The Story, Part 2

Okay, where were we?

Dad stands out a little as we're prepping for the climb.

Right. We were here.Waiting at Machame gate to get started up the mountain. Realizing that turning around and quitting simply wasn't an option, I took a deep breath and started up the mountain. The scenery looked like this:

African rain forest

I realize now that it took quite a bit of gumption to get started but 30 minutes or so in to the hike, I was enjoying myself immensely. Again, some parts from my journal:

Day 1 on the Mountain

Bottom of the Mountain

Frank was our guide today and I have to say I LOVED the hike. It was gorgeous! Through lush beautiful rain forest and up lovely mountain trails- steep at times but still gorgeous. The views were INCREDIBLE. The trail led pretty much straight up the mountain so often there were these huge drop-offs that overlooked dense rain forest and beautiful wildflowers. 

Amazing leaves on trees

The path was well kept and muddy. We went for about 7 hours today but I could've gone longer. I felt great. Maybe it was because we were at such a low altitude. It was cool and overcast- not hot at all. the air seemed drenched and the humidity felt great because it wasn't coupled with stifling heat. I took  deep breaths as we went and enjoyed the African rain forest. Frank pointed out beautiful flowers and bird calls.

Beautiful flowers

I really like Frank, he is very good-natured and funny. We discovered that he used to lead hunting expeditions but left that work because it was far too dangerous. He likes being a guide and has been to the top over 50 times. He's in his late thirties and has a deep kind voice. Something happened to his right eye because his pupil is damaged and clouded over. He taught me Swahili as we walked. Frank is married to Beatrice and they have a 10-month named Faith. His face brightens when he speaks of them. Faith has malaria right now and I get the impression that it isn't very uncommon here. He said she's doing okay now though and isn't worried. 

Hiking with Frank. He's actually taller and bigger than me, I don't know why I look like a giant in this picture. 

We got to camp tonight around 5:00 and had hot chocolate and dinner. I'm surprised how cold it is when you stop moving. The nights are very chilly and the fact that we're climbing higher and higher means that they'll just get colder. I'm so cold that I'm going to be early. We need to be up and ready tomorrow at 6 so the earlier the better. Frank keeps encouraging us to drink as much as well can to stay hydrated but I must admit that the idea of getting out of the tent to take care of business doesn't seem like a very attractive prospect when it's so cold. And if its this cold right now, I don't want to even think of summit day. Tomorrow we will be getting in to the African moorland, which is full of heather plants. Sifuel says tomorrow will be pretty hard and very very steep. 

Day 2 on the Mountain

Woke up early this morning to find Dad already up and rummaging around. We got up and dressed, packed our bags,  then went to eat breakfast. We got started around 6:30. We took a slow pace, which I was grateful for because today was really steep and difficult. 

Dad with the heather fields

The moorland is rugged and barren, nothing like the beauty of the rain forest. I didn't love today nearly as much as yesterday, although it wasn't terrible. It was 4 hours straight up essentially. Dad loved it, he chattered away happily. When I'm uncomfortable or tired, I clam up and keep to myself. Dad talks more. "Oh, how beautiful all this is! This rugged beauty! I am loving today! It's so like a metaphor for life! Hard, but you make it through!" And on and on. I couldn't help but laugh out loud a few times, he was so cheerful and I was so... not. Some parts had some beautiful vistas but most of the time I was focused on getting up, not so much turning around and looking at where we'd come from. 

Hiking above the clouds over huge boulders.

I started counting my steps in sets of 8. "One, two, three, four..." and so on. Helped me get my mind off of the incline. When I felt like I wanted to stop, I'd force myself to finish the set. Usually at that point, I decided to do one more... and one more... and then I was at the top of a huge hill. It seemed, however, than every time we got to the top of one cliff, we could see 8 more looming above us. We scaled this rock face and wound our way around this cliff when it started to rain. Cold, wet, and tired I wasn't in the best mood when we finally got to camp, though I don't think many noticed. I'm usually pretty good at keeping that in check, I just get really quiet.

Reading back at camp, trying to get warm.

I had a little bit of a headache due to the drastic change in altitude ( we went up to 13,000 feet today... Timp is about 11,750) so I read my book while I warmed up then took a nap. Felt immensely better. General made us this amazing carrot and ginger soup. It was so good. It's colder at this camp for sure and there are these huge crows everywhere you go with white bellies that caw every three seconds. Kind of want to strangle some of them, what an annoying bird. We are hiking close to a group of 33 Scottish kids that are hiking for charity. They're all about my name. I like talking to them and mimicking their accents. One girl told me a bunch of them were already down with altitude sickness which was humbling. So far I've been feeling okay. She said she had a really sore throat. I asked her if she had any lozenges and she said no. I found some in my bag and asked another girl to give them to her because I couldn't find her. Hope she gets them. We've got to help each other up this mountain, I'm sure of it. 

