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We were up early - 5am - ready to get going so we went ahead and dressed and packed up. John climbed out the the temp to use the bathroom and saw Jeff outside getting photos. It was almost a full moon and the sky was full of stars. Jeff was taking advantage of the beautiful night to get some good photos of the mountain and the camp. He took one looking up toward the mountain with the tents in the foreground. Our tent was the only one lit up and it is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. We were loaded in to our boundary bags and off to the breakfast tent by 6. It was nice to relax and have a cup of hot Milo/Nido before the hustle and bustle of the day. Today we will start at 7:30 instead of 8 because of the length of today's climb. We will go up to 15,500 and then back down to Barranco at 12,800 or something like that. We have some sort of porridge every morning for breakfast. This is a slow burning carb that will stay with us throughout the morning. Some days it is oatmeal, some days millet (brown) and some days either cream of wheat or rice. There is a tub on the table label "fat spread" which because a bit of a joke. I always ask for the fat to put on my porridge. It makes it taste better and I figure I am burning enough calories on this trip I can pretty much eat anything I want. We also have toast, sausages, eggs, etc. Every meal there is really too much food.
We start off at the back of Lori's group. It is large this morning. Lori and Neil at the front, followed by Sierra, Monique, Nan, Doug, Jeanne, April, Kristy, Connie, Susie and Mickey. John and I are followed by our guide, August. The trail out of camp is a long gradual climb uphill - not sure of the grade but it is fairly steep. It is crisp starting out and we've all got jackets on and long johns under our trekking pants. At the first break we've climbed out of the cool Shira Plateau and are working up a sweat so we slip behind a rock to shed some layers. John and I take the opportunity to catch up with Mickey and hear Susie Weber's story for the first time. Susie has been diagnosed with MS the longest of anyone in our group. She was diagnosed at 22 years old. Since then she has had 3 children and started running half marathons. She said she had some trouble after each child was born but was so glad that she had not let the MS keep her from having children. She must be a really inspiring Mom. In the last few years she's been feeling pretty well and started exercising. She has done a couple of half marathons which I think is amazing. After a bit I walk up and talk to Kristy to hear her story. I am really interested in hearing the MS stories because my mother was diagnosed when she was 37. I think she would really have benefitted from knowing people like the amazing folks in this group. While I was talking to Kristy, Susie was asking John all about PD. I think its been good for everyone to share information about their diseases to promote greater understanding. Kristy is from Wisconsin like so many on this trip. She was diagnosed in 2005. She took the Interferon treatment until 2010 and it had a lot of bad side effects. She never really felt very good. She switched to a new Novartis med in 2010 and has been doing very well on it and feels much better. She also has asthma. After a while, I move up and talk to April for a while. She's had the toughest life of anybody in the group. She had her first symptoms when she was 12 years old but wasn't diagnosed until a few years ago. She grew up in a troubled home - her mother was an addict and there was often not enough food to eat. She basically raised herself and her little brother. She met her husband at a super bowl party a few years ago and it sounds like he is really good for her - a calm and ever present support. Something she was missing for so many years. She has a lot of pain with her MS. She had injections in the nerves in her legs in order ot be able to do this climb without having pain. So far it seems to be working and she amazes me as she climbs along the trail. This take more courage that I can even imagine.
At the second break spot we moved ahead and walked with Nathan, Daniel, Stephanie, Paula and Suz. They are going at a really good pace and we are feeling good. At the 3rd break we notice that Paula is not looking good. I think the pace is too fast and ask August to drop back and slow the pace. So John and Paula and I walk together with August and we talk about breathing and taking rest steps. Paula starts feeling better. August points out our blue lunch tent off in the distance. We leap frog back and forth with some German and Dutch climbers most of the morning. We saw some of them the day before as well. We get to the tent and lunch isn't ready yet so we clean up, use the stick to roll our tired muscles and just take a rest. We are at 14,500 at lunch - the highest point in my lifetime. Lunch is ready and we have grilled cheese and tomato soup - my favorite. Also, Pringles - Monique's favorite - especially the Sour Cream and Onion. The sun is out and the tent is warm. I don't want to linger.
We set out for the Lava Tower with a different group - John, Paula, Connie, Gina and Suz. I am thinking that we are going to climb up the Lava Tower but quickly learn from August that we are just going up and will go around of the base of it. Only people climbing the Lomosho Trail will climb up the tower. We take a break at the tower and Suz drops back to walk with Nathan and Daniel. This is my first chance to spending talking to Connie on the trail. She's from Jackson Hole and brought everyone in our group a Jackson Hole buff to wear on the trail. There are some Brits who've seen us on the trail a few times and said, "There go those American's again with the Jackson Hole Buffs." Funny. Connie is quite an adventurer. She studied the Masai in Africa a number of years ago. She has traveled a lot of places and will be going on to climb Mount Kenya on her own after this trip is over. Amazing. She has two children. Her son lives in Sun Valley and has the AML, the same thing my Dad had. He had a brain tumor when he was two years old.
We trek along the face of the mountain looking up at the Western Breach. This is a very dangerous trail where 6 American's were killed a few years back. Timing is critical on this trail. Once the sun rises and shines on the face of the breach the ice starts to melt and a lot of rocks fall. We stopped at one point because we could hear the rocks falling. We just stood there for a few minutes and listened to the mountain. It is quite ominous looking up from this vantage point and thinking we are going to climb to the top. We can't see Uhuru Peak from this vantage point but what see seems so far away.
Gina is still trekking with the same energy she had the first day. She's a music teacher and plays the trumpet (I think). This helps her a lot because she knows how to breathe from deep in her belly. I can hear her breathing behind me and it motivates me to breathe my deep yoga breathing.
As we head down from the Lava Tower we are on a steep, dusty, loose dirt trail. This is the sort of trail I was concerned about. I really have a lot of trouble descending on this sort of trail and I worry about the instability of my SI joint. All I need is a hip rotation to make this a real challenge. I slip twice and Gina slips once - we catch ourselves before we end up totally on our butts. I am really hoping the trail down from the summit is not like this. My legs get really tired of this descent because my hip flexors are constantly engaged. I am ready to get to camp. I watch August and he is walking more like a duck so I decide to try that. It seems to provide some relief from the constant strain. We follow a thin stream along the trail down in to camp. There are these plants that look like short palm trees all over the area and I wonder how they survive in this barren landscape. The the other trail (not Lava Tower) comes in to view and we see April and Jeanne and their guide. We wave to each other across the chasm. We continue down and we can see the Barranco Camp in the distance. A cloud is settling into the camp and we know it will be cool when we get there. No singing as we come in to camp today. We are met with the tray of juice and we pick out our tents. Suz,Stephanie, Nathan and Daniel come in a few minutes after us. We are all getting set up and washed up. I find my can of "spray hair wash" and see what it does for my look. Suz uses some and it actually makes her look pretty good. It is too cool to sit out side the tents this afternoon. We decide to go ahead and get tent for Nan and Doug and get their bags delivered. It will be a long day and this might help a little. He still has a cold and I don't think he's feeling that well.
