Today trek to Barranco got off to an early start at 08:30. We’d be taking a detour via the lava tower for more acclimatization.
James was looking pretty ill today - he kept falling asleep whenever we stopped. Lava Tower was an impressive piece of rock. Ibrahim tells me people rockclimb up the thing, but I have my doubts - the lava stone is crazy sharp (as I found out trying to do some bouldering) and the whole tower looks ready to topple and break.
My first camera battery ran out at this point - I only had one more spare and I chided myself for not having more. I did buy a third online to bring along, but it didn’t get delivered till after I left. I’d have to keep photo-taking to a minimum till the last night. Luckily for me, my trekmates were all happy snappers so there’re still plenty of photos of the next few days.
Today’s portion of the journey seemed to take forever, mostly due to the sheer bleakness of the landscape. There seemed to be nothing but rolling wastelands of rock. We covered 10km and arrived at Barranco Hut for 17:30, where we registered our arrival and crashed into our tents.
I couldn’t really eat anything tonight - I just didn’t have the appetite. I knew I’d regret it tomorrow though if I didn’t force something down.
The night was freezing - I resorted sleeping in my down jacket. I took some ibuprofen and actually slept relatively well. I was hardcore snoring ‘cos I was so wiped out from the long walk, and also ‘cos I didn’t have a proper pillow - the size of my dirty laundry bag was propping my head up at a really weird angle.
For once, I didn’t have to get up in the night for a piss. I’m not entirely sure if that was a good thing or not …