It did all go in (just!)

Well, the snow came and brought our county to a standstill this morning. It was a tad worrying first thing this morning to look at 2 inches of snow on the ground with it still falling heavily. However, we relied on the weather forecasters (eek!) and sure enough, the rain came later and washed much of it away. It's still white everywhere but the roads are now pretty clear and so long as we get to the airport hotel before it all freezes we should be fine.

So, the long wait is over. Did we do enough prep? I guess we'll find out very soon!! Until we find an internet cafe, its goodbye for a while.

Kwa heri!

Will it all go in?

I look at the trekking kit and clothing for over a month all laid out and wonder how it's all going to fit in the two bags. We can only carry as much luggage as the internal Tanzanian flights operator will allow, so the generous KLM allowance means nothing, as Precision Air's 20kg/1 bag each limit will apply.  Out of respect for our porters we are trying to do minimalist on the trekking clothing. There's no shower/bath for a week so there isn't much point in a full change of clothing every day, as one will stink anyway! However, there must be sufficient layers so that, when all put on together, they will keep us warm on summit night.

There is always the possibility of our luggage going astray during travel. Therefore, we will be wearing/carrying as much of the essential stuff during the flights. We can hire most equipment there if we need to but we wont be letting our expensive walking boots or outer coats out of our sight, so we will be looking very silly and wearing them - only a fool would trek a mountain in a pair of rented boots! If the weather forecast here for Wednesday is correct (heavy snow), we will be dressed appopriately to get to the aiport.

Trek Route

I won't compromise our trek company by giving the secrets of their route away - we chose it because it's away from the other routes!! However, the distances etc go something like this.....

Day one (25th January 2010)

The bumpy 4-5 hour drive on dirt roads to the start means we don't have to walk until around 2pm local time. After the bumpy drive, walking might be a welcome relief for our bottoms!! Then we trek about 7 km, going up by about 630 mtrs to around 2600 mtrs.

Day two

About 12 km today in total, rising by around 1000 mtrs. I am sure headaches will prevail today as the effect of altitude kicks in! We've been to 4000 mtrs before and we knew it!

Day three

A short day today, only about 4 km and rising only a modest amount to aid acclimatisation.

Day four

About 10 km today, rising to about 4600 mtrs but then descending, to aid acclimatisation, finishing at around 3700 mtrs.

Day five

About 10 kms today but turning away from the other Rongai route users (hooray!!) early on. This will take us to about 4700 mtrs.

Day six

Beginning at midnight (after a full days walking on day 5!!) the assault on the summit commences. The distances are:

Day five end point to Stella Point 3.5km (uphill obviously!)

Stella Point to the summit 1.2km (again uphill LOL)

Summit to Gilmans (downwards - yay!!)

Gilmans to Kibo huts 3.4 km

Kibo huts to Horombo 9.6km

Making a total of something like 20kms on the summit day - probably over some 18 hours!!

Day 7

This is a walk in the park at some 20kms downhill to the park gate!!

From here we have to do the (shorter but equally bumpy) ride back to Songota, where hopefully Joice has the hot water flowing (as we wont have bathed for 7 days!!) and food aplenty. After a long sleep, we have to packed and ready for our private safari driver when he picks us up at 2pm the next day!!

Why, oh why?

People recently have kept asking me things like "why (at your age) the hell are you putting yourself.....?"

George Mallory, when asked why he would want to climb Everest said "because it's there". Good answer - if you are prepared to take what, at that time, was an indeterminable risk to achieve something. I am a complete chicken - of an indeterminable magnitude compared to Mallory's (and Irvine's) braveness but opportunities in travel thesedays means that insignificant people like me are able to challenge themselves like never before and step outside their comfort zone. We're all here for a blink of an eye in terms of man's evolution and, when I depart this earth, I want to be be able to say I made the most of it!!! As one gets older, this becomes more of an imperative. We have been fortunate to be able to travel extensively but I need more than the fact that I have 'been somewhere'. I am as scared (facing the risks of Kili) today as I was when I decided it would be a good idea to back pack alone around Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast when I was 18, but again, nothing would stop me doing it (and look how volatile this region of Africa was at the time!!). However, age teaches you to better mitigate the risks where you can and we have taken the time to prepare.

I found out today that 2 of our trekking party are late forties, both females. I am soooooo pleased that our party doesn't consist of mainly youngens who will race ahead and leave me looking like some geriatric! Hubby will be the senior! I think we'll have a great time, no matter the ages etc..

Final Preparations

Well, its just a couple of weeks until we go to Tanz. All the jabs and tabs are organised - it costs some serious money to avoid malaria, yellow fever etc! The last four days we have made the most of the lovely cloudless skies here (and the sub zero temperatures!) to put in a bit of walking locally to where we live. We've just done 4 days on the trot - 6 miles the first day, then 7, then 8 and just finished with another 8. We have just two more weekends to step it up and then it will be "coming ready or not!". Below is the snow capped Clee from the other side of the valley where we walked. We did the same walk daily but added some time on the end. I wanted to see whether it felt any easier up the same inclines on day 4 than it was day 1!!

We're not the only ones off far and away. Our eldest, as I write this, is waiting at Birmingham airport for a delayed flight to Dubai to take off. I hope he gets the window seat and sees the newly opened Burj. It's just a stopover for him as he will be taking in Japan, China, and Hong Kong in the next fortnight. Younger son flies off to Hong Kong in 10 days time leaving the daughter at home in the cold - bless her! It wont be long until she's off somewhere too.