John blew up both of our sleeping pads today. It was nice not to have to crawl around in there and blow mine up. I crawl in the tent and do the full bath wipe body swab. I change socks and clothes and start to feel refreshed. We sit around with Nathan and Daniel for a little bit but it is just getting too cold.
We had a big dinner - chicken satay, beef with gravy, pasta, mashed potatoes, greens and a raisin bread dessert. It was really too much food for someone who is starting to have some tummy turbulence. I don't really know why I ate so much. Jeff recited a poem he had written about Lake Superior, the area where he lives. It was really beautiful. The poem was about how the landscape talks to you. Jeff is right - big landscapes do have voices - if we just stop and listen. I got most of it on video. At 2:30 in the morning I woke up and most of the air was out of my pad - not sure what happened but I hope its not a pin hole. I have to get up and re-inflate it. John wakes up and asks me what I am doing. I wake up again at 4:30 and the camp is silent. I remember Jeff's poem and listen carefully. I can just hear the stream whispering off in the distance. I lay awake listening to the voice of the mountain for a while before drifting back to sleep. I have to get a copy of Jeff's poem.
I had a crazy dream that we got back from the climb and our car was in the parking lot. John drove us home (not our regular home) and I got out and realized that we had missed the Safari. I ran around the block chasing him in the car to drive us back to the Safari. Crazy dream.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
July 14th - Machame Camp to Shira Plateau - Shira Camp
I woke up after 6 hours of sleep thinking it was 6 in the morning but it was really 4 am. Note to self - do not put on Dr Watson's salve and got to bed in a -20 degree sleeping bag unless you want to be the next nights stew! My legs and back were on fire from the heat of the bag and the muscle salve. It was kind of like being in a crock pot.
I got up and went to pee. I had a slight headache so drank almost a liter of water and took 1/4 of a 250 diamox just to be safe. I had already talked to Sierra about taking it as a precaution because the AMS symptom of headache is also my main high blood pressure symptom and I didn't want to get them confused. At such a low dose it really shouldn't cause a lot of problems and I am only going to take it once a day.
I change my clothes and get ready for the day before John wakes up and tells me it is 4:30. So I go back to sleep until I hear him rustling around. I open my eyes to find him kneeling, pants down giving himself a "bath" with the bath wipes. We both get start laughing at the "one eyed-monster" wake up call!
It a bit of a challenge getting packed up inside this tiny little tent but necessary to keep everything out of the dust. I am sure we will get the hang of it before this trip is over. We have a great breakfast with hot drinks and instructions for the day before setting off. John and I get in the first group with the guide, August, Stephanie, Paula, Tina, Inez and Jeff the photographer. As we start out the trail is very steep and very dusty. We are in the Heather now and the landscape has changed quite a bit. We see white and pink flowers along the trail that look a lot like something from the aster family. There are some sort of evergreen bushes, lava boulders, and lichen. There are fat little birds and white necked Ravens circling about above us on the trail. There is heavy porter traffic on this one-lane trail which forces us to stop often to let them pace. This keeps our pace fairly slow but let noticeable since we are stopping frequently instead of walking really, really slowly. Pole Pole and Jambo we hear on the trail every time a porter passed. Pole Pole, means slowly, slowly in Swahili and Jambo means hello. We will probably say Jambo at least a thousand times before the trip is over. These porters are amazing. The loads they carry up the mountains are incredible. Some carry them on the heads with perfect posture, others carry them on their backs or the back of their necks - I wonder about the long term affects of this. I think they are only paid a few dollars a day for this back breaking work. August teaches us a little more Swahili - not sure about the spelling but Poa Kocheese common dezze means Cool like a banana.
We are going at a pretty good pace and the trail is narrow so we don't get to talk much to each other except at the breaks. At the first break we wander off the side of the trail and I use the pee funnel. I am really liking having the ability to pee standing up like a guy. This first stop isn't bad. At the second break we go off for a potty break and find our first "surprise". Some of the people on the trail don't do a very good job of covering up or leaving no trace. Its kind of gross.
Morning was sunny and hot so I stripped down to my T-shirt and zipped off my pant bottoms. We took two breaks before lunch for food, water and bathroom breaks. At the 2nd break spot clouds rolled in and it was much cooler. We stayed pretty close to some of our lunch poerters most of the way and arrived in lunch camp before they were ready. I am still amazed that they can break down the huge blue tent, pack it up and get on the trail after us. They pass us on the trail and go ahead to set it and the kitchen tent up and are already underway when we arrive. It is an admirable accomplishment that takes perfect timing and organization. These guys are very good at what they do.
We take the opportunity to rest in chairs outside the tent, use the bathroom, wash up and catch up in the journal. We are called to lunch as some of the others are arriving. By this time the sun is back out and the tent is getting hot so I don't want to stay long. Lunch was delicious again. We had celery soup, bread and butter, fish sticks, chips and a veggie salad. We head back out on the trail as the clouds move in and out for the rest of the afternoon - alternating warm sun and cool cloud cover. Makes it a challenge to get the layers right and not have to change all the time.
The rest of the afternoon is spent scrambling up to the Shira Plateau. It is a little bit more challenging because its not a simple trail. We have to climb around some large boulders and jump from rock to rock in a few places. We arrive at Shira Camp at 3:20 to a huge group of singing porters. It is really moving to hear them signing. I ask August what he words are saying and he say "You look smart". I would love to find the words to the songs they sing on the mountain. There is one funny guy who comes running from over where they are setting up tents. He jumps to the front the group of porters and starts dancing wildly. We will see him again at the end of our trek - he's the one who gets everyone to dance. They sing about 4 songs before stopping to get our bags and carry them to our tents. The Shira Camp is large and tents are more spread out than at Machame. They have chairs set up by our tents so that we don't have to manuever around in our tents - we can sit in the chairs to sort and unpack. It is very dusty on the plateau but incredibly majestic. The harshness of the barren rocky surface is dotted with a few sparse trees. Below us rest the clouds and it feels as if we are floating on them. In the distance behind our camp, the peak of Kili looms. It is beautiful and ominous, covered on one side with a glacier that is clearly melting away. Our guide says it used to snow a lot more on the mountain than it does now. Its hard to believe we will be at the top in just a few more days.
