On the fourth morning, we scaled the wall to reach the highest point thus far on the hike, 4200m. The route from Barranco wall to Karanga camp includes a lot of alternating climbs and descends which offered good opportunities for acclimatization. The trail wasn't throwing any challenges so I decided to spend my energy picking up swahili, starting with the greetings Jambo (hello), Kwaheri (goodbye), Asante (Thanks), Karibu(welcome). Since Tanzania has the kind of culture in which strangers greet each other if they as much as make momentary eye contact, I got a lot of practise using the phrases I learnt, unleashing them on every porter who passed us. I also learnt that the porters prefer to be called Wagumu (strong men).
From the Karanga camp the summit looks deceptively accessible. Karanga is also the last camp with the water source. From here, water is a scarce commodity and there was intense activity in the camp with all the porters scampering around collecting water for the next camp, Barafu, from where we were to make the final summit assault.
Finally, the moon just keeps getting better with each passing night.
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