Up and down

9th July 2017 

Mt Meru

The advantage of being at altitude is the absence of mosquitos.  The downside is that it is bloody cold. Last night it was freezing
 .  When I got up for a pee at 10pm there were patches of frost on the ground and by morning any standing water had frozen! 

So today we went up to 4600m to Lava Tower Camp.  This was a steady climb, but fairly relentless.  The increasing altitude made itself felt for all of us.  Despite the fact that we were walking slowly, very slowly, I certainly knew I'd put some effort in.

A couple of the boys felt a bit poorly, headaches and nausea, but this is the point of today: to take us up to altitude and then come back down to recover.  The next time we go up to the same altitude and beyond it should be easier for all of us.

We had lunch right by the Lava Tower - in one of those  green dome tents you can see in the picture above (if it uploads!) before descending helter-shelter style to Baranco Camp.  The boys who had felt rough felt better as soon as the descent commenced.  I was conviced I'd be leaving the mountain with a broken ankle or two.  The 'path' was mainly boulders, rocks and rivers!  

Not looking forward to tempertures of -4c tonight - and it is only going to get colder!