Some clouds move in as John and I are sitting outside the tent and the camp is quickly engulfed. It turns cold in an instant. We are at 12,500 feet and the weather can change in no time at all. It will definitely be colder tonight. The clouds move in and out all afternoon making it difficult to figure out clothing - too hot, too cold, too hot.
The second group arrive 30 minutes or so after us. Nan and Doug were in this group. Nan pushed her pace because some of the conversation in the group she was with was upsetting her. She had really pushed herself and she was physically and emotionally spent coming in to camp. I walked up and gave her a hug and was overwhelmed with emotion. It really surprised me. The two of us just stood there with tears in our eyes. Its really pretty amazing this group of special people. Nan is doing amazing. She is so strong and determined. I know she will make it to the top.
Lori and her Dad, who is 79, were the last two arrive in camp with three guides at about 5:30. The guides were signing to them as they walked it and it was very emotional again. They are such an adorable pair. It makes me wish my Dad was still alive. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have done something like this but you never know. Anyway, it made me really miss him. Lori really is a special lady for organizing this trip and matching up the pairs.
About 6:00 we had tea and popcorn in the blue tent. I sat around with Connie, Ben (soon to be known as Eye Candy), Monique and Sierra. We have a meeting at 7 before dinner to talk about Acute Mountain Sickness. I guess this is the altitude where we first start to see symptoms. Eric covers the basic symptoms of AMS - nausea, headache, vomiting, disorientation, swelling. A few people have headaches now and are instructed to take Excedrin. Monique has a terrible headache and you can see it on her face. She is concerned at having a headache at this point that she's not going to feel well enough to summit. We have another stellar dinner. Ginger soup with roll and butter, coconut rice with beef, greens and mixed veggies. A few minutes after the soup is delivered Monique's headache improves. I can see the change in her face. I wonder if it is the ginger in the soup. Since I am a bit of a food nut I notice along the trail that they are feeding us things that should help us - greens almost every day (these boost red blood cell production), lots of ginger in various things (this helps nauseau), soup every day (gets more liquids in the body), porridge for breakfast everyday (slow burning complex carbs help with energy throughout the morning climbs), raisins in a number of the dishes (these have iron and also help blood cell production).
John and I are feeling great. Nan asked if we would walk with them tomorrow. We decide to walk with the slower group for part of the day so that we can have a chance to meet and talk to more of the group. Tomorrow is the longest day. We will walk with Lori's group in the morning and then after a couple of breaks we will go on ahead with August. There is an optional climb up toward Lava Tower for an additional 500 feet of elevation gain which we want to do and make sure we don't get in to camp after dark. Eric says it will be an 8-12 hour day depending on pace.
It is quite cold now and it takes a few minutes for me to get warmed up in the sleeping bag. Once I am warm though I quickly fall asleep. Day 2 comes to an end.
I got up and went to pee. I had a slight headache so drank almost a liter of water and took 1/4 of a 250 diamox just to be safe. I had already talked to Sierra about taking it as a precaution because the AMS symptom of headache is also my main high blood pressure symptom and I didn't want to get them confused. At such a low dose it really shouldn't cause a lot of problems and I am only going to take it once a day.
I change my clothes and get ready for the day before John wakes up and tells me it is 4:30. So I go back to sleep until I hear him rustling around. I open my eyes to find him kneeling, pants down giving himself a "bath" with the bath wipes. We both get start laughing at the "one eyed-monster" wake up call!
It a bit of a challenge getting packed up inside this tiny little tent but necessary to keep everything out of the dust. I am sure we will get the hang of it before this trip is over. We have a great breakfast with hot drinks and instructions for the day before setting off. John and I get in the first group with the guide, August, Stephanie, Paula, Tina, Inez and Jeff the photographer. As we start out the trail is very steep and very dusty. We are in the Heather now and the landscape has changed quite a bit. We see white and pink flowers along the trail that look a lot like something from the aster family. There are some sort of evergreen bushes, lava boulders, and lichen. There are fat little birds and white necked Ravens circling about above us on the trail. There is heavy porter traffic on this one-lane trail which forces us to stop often to let them pace. This keeps our pace fairly slow but let noticeable since we are stopping frequently instead of walking really, really slowly. Pole Pole and Jambo we hear on the trail every time a porter passed. Pole Pole, means slowly, slowly in Swahili and Jambo means hello. We will probably say Jambo at least a thousand times before the trip is over. These porters are amazing. The loads they carry up the mountains are incredible. Some carry them on the heads with perfect posture, others carry them on their backs or the back of their necks - I wonder about the long term affects of this. I think they are only paid a few dollars a day for this back breaking work. August teaches us a little more Swahili - not sure about the spelling but Poa Kocheese common dezze means Cool like a banana.
We are going at a pretty good pace and the trail is narrow so we don't get to talk much to each other except at the breaks. At the first break we wander off the side of the trail and I use the pee funnel. I am really liking having the ability to pee standing up like a guy. This first stop isn't bad. At the second break we go off for a potty break and find our first "surprise". Some of the people on the trail don't do a very good job of covering up or leaving no trace. Its kind of gross.
Morning was sunny and hot so I stripped down to my T-shirt and zipped off my pant bottoms. We took two breaks before lunch for food, water and bathroom breaks. At the 2nd break spot clouds rolled in and it was much cooler. We stayed pretty close to some of our lunch poerters most of the way and arrived in lunch camp before they were ready. I am still amazed that they can break down the huge blue tent, pack it up and get on the trail after us. They pass us on the trail and go ahead to set it and the kitchen tent up and are already underway when we arrive. It is an admirable accomplishment that takes perfect timing and organization. These guys are very good at what they do.
We take the opportunity to rest in chairs outside the tent, use the bathroom, wash up and catch up in the journal. We are called to lunch as some of the others are arriving. By this time the sun is back out and the tent is getting hot so I don't want to stay long. Lunch was delicious again. We had celery soup, bread and butter, fish sticks, chips and a veggie salad. We head back out on the trail as the clouds move in and out for the rest of the afternoon - alternating warm sun and cool cloud cover. Makes it a challenge to get the layers right and not have to change all the time.
