What goes up must come down!

 

First the health update! I wish I could say that I'm having miracle cures but I'm not, but progress is being made and I actually feel somewhat normal this morning. First when I looked at my toes I was shocked. While one of them is still very discolored and looks very ugly, the other one actually looks almost normal. Except I'm sure upon closer inspection, I would find that the entire nailbed is almost disconnected. I do not care. Progress is progress. It looks normal!!!

Perhaps the salt baths are working. I say that as I'm taking my last salt bath - at least at this hotel. Then there are the bruises. The one on my face is receding quite nicely, and soon, no one will know there was an incident. The one on the hip is going to take a while to go away. 

And can you believe that my lungs and sinus seem to be almost clear this morning? How can that be? But I'll take it. So I am on the mend and that is a good thing, but my energy level just isn't where it would normally be, but hey --- that's part of my new philosopy - pole pole!!!!

Oh --- I"m not out of the woods yet --- the roof of my mouth in one spot is still quite sensitive from those darn candies that I needed to get rid of the tickle, and where the heck are all these little bugs that are biting my legs. YES --- I should have been using my insect repellant, but I have not felt or seen one bug. That happened here in Zanzabar. Oh well, I have AfterBite and all is progressing nicely. 

By the time I am ready to come home, I'll be cured!!! Of course, we may have to row our way across the Atlantic considering our airline is on strike!! We're waiting a few days before we make any moves on that. 

So health is progressing and all is good. 

I better document the descent from the mountain before I forget that. Since it was the worst part of the trip, how will I ever forget that?

Once we were ready to descend, whoever was ready could go. We were led down a ridge beside the one we came up. It turns out that it is sort of the go down way and there's a reason. Rather than go down the same way we came up. 

OH --- I need to thank those that left comments yesterday. I feel very moved by this trip - not sure why. DH keeps talking about property - why is that? And I want to find a missionary job!!!! 

Anyway - back to the descent. The terrain was relatively steep, but not unbearable. But the surface? It was about 6 inches or more of deep gravel/sand. That made it very slippery --- well, not slippery per se but very fluid. The one young man who was very ill and his mother started off with one guide and I was behind them. The best way to get down was to pretend you were on skiies and just sloosh one foot forward and then the other. Sideways worked really well. I tried to keep up with them, but the pace was relentless and I fell behind. That's OK. More on the moms descent tomorrow.

Thecrest of us at one point were close together as I had slowed down. I needed to go more slowly for fear of wiping out. It sounds super easy, but I don't know why I was struggling. Kyle, the sick one was flying down the mountain and I called it a miracle cure until we got back to camp and realized he just wanted down the mountain and took the extra effort to make that happpen. Whatever works. This is his second horrible time with High altitude and if he ever does it again, well, he's an idiot. 

It was one of those situations where you needed to go with the flow. You were going to slide and you needed to embrace it. Since I must have almost fallen a couple of times, I got apprehensive and then was scared to go fast. I wasn't carrying much so weight wasn't an issue and breathing was better every foot you descended. 

Athough let me stop and say a little bit about breathing. If any of us attempted that climb without the guide we would have been breathless from the first step. And we would have been pushing ourselves to go FAST. To quickly scramble over rocks and end up stopping huffing and puffing many times along the way. 

I did NOT once have to stop and huff and puff along any of the climbs. Not once! Why? Pole Pole!!!! Slow and steady wins the race. I was astounded! Can you believe I climbed that mountain and not once was out of breath in a breathless way? Unbelieveable. WE could all learn something from that. 

Anyway, back to the descent. SEe, I don't even want to talk about it!! At one point, there were four of us and three guides. One of the other older ladies was also struggling with this terrain and so one of the guides took her by the arm and was helping her descend. Two of our guys were struggling along with poles. It was not fun. Then we lost the two people in front of us as we waited for a group to pass us. Then it was one guide (Erick) and Sam and myself. Sam was struggling with his back and we were taking it slow. 

I HATED that part of the descent. Erick tried to hold my arm to help me, but I'm a failure at that! I know -- I shouldnt be, but I struggled. So I convinced him that I would be OK on my own. I was not having any visible issues with my lungs at at this point. 

We finally made it to some more solid terrain but by this time, I think my body (legs) and my head were exhausted mentally and physically and I was just done although we were still a ways from the camp. 

About a half hour from the camp, a porter came out to grab my bag. And Erick told me I had no choice --- the porter was taking my bag. That left me with dealing with my walking sticks. And can you believe that I fell twice? AT one point, I tripped on a stick poking up and fell towards some large boulders. As i fell, I could see yhose boulders coming very close to my face. My poles braced my fall and I got a small cut on the end of my finger. 

It was like when i fell and hit my head. I saw diane looking at me and i heard her say, she hit her head. It was in slow motion.

The porter had grabbed my arms to support me. OH MY gosh --- for a skinny kid (probably in his twenties), I was NOT going anywhere. These young men are strong Of couse they need to be tocarry 20 KGs up the mountain. 

The second time, I fell spread eagle uphill on the ground. I bet Erick was just wishing we would teleport to the camp. And Sam was so patient behind us, not saying a word and just doing his thing. 

At last we arrived at camp at 11:45 AM. It was almost a 12 hour day of up and down and I was exhausted. Everyone was already in bed having their one hour nap before we had lunch and then made the decision about the rest of the day. I'll share that part of the day tomorrow. 

I can't say enough about these guides and porters (and the chefs). They are amazing people and there is no way I could have done it without their help. wait --- may be yes, but I'd still be climbing. Let's say, I was never so happy to be in my tent

We didnt have any real plans for yesterday - just hanging out in Zanzibar. DH was trying to get some information from his relatives as to whether his great grandfather was buried here. No records and no one remembers. But he ended up going to visit a distant relative who lived just around the corner from the hotel. 

We did a little bit of geocaching but after two hours of walking around in the heat, I was exhausted and needed to sit down. That is NOT me. But Pole Pole!!!!

We found a nice little area to shop that wasn't such a smoozle of people trying to get us to buy. We could actually look. And then DH tries to haggle over the price of two items that each cost the equvalent of $5. Good grief -- they were worthmore than $5. And good for the people, they did not budge. I told him to go back and buy them. 

We went to the other hotel and sat on their terrace and watched the fishermen prep their boats again and we got to watch this giant cargo ship remove itself from the dock. It's a weird harbour beause there is everything and anything in it. And yet people swim in as well. Someone had suggested I soak my feet in the water.. I think the bucket with salt is just fine!

Anyway, it turns out that the ship was a bulk cargo ship used for carrying grain, minerals, or other large unpackaged items. It was fascinating to just sit there and watch the thing as it moved through the harbour. I told you--- pole pole. 

We haven't been too adventourous to go out at night, mostly because I don't feel well and not sure what the world is like here. But we went down to the park last night, which is a crazy place and the street meat was everywhere. DH had some, but I refused to eat anything on the grounds that I do NOT want any further issues. He seems to be OK. This park was just a quiet park during the day. 

We found a very happening restaurant and ate there while we watched the dark harbor. 

Back to the hotel and to bed!!! After breakfast, I have to pack up my stuff (I'm so excited) and then we are off for another travel day. We are not travelling far on any given day, but getting packed, getting the ride sorted out and then the actual travel takes time. We could walk to the terminal, but apparrently a car was arranged. 

Oh, based on some of those photos. There are wires everywhere as the buildings are all retrofitted. While everything is old, everything is connected. You want photocopies? YOu can get them. You want internet? You can get connected. But the sewing shops I passed? They still use old machines. Of course, those are the tough ones so it makes sense

And on that happy note, I'm out of here!!!!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!!