The first sight of Kilimanjaro!
The start of our third day on Mount Kilimanjaro was nearly perfect.
After our rainy and misty hike from Big Tree Camp to Shira Camp 2 the day before, we were happy to see the sun again. It wasn`t too cold, the sky was crystal-clear and we were able to see the mountain for the very first time during our climb!
After we had breakfast, we started climbing up towards Lawa Tower, the place where we would have lunch. We had Kilimanjaro in front and Mount Meru in the back and it was just an awesome 360-degree-view. The trail was steadily going uphill, but never really steep and we had many photobreaks. 🙂
Above Mont Blanc – up to Arrow Glacier Camp (4800m)
After almost three hours of walking, we reached the junction where the Lemsho Route from the West confluences with the popular and very-crowded Machame Route coming from the South. The atmosphere changed completely, and we had to queue several times in something like a human “traffic jam”…
After overtaking many groups of mainy Chinese and Russian climbers, we thankfully reached our lunch spot for Day 3, the Lawa Tower on 4630m. The weather had already changed completely and it was misty and fogy again. Nevertheless we decided to go on up to Arrow Glacier Camp on 4800m for an even better acclimatization, before descending down to Barranco Camp on 3976m, where we would spend our third night on Kilimanjaro.
A fast descent and a beautiful evening at Barranco Camp
At Arrow Glacier Camp we seperated from our group as we wanted to descent faster than the others. We do a lot of downhill running, so the way to Barranco took us merely 1,5 hours less than what was anticipated.
On the way down we crossed a very strange looking area with endemic trees to Kilimanjaro Nationalpark. With all the mist and little rainfall it felt like in a surreal and unreal world…
When we reached Barranco, the rain had stopped and we completely changed our wet-soacked clothes. The others arrived about 1,5 hours later and exactly when the sky gracefully cleared up a little bit and presented us another surreal moment!
The sky turned into completely orange-yellow-grey colors and it felt like being on another planet again!
Continue to read about Day 4 on Kilimanjaro! 🙂