The rest of the afternoon is spent scrambling up to the Shira Plateau. It is a little bit more challenging because its not a simple trail. We have to climb around some large boulders and jump from rock to rock in a few places. We arrive at Shira Camp at 3:20 to a huge group of singing porters. It is really moving to hear them signing. I ask August what he words are saying and he say "You look smart". I would love to find the words to the songs they sing on the mountain. There is one funny guy who comes running from over where they are setting up tents. He jumps to the front the group of porters and starts dancing wildly. We will see him again at the end of our trek - he's the one who gets everyone to dance. They sing about 4 songs before stopping to get our bags and carry them to our tents. The Shira Camp is large and tents are more spread out than at Machame. They have chairs set up by our tents so that we don't have to manuever around in our tents - we can sit in the chairs to sort and unpack. It is very dusty on the plateau but incredibly majestic. The harshness of the barren rocky surface is dotted with a few sparse trees. Below us rest the clouds and it feels as if we are floating on them. In the distance behind our camp, the peak of Kili looms. It is beautiful and ominous, covered on one side with a glacier that is clearly melting away. Our guide says it used to snow a lot more on the mountain than it does now. Its hard to believe we will be at the top in just a few more days.
Some clouds move in as John and I are sitting outside the tent and the camp is quickly engulfed. It turns cold in an instant. We are at 12,500 feet and the weather can change in no time at all. It will definitely be colder tonight. The clouds move in and out all afternoon making it difficult to figure out clothing - too hot, too cold, too hot.
The second group arrive 30 minutes or so after us. Nan and Doug were in this group. Nan pushed her pace because some of the conversation in the group she was with was upsetting her. She had really pushed herself and she was physically and emotionally spent coming in to camp. I walked up and gave her a hug and was overwhelmed with emotion. It really surprised me. The two of us just stood there with tears in our eyes. Its really pretty amazing this group of special people. Nan is doing amazing. She is so strong and determined. I know she will make it to the top.
Lori and her Dad, who is 79, were the last two arrive in camp with three guides at about 5:30. The guides were signing to them as they walked it and it was very emotional again. They are such an adorable pair. It makes me wish my Dad was still alive. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have done something like this but you never know. Anyway, it made me really miss him. Lori really is a special lady for organizing this trip and matching up the pairs.
About 6:00 we had tea and popcorn in the blue tent. I sat around with Connie, Ben (soon to be known as Eye Candy), Monique and Sierra. We have a meeting at 7 before dinner to talk about Acute Mountain Sickness. I guess this is the altitude where we first start to see symptoms. Eric covers the basic symptoms of AMS - nausea, headache, vomiting, disorientation, swelling. A few people have headaches now and are instructed to take Excedrin. Monique has a terrible headache and you can see it on her face. She is concerned at having a headache at this point that she's not going to feel well enough to summit. We have another stellar dinner. Ginger soup with roll and butter, coconut rice with beef, greens and mixed veggies. A few minutes after the soup is delivered Monique's headache improves. I can see the change in her face. I wonder if it is the ginger in the soup. Since I am a bit of a food nut I notice along the trail that they are feeding us things that should help us - greens almost every day (these boost red blood cell production), lots of ginger in various things (this helps nauseau), soup every day (gets more liquids in the body), porridge for breakfast everyday (slow burning complex carbs help with energy throughout the morning climbs), raisins in a number of the dishes (these have iron and also help blood cell production).
John and I are feeling great. Nan asked if we would walk with them tomorrow. We decide to walk with the slower group for part of the day so that we can have a chance to meet and talk to more of the group. Tomorrow is the longest day. We will walk with Lori's group in the morning and then after a couple of breaks we will go on ahead with August. There is an optional climb up toward Lava Tower for an additional 500 feet of elevation gain which we want to do and make sure we don't get in to camp after dark. Eric says it will be an 8-12 hour day depending on pace.
It is quite cold now and it takes a few minutes for me to get warmed up in the sleeping bag. Once I am warm though I quickly fall asleep. Day 2 comes to an end.
Wednesday, July 13th - Heading to Machame Camp
I was a little sluggish when the alarm went off at 6:15 from getting to bed so late. We finished packing, had breakfast with Monique and Sierra and brought the bags down for loading. More hurry up and wait - patience again - while we stood around waiting for the group interviews. This is a good lesson for me but I don't like it despite the fact that I know I need to learn it.
Finally we were loading up in groups of six, foolishly thinking we were headed for the mountain. We loaded with Nan, Doug, Sierra and Monique and our driver Boneface who spoke very little English.
As we are loading the trucks Lori's Dad is joking around making faces at us and giving us the finger in gest. So I decide to stick my butt up to the window and pretend to moon him. We were all laughing and asking John to give him a a "scrambled egg". Then Doug said something about a "soft boiled egg" and we all got another good laugh.
Pulling out in a caravan we headed over just one block around the corner to change money for those who arrived the night before gear check. This could probably have been handled by walking them over while some of the interviews were going on or during breakfast. Oh well - more patience. Since none of us needed to change money in our car we were thinking we would go on to the mountain. Its probably good that we didn't though since it turned out our guy didn't really seem to know where he was going. Our cars were assaulted by street vendors as we pulled up to the change bureau. Our guy ended up driving around the block about six times. There was a guy selling flags who had picked out Sierra - her smile seems to attract these vendors. Every time we circled around he zoomed in on her window. We all started laughing and joking about it. It was really hilarious. Finally she asked Monique to change seats with her and it stopped. Our driver finally turned and started heading down the road toward Kili. We were excited but it was premature.
I was riding in the front next to him to avoid getting car sick but my seat didn't have a seat belt - his did. We are riding along on the two lane road and he is talking on the cell phone, 2 vans are passing in our lane coming straight at us and there is a tree just to my left. My life flashes before my eyes and we all get a good laugh after we survive squeezing by the tree by the skin of our teeth without getting hit. Our driver seems unfazed. He is still talking on the phone. We continue down the road a bit to a gas station where we stop and wait some more with no communication from our driver. Its starting to give me the creeps. Finally, we connect up with Eric's van. They were still behind us at the change bureau. He has caught up from this change bureau fiasco after deciding to make the rest of the change himself at the mountain. I hear him tell Ben that the change bureau was a mistake. We head back down the bumpy road to Kili. After about 30 minutes we stop again and the Rotterdam market so that the rest of the cars can catch up and we can have a bathroom break. This is the first place we go that there is only a hole in the floor no toilet seat. Interesting. You have to really stand back when you flush it or water splashes up all over the bottom of your pants. Fortunately someone had warned me in advance of this issue and I managed to escape with dry feet and legs.
