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Killi Climb! (Jasmines account!)
Day 1 -
Woke up really early trying to prepare ourselves for next 5 days! Met up with our group consiting of Ruth, Ellie, Tamzin and Brendan and also a woman called Leigh. Met our guide Omari who was also called Ommy :) We got onto our bus where it took us to our gate Marangu, we were all pretty scared by this point but began our walk up to Mandura huts. It took 4 hours but it was thankfully a nice walk and we were all chatting getting to know each other. We arrived and our huts were just little wooden houses with a matress.. it was freezing! Thankfully we were all feeling okay so had some dinner (the food was amazing - I was expecting bag food but we got proper cooked meals, had cucumber soup and potatoes and veg!)
Went to bed at 8.30 ready for an early start.
Day 2-
Up early, very very cold and not feeling amazing after little sleep, had porridge for breakfast, tasted like baby food but was so hungry it didnt matter. Today was a 7 hour trek up to Horombo huts and this is when I started to get ill :( The morning was amazing.. we saw wild monkeys and the sun was beautiful but as we got higher and higher I felt sicker and sicker. We got to the huts,3270M above sea level and I really didnt feel well, could eat and kept being sick even though there was nothing to be sick in me :( It was really horrible. Didnt have dinner, went to bed.
Day 3 -
Didnt sleep a wink! Very poorly and got up about 6 times in the night as ill, not looking forward to getting higer on the mountain and feeling exhausted we had a 7 hour walk again up to Kibo huts. Kibo is the base camp before the summit and it is 4703, some of the others had started to feel a bit sick now too and it was catching on. I was feeling very poorly and tonight was our summit and I was starting to get a bit worried about myself. Had a lay down for a few hours, skipped dinner as I couldnt stomach anything, Adam also starting to feel ill. We were then woken up at 11.30 PM for the summit walk.
It was the HARDEST night of my life, I would love to write about the walk up there but the only thing I remeber is feeling very sick, counting to myself alot and hallucinating small white mice. It was very very strange. We reached gilmans point after what seemed like hours at about 6am to see the sunrise, also dont remember this and have no recollection of the photos I took. I was honestly about to give up here but the rest of the group were going up so I decided I had to go up too. It was another 3 hours untill we reached the summit. It was also -25 degrees!
Day 4 -
9 AM - WE REACHED THE SUMMIT! Incredible feeling and you forget how tired, miserable and fed up you are. So so proud of ourselves and its very rare for a whole group to make it up but we ALL did it :)
The only problem was that we then had to walk all the way back down to Kibo huts, have a few hours rest then walk back to Horombo.. so another 14 ish hours of walking after no sleep.
Everyone was physically, emotionally and biologically exhauted! Ruths knee started to play up, Brendan was ridiculsouly tired and I honestly just wanted to collapse onto the floor. After about half an hour the rest of the group were going down but I felt to weak and my body was just saying no, it was really scary so I told Ommy our guide and he told me to rest for a minute and he would help me down. I sat down on a rock and literally fell asleep - NOT a good idea at altitude and I woke up to Ommy shaking me and waking me up, Brendan was also with us as another guide was helping him and he said he was really scared for me at that point! I dont remember at all! Ommy then got me down to Kibo quickly and it felt good to lay down.
Although no sleep! I decided that the beds had to be the reason I wasnt sleeping! It was scary and noone else thought they could manage another 4 hour walk back down to Horombo but we didnt have much choice:(
Arrived back at horombo in the dark! Straight to bed.
Day 5 -
Back to the hotel. Walked down from Horombo to Mandura then me Ruth and Leigh got a bus from Mandura back down to Marangu gate.
SO.. thats my recollection of the events! Honestly looking back.. I wouldnt change it, It was the hardest 5 days ever and I will NOT do anything like it again but im glad I did it and im proud we made it. I wouldnt of done it without our group though. We all had laughs, gigles and shared stories to keep us going which made it all the more beareable! AND I raised alot more money than I ever thought I would for breast cancer so THANK YOU, everyone who sponsored me, you really really helped me reach the top!
Everyone should do something like this to experience it, but I think for most people... once is enough!!
Its now the 26th and we are safely in Nairbo, yesterday we booked a flight to Mombassa so will be starting our voluntering on the 30th. We are meeting up with our climb gang tommorow to celebrate Ruths birthday :)
Hope you are all well and we will see you VERY soon! :) xxxx
- comments
Nanna and Grandad S Well done Jasmine what an adventure you have done so well, an achievement of a life time that you will never forget. Love you lots and miss you really looking forward to seeing you good luck with Mombassa X X
Aunty Manf well you've finally done it - made me cry about you being away! we are so so so proud of you. well done for keping going no matter what - you should feel so proud of yourselves! can't wait for you to be back home now. love you heaps xxxxxx
Uncle Mick Wow!!!! Jasmine & Adam you are both stars in all our eyes. Done Good Hey! Your blog brought a tear to my eye Ja. A real emotional adventure! Keep up the fun and cant wait to see how much you enjoy your volunteering. Mick XX
Julie Bishop Well done!! sooo interesting, what an experience!!! keep going and enjoy the rest of your adventure! take care, Julie (David's niece) + Dave xx
Auntie Andrea Well done Sweetheart!!!! Like I said in my email, I am so so very proud of you! & you should be proud too!! What an amazing thing to have achieved!!