Reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro

 Today will be a bit of a mismash as I need to remind muself of the details of the climb, but not forget what we are doing each day!

It's already becoming a blur. First a health update. Bruises are going through their regular course of changing colors. My blackish eye is still blackish, but it's less noticeable. The other one is covered by clothing.The best news is that none of them caused any issues, so thankful for that. 

I found a 1 KG bag of candy for that throat tickle. What the heck causes that? It was so annoying and no amount of water would resolve the issues. Perhaps a case of too much in the air - too much dust, too many unusual smells? It doesn't matter -- I sucked back a few of those hard candies and now the roof of my mouth is sore, but I didn't need any candy after lunch. I shall keep some of those candies with me for the duration of the trip, but I'll be leaving the huge bag at the front desk for the next person. 

I also found a comb - at last. I just hope I can get it through my hair. The toes are bad and they won't improve on this trip. Nurse Diane recommended soaking them in warm salty water, so with the assistance of the hotel, I got a bucket and a big whack of salt and I'm soaking them as I write!! I'll keep them bandaged and just wait for the nails to regrow. Thankfully they do NOT hurt one bit. I can't feel a thing - is that good or bad?

As for the lung infection? Well, it's still there, but it's breaking up. It also moved into my sinuses. I know ---- it's like my body said - you haven't been sick in a long time and we're going to make up for lost time! Thank goodness for Erick to get me to the pharmacy to get those antibiotics and cough medicine. I am feeling better! I swear I am and each morning, the clearing out is getting easier! Lots more could go wrong, but let's hope that I'm goood and just need to recovery from the current ailments. I do not need anything new!!!!

And now onto the summit day or should I say very early morning. The distances are tricky as it was only 5 KM to the summit. 4.5 KM to Stella Point, which is the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, but not the highest peak. That was another .5 KM away. That is POINT 5, not 5. 

And thank goodness for mist because if we had of seen where we were going the night before many of may not have gotten up to attempt the climb. 

We had an early dinner (about 5 PM) and then were in bed by 6ish. We were woken up at 11 to get ready. We had a small something to eat and then we were suited up and ready to hike at midnight. The idea is to reach the summit by sunrise - more or less. 

I had three layers on the bottom - long underwear, my light hiking pants, and my wind pants. Two pair of wool socks. On top, I had my thermal underwear, a short sleeved t-shirt, a long sleeved t-shirt, a light fleece, my rain jacket and my orange down sweater from Patagonia (my favorite). I wasn't sure if that was going to be warm enough so I had rented a large down jacket, but didn't end up using it. I had a buff for my neck and DH's golf beanie since I couldn't find mine before I left. I wore my cheap dollar store gloves for the first part and then dug out my big ski mitts part way up. 

The rest of the group are NOT used to cold temperatures, but it was just fine for me. So I was bundled up, but not so much that I couldn't move. I felt the big gloves was the most cumbersome thing to wear. Here's the thing about travel clothes. They are light and they dry quickly, they do not stink and they do not wrinkle. DH needs to take a lesson. 

At one point, I second guessed if I layered correctly as I was getting cold sweat on my upper body, but it all worked out in the end. I had to take the rain jacket off at one point and then I had to put it back on. 

We weren't carrying much - only water that no one wanted to drink. It was freezing in the bottles. The wind wasn't that bad until we got close to the top, but it wasnt a serious deterrant. We climbed with head lights. Thankfully mine is rechargeable, so it's light. But at one point, it cut out. Thankfully one of the guides rescued me and got it back working again. I think she wanted my headlight becasue of the weight and I'd have happily given it to her, but the charger was back in Canada. 

We walked out onto the path and started the climb. It seemed to go on forever and the few times I managed to look up, all I could see was a string of lights that looked like a single strand of lights on a Christmas tree. In my mind, I'm thinking --- just ten more switcbacks and we'll be there. I don't think so -- it was like ten thousand more switchbacks. 

Bless those porters and guides. They do NOT pay them enough money for what they did for us. Thankfully, I was pretty self sufficient, but I needed help to get my gloves on and off and someone was there. We needed help to get the water bottle out of our backpacks, and they were there. 

Now this next part is gross but it has to be said. My nose started dripped like a fire hyrant at one point. This usually happens when I'm home in the cold, but this was like the main water main had broken. And what was dripping was freezing and well, its a good thing no cameras were around. I heard from some of the others that the porters were putting a tissue to their noses and telling them to blow. That would have helped for 5 seconds and then right back to the flood. 

My big gloves were no help in clearing the mess. But eventually it stopped and I was able to focus. As I've mentioned before, you didn't really want to stop because then you got behind and it took a lot of effort to catch up. HUFF PUFF HUFF PUFF. Incredible how the less oxygen you have, the effort it takes to do anything. 

I remmember turning over in my sleeping bag one night and absolutely out of breath from the effort. You  did only what was necessary! 

As the sun came up, and I did stop for a picture, we could see the top, but it was still far away. Don't look up, dont look down. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other! 