I've been sleeping well. Dad hasn't been as much. When it was time for dinner, neither of us were very hungry but Sifuel says that the altitude can affect your appetite and they we need to force ourselves to eat, which we did. General made us another kind of soup with dinner that was a pumpkin something or other and it was amazing. I think anything would taste amazing after today's hike but seriously, General makes the best soup I've ever had. Tonights was some sort of pumpkin base and it tasted like Thanksgiving. 

Day 3 on the Mountain

Here we are at the Barangu Camp. It's pouring rain outside. Dad isn't feeling so hot- the altitude jump today triggered a migraine so he is trying to sleep in the tent. I'm sitting in the mess tent. He says he's doing okay, he took some of his migraine meds. Poor Sifuel and Frank have no idea what a migraine is and they think he has altitude sickness but that's not what it is. He was doing great until we got to Lava Rock, which is about 16,000 feet. That's ridiculously high. Over 15,000 is considered extreme altitude and very dangerous and we're going well above that in the next few days.

Sunrise over Kilimanjaro

We got up this morning at 6:00 AM. Today we hiked with Sifuel and got to know him better. He's married to Api and has 4 kids. Vivian is 16 and she's actually his brother's daughter that he adopted. Gidness is 14 and is his Uncle's son that he also adopted. His younger two Gregory (5) and Gresha (3) are his biological children. He has funny stories about them. Sifuel is a good man. I think he connects more with Dad because they like to talk. I like hiking with Frank because I like to think while hiking and he does too. Sifuel used to work search and rescue on the mountain so he's really well versed in the symptoms of acute mountain sickness and cerebral edema, which are both super dangerous and happen quite often up here. He'll catch anything before it gets too severe and will arrange any emergency evacuations. It is comforting to have him has a guide. He said that once he made it from the Machame gate (where we started) to the base camp (3 miles form the top of Kili) in only 8 hours when he was on a rescue mission. That is intense. That kind of ascent would kill me because I'm not acclimatized to the altitude like he is and he was essentially sprinting. We've got to take it slow and weave our way around the mountain instead of taking a straight shot so that our brains don't swell and our lungs don't burst. Sifuel is pretty hard core. He grew up in Moshi, which is a city on Kilimanjaro so he is used to the altitude. 

Dad, Sifuel, and me

Today's hike was great. I felt just fine the whole time. We rose steadily 3,000 feet and I barely noticed the change in altitude. I just danced my way up the mountain as I listened to my iPod. We got to Lava Tower (a huge rock) and I started to notice how hard I was breathing. I still felt okay but I could tell the air was thinner. Sifuel said this is where most start to feel really sick.

Looking up at Lava Tower

We stayed up on top of there for 15 minutes or so and then started back down to sleep at a lower altitude to acclimatize. We went downhill (very steep) for nearly 2 hours to get to camp. I hate downhill. My lungs relax but it is hard on my knees and muscles. The terrain today was fascinating. Weird looking. It looked like we were on some other planet- I've never seen these plants and flowers before in my life. They are really pretty though. 

Incredible scenery unlike any I've ever seen.

Camp is situated in Kili's shadow. The daunting and intimidating task of climbing the steep and perilous looking barranco wall hangs over us. I can see it from camp and we'll tackle it first thing tomorrow morning. When we got here, it was a bit chilly but it was clear and the sun was out. Now all of camp is enveloped in a thick cold cloud. The fog makes it so you can't see very far in front of you and the rain is pounding on the tent. There are these white-necked ravens everywhere and quite honestly I want to strangle each and every one of them. Their screeching is extremely obnoxious. I love hearing the Swahili chatter everywhere though. Africans are loud and social people. They laugh and call to each other until well into the night and I love it. I'm grateful I brought earplugs though. I can't help but adore these people. Kind, polite, very gracious... they remind me so much of Moses and William, my Nigerian friends in Italy.

Gordie (one of our support team) just came in and played around with my digital camera. He kept taking pictures of me, but sometimes would only capture half of my face, unsure as to how to hold the camera. He's never used one before. This is only his 4th time up Kilimanjaro so he's fairly new to the business. His English is... well, lets just say his efforts are heroic. He's probably about my age, maybe a little younger. He brought me popcorn and wanted to know what I was reading. He studied the cover for a while and then said "You is good book." Thanks Gordie. 

The product of Gordie's photography skills 

I want to learn Swahili. It is such an interesting language. Dad tries to learn it but struggles to remember phrases well sometimes. He's getting better. "Jambo" means "hello" and he kept calling out "jamba!" today to passers-by. I kept saying, "Dad, jamba is a juice, not a greeting." He's not a complainer so I don't really know how bad his migraine is but I hope it passes soon. 

More to come!!