Back on the road after 30 minutes.........
There is a lot of farming along the roadside. Quite a bit of corn, some sunflowers (for the oil), lettuces in a small home garden, a greenhouse operation of some sort, cows, motorcycle bars, lots more corn (could be Iowa), a few sheep, charcoal for sale, tall ant hills - 2-3 feet tall from the red soil, lots of people walking along with baskets or buckets on their heads.
Today is overcast and in the 70's. I imagine it will be a bit cool once we get to the first camp.
We are behind 2 dump trucks and about to pass in a somewhat blind curve. There is oncoming traffic but we manage to leap frog around them without getting killed. Fumes are making Monique a little sick to her stomach. Closing the window gets rid of the fumes but then it is too hot up front and I start feeling sick. So I alternate the window opened and closed the rest of the way to the trailhead. I see no sign of Eric's van but I know Ben is behind us because we passed him a while back. At last we see the turn off to Machame. We turn and sit and wait again. Later I wonder how many minutes we wasted waiting around that could have been used climbing to avoid arriving at camp after dark. Poor planning drives me nuts since my expertise is operations - the seamless flow of activity without interruption or problems. I guess they probably have no idea what pace this group is going to walk so they aren't worried about it at this point. The mountain is ahead of us but we can't see it because it is shrouded in clouds. Along the road to the the trailhead it seems that our driver is confused about where he is going. He asks several people out the window in Swahili. We have no idea what he is saying but the people on the road just shake their heads. When it seems we are close John and Sierra start strapping on their gators. They are ready to go but its still going to be a while. We think he is lost but finally we arrive at the trailhead and pour out of the truck. We are ready to go but not yet. First we have to sign the book that we are entering the trail, go to the bathroom and eat lunch which seem silly later in the day when "eat lunch" on the trail. I think then that we could have skipped the "lunch" at the trailhead. This whole process seems like it takes more than an hour but I am not looking at my watch. We are ready to go and we stop for a quick group photo. Jeff takes the picture in what will be a continuous theme of Jeff behind the camera and NOT in the photo. He sets the timer so at least he can run in to one of the shots.
We are finally taken to the trailhead and introduced to our Tanzanian guides but I can't remember any of the names at this point except Romley who is at the front. We get started at 1:00, a little behind schedule but I am not sure how much. It gets dark at about 7:20 and I don't know how many miles we are going. We are instructed to keep a slow pace - another lesson in patience. I walk along talking to Sierra about their Parkinson's practice and philosophy. I have really enjoyed Monique and Sierra so far and its only been two days. We stop after 45 minutes for our first break and I use the pee funnel for the first time on the trail to great success. Back on the trail we jumped to the front with Romley and I am having trouble keeping my pace slow enough. Its driving me a bit nuts because I don't want to get there after dark and I have trained at a much faster pace on steeper inclines at higher altitudes than where we are right now. My heart rate is below 125 and that just seems way too slow compared to my training. But I give in. I think it will be dark when we arrive if we don't pick up the pace. But I really have no idea how much training the rest of the group has done and these guys know what it takes to get up the mountain. Patience, patience, patience. I guess I am going to learn this whether I want to or not.
We keep going and miss the apparent spot for our second break. Eric catches up to us and fusses at Romley. Romley says that he's concerned about the time but Eric says that's no reason to skip the scheduled breaks. We break for a drink for a minute or 2. We arrive at the trailside lunch no too much later. I am not sure of the time but its probably been a couple of ours. There is a long dining table set right along the trail. There is a hand washing station with hot water and soap, flowers on the table (plastic) and portable toilets back at the edge of the trees. We have pineapple, oranges, mango, cookies, chips, butter and red pepper sandwiches, delicious avocado and pepper salad and hot chocolate and tea.
Eric instructs us how to use the portable toilets and we hear Suz yelling from inside one of the potty tents to speak up because she's already in there and needs to know what to do. We all laughed. We finish up early and head out with a different guide, August. Little do I know now but he will be our guide every day all the way to summit day. I think we are about 45 minutes or so ahead of the rest of the group. We are hiking with Suz, Gina, Nathan and Daniel, and Tina. Gina sings us the "scrotum song" and she is just a hoot. She is s music teacher. I can only imagine how much fun her students have with her.
It is getting pretty steep and we discover than Nathan has really overloaded his pack with 6 liters of water and lots of heavy camera equipment. No telling how much that pack weighed. He is drenched in sweat. We off load some of the water and equipment and carry on.
We are getting closer to camp as the sun is quickly dropping out of the sky. It will be dark when we arrive. I don't recommend this, especially on the first night when we really haven't gotten the hang of the whole set up. John and I forgot to pack headlamps in our daypacks so we are flying blind. Fortunately, some of the others have theirs. We climb up the last bit of steep trail right to a ranger house at Machame Camp with very steep steps. We have to sign the book using Daniel's headlamp. Once the book is signed we go out another door and down some more steeps to the camp area. We can just make out tents everywhere in the darkness but are pointed in the direction of our blue dining tent and the group of AA tents. We make our selection and the porters dig our boundary bags from the bottom of the pile and carry them to our tent. They bring us two bowls of warm water to wash up. There is dust everywhere. We fumble around in the dark and find out headlamps and the little camp lights John brought to hang inside the tents. This makes it a little better. I get my mat blown up and lay out my sleeping bag and put my extra stuff back in to the boundary bag. It is starting to get really cool now. I was my face, hands and feet in the bowl of water which is starting to get cold now. I follow instructions and put on a fresh pair of socks, find my tennis shoes.
We head to the dining tent to get warm and wait for the rest of the group and dinner. I am catching up on my journal and having a cup of Milo (like Ovaltine). We have a delicious dinner and I marvel at how they are able to assemble this kitchen on a mountainside and cook such good food. We have this wonderful green bean and carrot dish with coconut, potatoes, steak and gravy. John and I turn in about 10:30. By the time I get settled in there is already someone in the tent next to me snoring loudly. We've made it to the end of the first day!
Finally we were loading up in groups of six, foolishly thinking we were headed for the mountain. We loaded with Nan, Doug, Sierra and Monique and our driver Boneface who spoke very little English.
As we are loading the trucks Lori's Dad is joking around making faces at us and giving us the finger in gest. So I decide to stick my butt up to the window and pretend to moon him. We were all laughing and asking John to give him a a "scrambled egg". Then Doug said something about a "soft boiled egg" and we all got another good laugh.
