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I had such vivid dreams last night. All I can remember is that in my dream the spirit of the top of the mountiain came down to me and told me she was waiting for me at the top and that I would make it there soon. This is probably a side effect of the Malarone tablets I'm taking against getting malaria, but it gives me a little bit of a nice mental boost! I get up at 4am along with my tent mate Eugenia to use the loo and we find the cloud has lifted and the sky is so clear. After stumbling up to and using the long drop toilets Eugenia and I marvel at the night sky and see so many stars! I've never seen the sky like this before. With no light polution its really amazing. We see shooting stars too. Its cold though and I'm in flip flops so we go back to bed. In the morning we are woken up with tea brought to our tents. Its freezing cold and when I ask for sugar the poor guide is shaking sugar all over the place because hes trembling with cold! Shortly after that a bowl of hot water is bought to each of us. To begin with I'm not sure what to do with this. Is this my drinking water? And if so how do I get it into my bottle? Turns out its for us to wash with so Eugenia and I clean our hands faces and feet!, we can see Kathryn and Sophie doing the same in the next tent :) In our briefing we were told about the water supply and that it comes from the mountains rivers and springs. It is then filtered with swiss filters so that it is ready to drink. At least that saves me a job of having to purify the water. I did that at the Hotel before we began our first day and it was simple enough, but it was a little time consuming. Getting out of our tent we see that its a beautiful day! Its cold but the sun is up and the view is clearer to us now. You can even just about make out the top of the mountain poking over the side of the camps hill. We go to our food tent for breakfast and are served tea, hot chocolate, porridge, and scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon with loads of toast. Then we get our water bottles filled up and are given another packed lunch. I pack up my sleeping bag and matress and put away all my personal things and then get myself together to walk again, slathering on the sunscreen as I go. Each moment its getting warmer and warmer and I'm feeling a lot happier today. Finally feeling like I'm in Africa! Its amazing what a difference the weather can make to your mood. We begin our walk as the porters stay behind to clean up and pack everything away. We are overtaken by them within a couple of hours as they head up to the next camp ready for our arrival. Some of them carry huge amouts in their backs and heads and it makes me feel rather like a weakling in comparison. The climb starts out well, we are now above the clouds and I look back over my shoulder to see Mount Meru in the distance poking over the clouds, its really a great sight. The incline seems to be more today, The trees have mostly gone and the floor is quite different. Were walking on the rocks of the old lava flows now and there is some scrambling. I think about rock climbing at the beach with my dad on summer holidays. Were all really starting to feel the need to go "pole pole" slowly, sometimes just pidgeon steps or even half pidgeon steps are whats nessesary to get over the slope. The lunch time break finally comes around and gives us a chance to rest and eat before continuing and I take a cheeky nap in the warm weather whilst the ravens are after our food. Yesterday we passed and were passed by about 4 other groups of climbers. some from Norway, a smaller English group, and another larger group from the US who were all shouty and full of bravado at the Machame gate. I think the mountain is begining to make them her own though, because at lunch time they stop about 100 meters from us and one of them, Brad, vomits and then the ravens eat it! I'm burping an awful lot today, but apparently thats a good sign that your body is adapting to the altitude. As we started the climb earlier this morning we arrive at camp earlier too which means I have plently of time before nightfall to sort out some things like where my head torch is and deciding to carry it in an accessable place on my day pack, and also where my firstaid kit and sweets are because they might be needed quickly. Having a hydration pack is amazing and its easy to get to my water, however some of us are finding that we need to either breathe or drink, its begining to get difficult to do the two at the same time whilst climbing. Not an issue I've felt in any of my training, but I guess thats to do with the altitude and the slow but constant excersise were all doing. As there is an uneven number of us girls, one night we get to have a tent to ourselves and tonight its my turn. As I have loads of room I sort all my stuff out and then I have a proper wipe down everywhere so I feel nice and clean for dinner. Seamus told us this would happen in our briefing, I have started spotting a little bit like its my period, even though all mannor of precautions have been taken to aviod this happening whilst I'm here. Its only slight though so not really an issue. The mountain is messing with our bodies thats for sure. At dinner, soup and bread, Lasagne (how do they manage to cook all this in a tent?!) Melon,we all talk about our side effects and how were feeling, Some of them have been taking Diamox, a tablet that although has never been proven to work may help with the side effects of altitude. Theyre feeling tingly fingers and toes. Katheryn is a doctor so she tells us some stories that make me feel a bit queezy, and she says the only thing she really dislikes is when people vomit. Its cold in my tent that night. I'm consious of how fast my heart is beating and I'm worried about the oxygen. Its so cold and its just me in the tent, so I do my sleeping bag up tight and it covers my nose and mouth whilst I warm up my body with my breath. As I drift off to sleep I realise that my head is downhill and I think that I really should do something about that...... I wake with a start and I cant breathe, my heart is pounding and I feel dizzy and disorientated, my mouth hurts and its all I can do to find the opening of my sleeping bag to get some air. I drag myself round so my head is now uphill and I concentrate very hard on calming my panting breathing down and slowing my heart. My tounge is numb, I'm scared and I'm alone but I have to focus. After 5 minutes on focusing on my breathing and heart rate I'm exhausted. I feel better and go straight back to sleep, where I have vivid dreams again this time about spiders in my room at home jumping onto me. Later I and toss and turn till I go out and find the loo and then I sleep better.
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