The one day that someone else was in our tent site at base camp (Barafu Hut), three hours actually takes three hours, so we had a bit of waiting.
The scenery got ugly today. At Karanga, there were still some birds and plants, but after the first uphill section, it was shale and black volcanic rock as far as the eye could see. There were some interesting cairns using the shale (a shark fin, for example), but pretty boring, just up, up, up.
We hit a ridge and the wind picked up. If that is any indication for tonight, it is going to be miserable.
But after three hours, we got to registration, where we had a little queue. Then, Bruce told us three minutes. Ten minutes of warmth in the sun that got stolen by a breeze, and Babu told us five minutes. Another ten minutes later... Camp was pretty much set up! Or we were just evicting those that climbed up last night. Everyone we talked to made it, so we were all pretty confident.
Lunch was potato pancakes, which I turned into lefse with some butter and sugar. There was also, you guessed it, soup. It was a pretty somber lunch; everyone in their own thoughts regarding the hike tonight. We scattered to our various tents for siesta and anxiety.
Dinner was served around 5:30, and, amazingly, didn't have soup but stew! Everyone ate a little something, and we were a much more chattery bunch, thankfully. There were enough off-color jokes that we were blaming the altitude.
The sun went down and the tent got chilly. Our five guides for tomorrow (Thomas, Babu, Bruce, Peter, and Adam) gave us the low-down. First was medical check-ups, with all of us learning more than we needed about each others' bowel movements. But everyone checked up ok and it was on to logistics.
We'll be getting up at 11, have some tea and crackers, and leave by 11:20. That's three hours from now, so time for some shuteye.
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