Pulling out in a caravan we headed over just one block around the corner to change money for those who arrived the night before gear check. This could probably have been handled by walking them over while some of the interviews were going on or during breakfast. Oh well - more patience. Since none of us needed to change money in our car we were thinking we would go on to the mountain. Its probably good that we didn't though since it turned out our guy didn't really seem to know where he was going. Our cars were assaulted by street vendors as we pulled up to the change bureau. Our guy ended up driving around the block about six times. There was a guy selling flags who had picked out Sierra - her smile seems to attract these vendors. Every time we circled around he zoomed in on her window. We all started laughing and joking about it. It was really hilarious. Finally she asked Monique to change seats with her and it stopped. Our driver finally turned and started heading down the road toward Kili. We were excited but it was premature.
I was riding in the front next to him to avoid getting car sick but my seat didn't have a seat belt - his did. We are riding along on the two lane road and he is talking on the cell phone, 2 vans are passing in our lane coming straight at us and there is a tree just to my left. My life flashes before my eyes and we all get a good laugh after we survive squeezing by the tree by the skin of our teeth without getting hit. Our driver seems unfazed. He is still talking on the phone. We continue down the road a bit to a gas station where we stop and wait some more with no communication from our driver. Its starting to give me the creeps. Finally, we connect up with Eric's van. They were still behind us at the change bureau. He has caught up from this change bureau fiasco after deciding to make the rest of the change himself at the mountain. I hear him tell Ben that the change bureau was a mistake. We head back down the bumpy road to Kili. After about 30 minutes we stop again and the Rotterdam market so that the rest of the cars can catch up and we can have a bathroom break. This is the first place we go that there is only a hole in the floor no toilet seat. Interesting. You have to really stand back when you flush it or water splashes up all over the bottom of your pants. Fortunately someone had warned me in advance of this issue and I managed to escape with dry feet and legs.
Back on the road after 30 minutes.........
There is a lot of farming along the roadside. Quite a bit of corn, some sunflowers (for the oil), lettuces in a small home garden, a greenhouse operation of some sort, cows, motorcycle bars, lots more corn (could be Iowa), a few sheep, charcoal for sale, tall ant hills - 2-3 feet tall from the red soil, lots of people walking along with baskets or buckets on their heads.
Today is overcast and in the 70's. I imagine it will be a bit cool once we get to the first camp.
We are behind 2 dump trucks and about to pass in a somewhat blind curve. There is oncoming traffic but we manage to leap frog around them without getting killed. Fumes are making Monique a little sick to her stomach. Closing the window gets rid of the fumes but then it is too hot up front and I start feeling sick. So I alternate the window opened and closed the rest of the way to the trailhead. I see no sign of Eric's van but I know Ben is behind us because we passed him a while back. At last we see the turn off to Machame. We turn and sit and wait again. Later I wonder how many minutes we wasted waiting around that could have been used climbing to avoid arriving at camp after dark. Poor planning drives me nuts since my expertise is operations - the seamless flow of activity without interruption or problems. I guess they probably have no idea what pace this group is going to walk so they aren't worried about it at this point. The mountain is ahead of us but we can't see it because it is shrouded in clouds. Along the road to the the trailhead it seems that our driver is confused about where he is going. He asks several people out the window in Swahili. We have no idea what he is saying but the people on the road just shake their heads. When it seems we are close John and Sierra start strapping on their gators. They are ready to go but its still going to be a while. We think he is lost but finally we arrive at the trailhead and pour out of the truck. We are ready to go but not yet. First we have to sign the book that we are entering the trail, go to the bathroom and eat lunch which seem silly later in the day when "eat lunch" on the trail. I think then that we could have skipped the "lunch" at the trailhead. This whole process seems like it takes more than an hour but I am not looking at my watch. We are ready to go and we stop for a quick group photo. Jeff takes the picture in what will be a continuous theme of Jeff behind the camera and NOT in the photo. He sets the timer so at least he can run in to one of the shots.
We are finally taken to the trailhead and introduced to our Tanzanian guides but I can't remember any of the names at this point except Romley who is at the front. We get started at 1:00, a little behind schedule but I am not sure how much. It gets dark at about 7:20 and I don't know how many miles we are going. We are instructed to keep a slow pace - another lesson in patience. I walk along talking to Sierra about their Parkinson's practice and philosophy. I have really enjoyed Monique and Sierra so far and its only been two days. We stop after 45 minutes for our first break and I use the pee funnel for the first time on the trail to great success. Back on the trail we jumped to the front with Romley and I am having trouble keeping my pace slow enough. Its driving me a bit nuts because I don't want to get there after dark and I have trained at a much faster pace on steeper inclines at higher altitudes than where we are right now. My heart rate is below 125 and that just seems way too slow compared to my training. But I give in. I think it will be dark when we arrive if we don't pick up the pace. But I really have no idea how much training the rest of the group has done and these guys know what it takes to get up the mountain. Patience, patience, patience. I guess I am going to learn this whether I want to or not.
We keep going and miss the apparent spot for our second break. Eric catches up to us and fusses at Romley. Romley says that he's concerned about the time but Eric says that's no reason to skip the scheduled breaks. We break for a drink for a minute or 2. We arrive at the trailside lunch no too much later. I am not sure of the time but its probably been a couple of ours. There is a long dining table set right along the trail. There is a hand washing station with hot water and soap, flowers on the table (plastic) and portable toilets back at the edge of the trees. We have pineapple, oranges, mango, cookies, chips, butter and red pepper sandwiches, delicious avocado and pepper salad and hot chocolate and tea.
Eric instructs us how to use the portable toilets and we hear Suz yelling from inside one of the potty tents to speak up because she's already in there and needs to know what to do. We all laughed. We finish up early and head out with a different guide, August. Little do I know now but he will be our guide every day all the way to summit day. I think we are about 45 minutes or so ahead of the rest of the group. We are hiking with Suz, Gina, Nathan and Daniel, and Tina. Gina sings us the "scrotum song" and she is just a hoot. She is s music teacher. I can only imagine how much fun her students have with her.
It is getting pretty steep and we discover than Nathan has really overloaded his pack with 6 liters of water and lots of heavy camera equipment. No telling how much that pack weighed. He is drenched in sweat. We off load some of the water and equipment and carry on.
