Day 5 was a very short day as the team ventured from Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp with views of Kilimanjaro almost the entire way. The fog pushed in as we got closer to Base Camp (Barafu), but for the most part, we saw the mountains face from several different angles. There was little foliage on the climb, as we started to hike almost exclusively on the sand-like volcanic rock that we would see the rest of the way up. It definitely paid off to have our gators, as the rock was more like a fine ash in many places. The other major difference on the trek during Day 5 was the change in temperature. By the time we got to base camp, we'd added our wet-weather layers and even pulled out our winter hats. It definitely felt good to get a warm drink in us once we checked into camp for the day.
Once we checked in, we ate lunch and settled in for a nap. Dad's tent blew away in one of many gusts, but thankfully our awesome porters were alert and ready and able to save the tent and his gear inside before too much damage was done. At this point we also got our first glimpse of the hikers coming down from the summit. They had reached the summit early in the morning and were coming down beginning around noon. Let's just say they all looked exhausted, but elated, as well.
After our naps, our team woke up, ate some dinner and then went back to bed for another quick nap before we woke up to head to the summit around 11 p.m. None of us got much sleep during the two naps we were offered for one of two reasons; either we were too excited for what was to come a little later that evening, OR it was just too hard to sleep! Barafu Camp is nestled in nicely at 15, 300 feet and oxygen is scarce. Sleeping definitely doesn't come easily at that altitude, and I think we all really noticed it. Even if we did fall asleep, we'd wake up feeling unrested. Thankfully this was our last night trying to sleep at altitude and in just 24 hours we'd be able to get a wonderful night's sleep.
