The Baranco Wall

I am not sure I have words to fully describe this day! The Baranco Wall should come with a minimum leg length requirement, a bit like minimum height restrictions on a rollercoaster ride!

As usual, we were woken at 6:00am with hot tea, and a hot breakfast to fuel us for our day ahead. We packed our daypacks and then our lead guide, Emmanuel, brought all the support team together to introduce everyone to us by name. By now we’d managed to learn a number of their names, but the ones who pack up the camp and move it to the next position weren’t always as visible, so it was great to be introduced to everyone. We had an amazing team of 36 supporting our group of 10, made up of 1 lead guide, 3 assistant guides, and 32 porters.

After the introductions, along with singing of course, we set off along the rocky pathway towards ‘the wall’. After descending into a valley, walking poles had to be put away as we’d need to use our hands……….I should have known then that it was a day I’d grow to detest!

The Baranco Wall is a rock face. There is a path of sorts, but it’s basically a vertical climb up rock steps with no technical climbing involved. There is also a section where there is nothing to stand on, and you have to hug the rock face (aptly named the kissing rock!) while taking a giant stride across an abyss. This is a giant stride for anyone, so my little legs were not convinced a leap of faith would do the job! When your guide tells you to ‘trust your boots’, it doesn’t really give you much confidence that your execution of the task will have the required outcome! I’m not ashamed to say, there were tears and today was the day I questioned my sanity. This was supposed to be an adventure, not a death wish!

The day did not improve. After the mammoth task of hauling myself up the rock wall and reaching the top of the ridge, it did nothing more than reveal 2 more ridges behind it that we had to scale. Day 4, I hate you!

Our camp finally came into view and I have never been as happy as I was to stumble in to my tent that afternoon. There were varying opinions on today’s trek, but I shall never forget day 4 and the challenge that was The Baranco Wall.

We were now at Karanga Camp 3995m and after dinner we settled in for the night, ready for a better day tomorrow!