We are getting closer to camp as the sun is quickly dropping out of the sky. It will be dark when we arrive. I don't recommend this, especially on the first night when we really haven't gotten the hang of the whole set up. John and I forgot to pack headlamps in our daypacks so we are flying blind. Fortunately, some of the others have theirs. We climb up the last bit of steep trail right to a ranger house at Machame Camp with very steep steps. We have to sign the book using Daniel's headlamp. Once the book is signed we go out another door and down some more steeps to the camp area. We can just make out tents everywhere in the darkness but are pointed in the direction of our blue dining tent and the group of AA tents. We make our selection and the porters dig our boundary bags from the bottom of the pile and carry them to our tent. They bring us two bowls of warm water to wash up. There is dust everywhere. We fumble around in the dark and find out headlamps and the little camp lights John brought to hang inside the tents. This makes it a little better. I get my mat blown up and lay out my sleeping bag and put my extra stuff back in to the boundary bag. It is starting to get really cool now. I was my face, hands and feet in the bowl of water which is starting to get cold now. I follow instructions and put on a fresh pair of socks, find my tennis shoes.
We head to the dining tent to get warm and wait for the rest of the group and dinner. I am catching up on my journal and having a cup of Milo (like Ovaltine). We have a delicious dinner and I marvel at how they are able to assemble this kitchen on a mountainside and cook such good food. We have this wonderful green bean and carrot dish with coconut, potatoes, steak and gravy. John and I turn in about 10:30. By the time I get settled in there is already someone in the tent next to me snoring loudly. We've made it to the end of the first day!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - Gearing Up for the Climb
Great nights sleep and feeling rested now. It was a good idea to come in a day ahead of everyone else and make sure we got over the jet lag. Doug has caught a cold from someone on the airplane and I am worried about him, for his own sake and for the possibility of transmitting it to the other climbers. I have started taking loads of Emergency and my Coptis Chinesis to make sure I don't get it. Any respiratory distress will make it much more difficult to reach the summit.
We start orientation at 9:15am. It will be a busy day. While waiting Mickey Babcock and her climbing partner Susie Weber and were talking about how to keep our nasal passages moist in the dry climate. Mickey suggested that we might use the pee funnel as a Neti Pot for salt water! We all got a good laugh out of that. Who knew it could be so useful.
Sierra went to the pharmacy - Mona's - and got Doug some medicine. He is resting in his room during the first part of the orientation. Hope he feels better soon.
Nathan Henwood, one of the climbers with PD, has a Spot and will track our progress on the mountain. The website is . Search under Henwood and you can find the trip.
Our lead guide is Eric Murphy. He's been with Alpine for 11 years and done 30 Kili climbs. He has a degree in Fine Arts, lives on Widby Island, WA and also has a winery. Our second guide is Ben Jones. He's been with Alpine 4 years, been a mountain guide for 9 years. He is from Wyoming. He lives in Jackson, WY.
They go over tipping, basics of the trip, leaving no impact, food, snacks, sunscreen, etc. And then we learn about "self care". This is critical on the mountain. Make sure you have proper hydration - about 4 liters a day of water. Pace yourself at a pace that you can essentially walk all day - that means don't blast out of the gate and run out of juice. This is an endurance challenge not a sprint. Eat foods that are easy to digest - the digestive track slows down at high altitude to give more energy to the respiratory system. Eat complex carbs in the evening. Keep covered up with sunscreen and lipscreen. There is a lot of dust, cover your nose to avoid breathing in a lot of dust. Take care of your feet each day. Wash your feet and put on fresh pair of sock each day when you get in to camp after hiking. Treat your hot spots early.
After this run down we go to the hotel buffet for lunch before heading back to the conference room with our gear for the gear check. I didn't realize we were going to have unpack our boundary bags for inspection. I guess they've had too many times where people didn't bring the gear they were told to bring. I find this unsettling because I have everything perfectly packed in airtight bags. We start at 1:15 and it looks to be a long time before John and I get checked. This is my first lesson in patience - there will be many on this trip. Eric finally checks John's gear at 2:45. The whole thing seems rather chaotic. After this we did a lot of standing around while they went through the "med" check since this group is on a lot of meds and the side affects can be similar to AMS ( acute mountain sickness). In retrospect, they should have sent the rest of the folks to get change while this was going on so we would not have to stop on the way to the mountain tomorrow. We also have various interviews with the documentary crew while this is going on. John and I get interviewed as a couple. I hope he doesn't end up on the cutting room floor like he did for the news cast in Iowa - no shaking sometimes gets you on the cutting room floor because nobody thinks you have anything wrong with you.
We finally finished the gear check and repack around 4:30. I felt a lot more comfortable with my packing from home and really wish we hadn't done this. While we were standing around during the med check we got a chance to meet more of the folks who came in the night before. I met Sean, from Portland/Hood River, OR who has MS. He's got a great attitude. His wife left him about a year after he was diagnosed despite the fact that he had stayed with her through cancer and several other "trials". You just never know about a person until the going gets tough. He has a 7 year old daughter. I really enjoyed talking to him.
We really hit it off with Tina from Wisconsin, companion climber for Inez from Spain. She another ball of fire and was our dinner companion at Pepe's. Dinner was altogether another fiasco. Logistically speaking its a bad idea to take 30 people to a restaurant and let them order a la carte off a menu with 50 or more items. Its impossible to do this and get out in any reasonable amount of time. I know this from my 5 years as a waitress over 25 years ago. Seems simple and logical but I guess not. We had two entertainers while we were waiting for our food. They did some dancing, limbo and fire eating. We sat at the end of the table with Tina, Inez and Stephanie. Lori asked if any of us wanted to say something on the evening broadcast. Stephanie said her family would probably not be following her. That really bothered me for her. She didn't seem to mind but I minded for her. She teaches Pilates and is working toward a PHD in PT. Dinner took forever and we became increasingly frustrated. I asked Lori first and then Ben if we could just take a cab back and go to bed but they wouldn't make the call without Eric. He was deep in conversation and every time I went to stand by him to ask he ignored me. I don't like being ignored so that was only increasing my aggravation. Another lesson in patience I guess. At this point I was pretty angry and went back down to the end of the table. I closed my eyes and put my hands together in an attempt to calm myself with "yoga breathe". Tina turned to John and said, "What's see doing? Is she praying?" I opened my eyes and told her I was trying to calm myself down because normally in this situation I would turn in to super bitch and I didn't want to do that in front of this new group of people - trying to show my best behavior.