As mentioned before we had two young men, one extremely fit and the other was in good shape and they struggled. OH -- I should say that for this final climb, we had 4 guides, and 4 porters to help us. Each person basically had their own support person if needed. Those two men needed two support people each. Luckily I was fine on my own. Just dig those poles in and take a step. Dig those poles in and take a step. 

The one guy (the macho one) had one pole and was using it as a claw to literally drag himself up the mountain. He looks like a pilgrim on his way to Mecca after he had been beaten and starved. It was painful to watch. The guides kept a very close eye on him and kept asking him questions which he somehow managed to answer, so they kept going. 

I think at one point, he was supported on both sides by the guides/porters. The guy had such an ego/attitude, I don't think he would have given in even if the guides had ordered him to stop. 

Once we reached Stella point, we waited for the last two people to arrive. They were quite far behind at this point and David wasnt doing well either. He was also being monitored closely and apparently he was quite delusional, but still managed to answer the questions. 

The distance from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak was .5 KM, but that was a total lie! It was more than that or I was totally dilusional. It seemed to take forever, but of course - POLE POLE --- we were still climbing so the guide took us at a slow pace to ensure we all made it there. 

In total we stayed on top for about an hour as we waited and walked to the peak. Poor David was so close, but he just didnt have the strength to make it that last 100 meters. My brain would not have been able to deal with that but then if I was as sick as he was, I might havve given in. 

Did I want to give up at any point? Hundreds of times. This is hard, I can't breath properly. I'm struggling. It's just a stupid mountain. Loads of things went through my mind and then I thought -- you put yourself here. You are healthy, you are fit and you want to get to the top, so shut up and just keep putting one foot forward!!! I did NOT push myself beyond my limits. I knew this was going to be a physical and metal challenge -- no doubt about that -- you just don't realize how much. 

All I can say is that I so fortunate to not have to deal with High altitude sickness, which was a blessing. And the weather was perfect

And now a quick recap of what we did yesterday. We started by having a great breakfast on the rooftop well the top floor) of the hotel where we could overlook the Indian Ocean. Then we headed out to check out an Adventure Lab as that is a great way to see the highlights and have a good map. For some reason, I'm so good with the Geocaching map, but suck at Google maps. And YES --- this area is Google Mapped. Crazy!!!!

We started by visiting the Freddy Mercury Museum. OK --- I confess, I didn't know who he was. But it was a great place to visit and they had their songs (Queen) playing while we were there. Such a humble beginning, but he said he wanted to be great and he was. He was very talented and driven from a very young age. Queen was one of DH's favorite groups, so he was in his glory. 

Then we were onto find the Catholic Church - or at least one of them. I don't know. We can hear the call to prayers for the various regligions at the aprorpriate times - yep - including 5:30 AM. Mass was happening when we were there, so we didn't stop. Just logged the site and moved on. 

The next stop was pretty sobering. A museum dediated to the East Africa Slave "industry". That's my word. There is a Catholic Church (I hope that is right) built on the site where many slaves were brought to be sold. A very well put together exhibit and we had a tour guide to show us the main things. The conditions and the way they were treated is inhumane. You can't imagine how anyone had the will to survive. 

And the trading, especially of ivory would blow your mind. I just cannot believe how others feel they can degrade or exploit other humans. But the sad thing is that many of those slaves only knew slavery, so when they were freed, all they wanted was a slave. 

DH's geat grandfather was a trader in this area way back in the day. Thankfully, not one of the famous ones, but he was still a part of the trade. That's what they did. You can't erase history - only learn from it hopefully. 

I was exhausted by this time as it was stuffy in the building (again, mass was happening in the churh that sits on the site, so we only took a peek inside.). We were going to walk back to the hotel, but decided to take in a local restaurant - a Swahili restaurant. The food was amazing and the lady at the front was from here, but had lived n NYC for 25 years. 

If chosen carefully, there are some amazing salads, and lots of options to choose from. So far so good and that's all I'm going to say about that. 

Our hotel is not on the beach. REmember, I told DH to pick the cheapest? Well, the much more expensive hotel is on the beach, but we popped through the hotel and sat on their terrace and watched the beach goers and the boat traffic. We spent a couple of hours there and it was a lovely way to end the afternoon. We watched the fishermen prepare to go out for an overnight fishing trip, water taxis, swimmers (ICK), barges, ferries, kayaks, and gosh knows which other water craft there was. 

I'm such a klutz. I was enjoying my second sip of a wonderful spiced ice tea, when it fell out of  my hand ono the terrace and smashed. They gave me another one and I was very careful not to drop it. 

We rested up before dinner and I caught up with all my geocaching paperwork and all was good. Then off to dinner at our hotel on the rooftop. We're not super hungry, but we have to eat something and I'm a big fan of HOT black tea or coke. Depends on the meal. 

I think that's it for today. Sorry -- it seems like I've been writing forever, but as the stories of the climb come back, I'll include them. Hopefully I can tell you about the descent tomorrow. That was way worse than the ascent. Besides, my feet probaby look like two prunes after all this time!!!!

Remember to count your blessings -- so many peple have so much less than we do. Be humble, be forgiving and for heavens sake --- be kind to each other and respect each other. I get that these people I've met are in the service industry, but they are so humble.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Ciao!!!!