He would moniter the weather, and if the winds were calm, as we hoped they would be, then the plan was to awaken at 10pm or so, have a light "breakfast" and begin the climb to the summit. After a few questions like "Do you really think we can all make it?", we returned to our tents and set aside what we would need - our headlamps, our heavy down jackets, gloves, wool hats, long underwear. We nestled into our sleeping bags and tried to go to sleep but it was difficult as we were very nervous and excited. We slept in the clothes we would be climbing in, as no one would want to change at 10pm!
Turns out the winds were minimal, and the night sky was clear with a million stars. The weather was just right for our climb (p.s. - two weeks earlier, the celebrities who did the same climb encountered snow and heavy rain on their ascent... once again we were blessed with perfect weather).
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