Praygood: 'How'd you sleep?'
Me: 'Like a fat baby girl!'
I love waking up on the mountain. Only had to get up for a wiz twice during the night, so not too bad, cold out - but you sleep with an empty bladder, not a full one.
The five golden Kili rules:
1) walk slowly! (PolePole in Swahili)
2) drink 3-4 litres of water a day
3) aclimitisation
4) you have to eat (even if you dont feel like it)
5) sleep when you can
Ok, so the morning is a gentle ascent with fabulous panaramic views leaving the Moorland and heading towards the lava ridges beneath the glaciers of the Western Breach. We have a packed lunch at the Shira 2 camp - of boiled eggs and fried stuff and juice in a box.... yummy huh? You eat what and when you can. My hands and knuckles are badly sunburnt from hanging onto my walking poles. I need to make sure 50+ goes on them from now on - but for now my thin gloves will have to assist. We get to the Lava Tower junction and start to see the first of the altitude victims. A man who could hardly stand let alone walk and white lips..... a bit frightening.... and a lady who looks ok but cant stop throwing up. They're guides are bringing them back down the mountain - this is at around 4,500m. Its scary - but other than a slight cough and breathlessness, I feel pretty good. And then..... we pass by the Lava Tower and I realise we are losing light... Ben and William are quiet and not really answering questions about how far we have to go etc....
And it dawns on us.... we are going to be walkng in the dark. The trek is treacherous in daylight.... let alone without a head torch. At least we both have got warmer gear on today though. Nic walks ahead with Ben whilst I walk with William. We've been walking for around 11 hours now and I'm struggling with my breath considerably now and am walking slower. Then.... out of the darkness.... Jambo Jambo! A search party has come to rescue us! Yay! Six of the porters have come looking for us and champion us all the way back into camp (another hour or so) - 'Augustus' runs and stays with Nic and Ben, and I get the reamianing 5 Tanzi dudes & William (including Praygood - who encourages me the whole way). It was gruelling..... I fell at one stage and had a sook about it (yeah I cried like a fat baby girl) and had 6 headtorches shinning on my whilst I had this meltdown.... Ace.... they all picked me up - sang me a song and we continued walking. Walked into camp half an hour after Nic. They sat me in the tent, took off my hiking boots, feed me and told me to goto sleep. Sleeeeeeeep. Gosh I love these guys.
