Wednesday, October 22, 2008

kili day five

The long road to the top.

After having stuffed us like fattened calves for the slaughter every day on the mountain, our crew then decided it was in our best interests to accomplish the 6 - 7 hour uphill slog by setting off with a cup of tea and two biscuits.

Not Tim Tams or Chocolate Digestives. No - Rich Tea. (You know the ones - they are always the ones left over from the Mixed Varieties pack of biscuits.)

There's no need to go into details about the climb - you've seen Lord of the Rings and Frodo and Sam's trials on Mt.Doom. Well that was a walk in the park as far as I'm concerned.


the end in sight

But reaching the top was brilliant. Amazing. Dizzying (that was the altitude.)

Taking photos was tricky as after only a minute in the biting air, the camera's battery would freeze and I would have to stick it under my arm to warm up. (I originally stuck my two spare batteries down my undies but didn't like the looks I was getting when trying to fish them out.)

The stay at the top is very brief and a quick descent was advisable. Heading down was possibly worse than going up - except for the ash-slope 'skiing' which was great fun.


heading down

Neil and I finally arrived back at base camp tired and wobbly for a one hour rest, a quick lunch and then another 3 -4 hour walk to the next camp.


I found no evidence whatsoever.

Fortunately it was a gentle downhill slope all the way and we arrived with about an hour to spare before dinner and our last camp on the mountain.

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