Finally dinner arrived and it was awful. Inez, Tina and Stephanie had all ordered the fish and it was terrible. I ordered pasta which is hard to ruin so I shared with them because I was beyond being hungry. We finally got back to the hotel for final packing, checkout and valuables storage - another poorly planned activity. John and I checked out just as we walked in the door and got that out of the way quickly. I can's say valuables checkin was the same. I waited at least 40 minutes before giving up and deciding to take all our valuables to the mountain with us. So I basically packed my money belt in the bottom of my backpack since it wouldn't be far from me on the mountain. Another lesson in patience. Wonder how many there are going to be on this trip.
Meanwhile back at the room.......
I was checking my clothes for the next day and couldn't find my long john top for the next day that I was supposed to have in my backpack. I proceeded to unpack and repack my safari bag 3 times and everything in my boundary bag once before giving up. By this time it was 11:30, way past when I wanted to get to bed. I finally climbed in to bed. Just after turning out the light and relaxing I remembered where I put it. It was stuffed in the hood of my orange Patagonia rain jacket. I was so wound up at this point that it took me another 30 minutes to fall asleep.
We start orientation at 9:15am. It will be a busy day. While waiting Mickey Babcock and her climbing partner Susie Weber and were talking about how to keep our nasal passages moist in the dry climate. Mickey suggested that we might use the pee funnel as a Neti Pot for salt water! We all got a good laugh out of that. Who knew it could be so useful.
Sierra went to the pharmacy - Mona's - and got Doug some medicine. He is resting in his room during the first part of the orientation. Hope he feels better soon.
Nathan Henwood, one of the climbers with PD, has a Spot and will track our progress on the mountain. The website is . Search under Henwood and you can find the trip.
Our lead guide is Eric Murphy. He's been with Alpine for 11 years and done 30 Kili climbs. He has a degree in Fine Arts, lives on Widby Island, WA and also has a winery. Our second guide is Ben Jones. He's been with Alpine 4 years, been a mountain guide for 9 years. He is from Wyoming. He lives in Jackson, WY.
They go over tipping, basics of the trip, leaving no impact, food, snacks, sunscreen, etc. And then we learn about "self care". This is critical on the mountain. Make sure you have proper hydration - about 4 liters a day of water. Pace yourself at a pace that you can essentially walk all day - that means don't blast out of the gate and run out of juice. This is an endurance challenge not a sprint. Eat foods that are easy to digest - the digestive track slows down at high altitude to give more energy to the respiratory system. Eat complex carbs in the evening. Keep covered up with sunscreen and lipscreen. There is a lot of dust, cover your nose to avoid breathing in a lot of dust. Take care of your feet each day. Wash your feet and put on fresh pair of sock each day when you get in to camp after hiking. Treat your hot spots early.
After this run down we go to the hotel buffet for lunch before heading back to the conference room with our gear for the gear check. I didn't realize we were going to have unpack our boundary bags for inspection. I guess they've had too many times where people didn't bring the gear they were told to bring. I find this unsettling because I have everything perfectly packed in airtight bags. We start at 1:15 and it looks to be a long time before John and I get checked. This is my first lesson in patience - there will be many on this trip. Eric finally checks John's gear at 2:45. The whole thing seems rather chaotic. After this we did a lot of standing around while they went through the "med" check since this group is on a lot of meds and the side affects can be similar to AMS ( acute mountain sickness). In retrospect, they should have sent the rest of the folks to get change while this was going on so we would not have to stop on the way to the mountain tomorrow. We also have various interviews with the documentary crew while this is going on. John and I get interviewed as a couple. I hope he doesn't end up on the cutting room floor like he did for the news cast in Iowa - no shaking sometimes gets you on the cutting room floor because nobody thinks you have anything wrong with you.
We finally finished the gear check and repack around 4:30. I felt a lot more comfortable with my packing from home and really wish we hadn't done this. While we were standing around during the med check we got a chance to meet more of the folks who came in the night before. I met Sean, from Portland/Hood River, OR who has MS. He's got a great attitude. His wife left him about a year after he was diagnosed despite the fact that he had stayed with her through cancer and several other "trials". You just never know about a person until the going gets tough. He has a 7 year old daughter. I really enjoyed talking to him.
We really hit it off with Tina from Wisconsin, companion climber for Inez from Spain. She another ball of fire and was our dinner companion at Pepe's. Dinner was altogether another fiasco. Logistically speaking its a bad idea to take 30 people to a restaurant and let them order a la carte off a menu with 50 or more items. Its impossible to do this and get out in any reasonable amount of time. I know this from my 5 years as a waitress over 25 years ago. Seems simple and logical but I guess not. We had two entertainers while we were waiting for our food. They did some dancing, limbo and fire eating. We sat at the end of the table with Tina, Inez and Stephanie. Lori asked if any of us wanted to say something on the evening broadcast. Stephanie said her family would probably not be following her. That really bothered me for her. She didn't seem to mind but I minded for her. She teaches Pilates and is working toward a PHD in PT. Dinner took forever and we became increasingly frustrated. I asked Lori first and then Ben if we could just take a cab back and go to bed but they wouldn't make the call without Eric. He was deep in conversation and every time I went to stand by him to ask he ignored me. I don't like being ignored so that was only increasing my aggravation. Another lesson in patience I guess. At this point I was pretty angry and went back down to the end of the table. I closed my eyes and put my hands together in an attempt to calm myself with "yoga breathe". Tina turned to John and said, "What's see doing? Is she praying?" I opened my eyes and told her I was trying to calm myself down because normally in this situation I would turn in to super bitch and I didn't want to do that in front of this new group of people - trying to show my best behavior.
Finally dinner arrived and it was awful. Inez, Tina and Stephanie had all ordered the fish and it was terrible. I ordered pasta which is hard to ruin so I shared with them because I was beyond being hungry. We finally got back to the hotel for final packing, checkout and valuables storage - another poorly planned activity. John and I checked out just as we walked in the door and got that out of the way quickly. I can's say valuables checkin was the same. I waited at least 40 minutes before giving up and deciding to take all our valuables to the mountain with us. So I basically packed my money belt in the bottom of my backpack since it wouldn't be far from me on the mountain. Another lesson in patience. Wonder how many there are going to be on this trip.
Meanwhile back at the room.......
I was checking my clothes for the next day and couldn't find my long john top for the next day that I was supposed to have in my backpack. I proceeded to unpack and repack my safari bag 3 times and everything in my boundary bag once before giving up. By this time it was 11:30, way past when I wanted to get to bed. I finally climbed in to bed. Just after turning out the light and relaxing I remembered where I put it. It was stuffed in the hood of my orange Patagonia rain jacket. I was so wound up at this point that it took me another 30 minutes to fall asleep.
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