Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Thankfully I woke to feel loads better and my guts had settled down alot, and the fact that my tent buddy Monika is a neurologist with a first aid kit with "the good stuff" in it did wonders. We were woken at 5am by the porters with a steaming cup of coca tea for the altitude and a small basin of water to wash our hands and faces.
Amazingly, breakfast was pancakes, toast, fresh tropical fruit and hot chocolates - all carried by the porters! We set off at a slow pace, with our guide Edwin hanging at the back to help the stragglers to get up 4200m. I'd like to use my night of explosions as an excuse for being one of those stragglers but I don't think anyone's gonna buy it...I'm just terribly unfit. So Monika (my German compadre), Edwin and myself hung at the back and slowly climbed the mountain with loads of breaks, which we used to take the piss out of each other and whack each other with our poles. Even though it was exhausting, I had so much fun with those two, and was more out of breath than ever from the laughing. It took 5 hours of continuous steps and hills to get to the top, and you could see the summit which looked so close, but was still so far away. Closer to the top the air was so thin we'd take 4 steps and then have to gasp for breath. Finally we made it, with Edwin cheering us on like the smug b***** he is (he can reach the top from our camp in 37 minutes).
Next up, we had a 3 hour descent to our campsite. The stairs were extremely steep rocks at times and so we had to take it very slowly, which was hard when the porters were running past you taking 3 steps at a time! We reached our campsite in time for an icy cold shower and another fan bloody tastic dinner made by our chef.
- comments