Well the first thing to note about the tent is that it is pretty hard to sleep on a slope. My feet must have been 25 cm below my head. The second thing to note is that the sleeping bag which is designed for cold temperatures, is a bit warm for this climate, so I had to sleep half out of the bag. And the third thing to note is that the advice of drinking many litres of water during the day to combat altitude sickness means you have to get up in the night to pee. All three of these factors combined to mean that I only got about 3 hours of sleep in the 9 hours I was lying in the tent. There was definitely something sniffing around the tent at one point, and when I got up to pee there was some sort of howling in the jungle. I thought it was a bird, but in the morning the guide said it was a jackal. I have to say I wouldn't have been as happy having a pee had I know it was a jackal.
Anyway we got up at 6 for a 7 start. Today is a supposedly shorter day, only 5.5 km and only an 800m vertical. But at only half the distance and two thirds of the climb, this is even steeper than yesterday. Still we manage to take our time getting breakfast, so our porters had our tents cleared by the time we finished. It was pretty impressive to see how quick they could take down everything, pack it away and set off. We aren't quite as good. They are in a hurry so they can get a good spot at the next campsite. We head off past the sign on hut and begin our climb for the day. Its not too bad, and is made a lot better than yesterdays because we are now above the trees and so have a good view back down the valley. We can see all the way back to the campsite, some 200m below, and Machame village some 2000m below.
Our guide introduces us to some more of the mountain's flora, including the groundsels, which are the strange unique (well almost - they do exist on Mt Kenya as well) plants that we see surrounding us. They are a strange cross between a flower and a tree and are noticeable because they are the only thing which makes the plants seem different from those you would find on an Irish/British mountain. All the other plants are very similar, heathers, alpine type flowers and so on.
The pattern for the day is similar to the previous one, pretty slow, standing aside for the porters, and stopping often for drinking water, and getting rid of water. To ensure you aren't suffering from the altitude you have to make sure that your urine is 'clear and copious'. It soon becomes a catchphrase. Along with chunder creamer, the milk substitute which may have been responsible for part of the nausea of some of the crew last night. Still everyone feels better today. Which is just as well because there is a small bit of scrambling over some rocks.
After a while we stop for lunch, at a nice prominence where we get great views of everyone else coming past us. We also get our first views of the wildlife, some birds that look like ravens with white necks. These turn out to be white necked ravens. Some of the girls visit the toilets at the lunch stop, but can't use it because there is a mouse in the toilet. I say in it, I mean sitting on the pile of shit under the hole. The mouse had a few stripes down the back, and later we discover it is called a four-striped grass mouse. We think the person who first named all the species on the mountain was not the most imaginative.
By the way you may notice more talking about bodily functions. Yes this is how the conversation has gone as we climb. The simple fact is that as we go up the mountain we get further away from our comforts, and as we do, life becomes simpler. All we care about now is eating, drinking, breathing, walking, sleeping, and going to the toilet. So it does become a dominant part of the conversation. There is little point however in trying to describe the toilets any more, because even if we took photos (nobody did to my knowledge) and even if we could capture the smell and bring it to people over the internet, the experience is only complete if you actually have to use them. It is bad passing by, but if you have to use them it is 100 times worse.
Anyway after lunch and the mouse incident we continued our climb. Actually it seems like we have done most of the climbing, and this part is mostly snaking along the side of the valley. All told it is a much more interesting day with a greater variety of walking challenges, and flora/fauna. It doesn't take too long to actually get to the top point of the day, and then we descend slightly to the campsite in another walk high/sleep low combination. This route has been set up to provide this where possible.
As we descend into the camp site we spy something which none of us expected to see, a porcelain bowl in one of the toilets. Its like manna from heaven. No flush, it still goes down a big hole in the ground, but at least your aim can't be wrong. Still as I use it there is still something disconcerting about sitting on a toilet and not hearing the splash.
Anyway we get to our mess tent and as with the previous day there is tea, coffee and popcorn waiting for us. Personally I think the popcorn part of the day is one of the best as it usually signals the end of the day's walking. But not today. To help us acclimatise more our guide is going to take us to see the supposedly famous Shira cave, and the Shira 2 campsite. I'm interested in seeing this because it is on the Lemosho route, which is Dorota's route. Up until now our paths have not crossed (relatively, she of course completed the trek 3 weeks previously).
The Shira cave is mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide, so everyone wants to see it, or so our guide says. To be honest I'm not sure any of our group has read the LP for this, we all have more specific guides written about the mountain only. When we get to the cave we are all underwhelmed by it, once again confirming the idea that just because something is in LP it is probably not worth seeing. But we do have another hour and a half walk, again at a slightly higher altitude than our campsite, to help us.
We get back in time for sunset, which again is pretty spectacular. Its a lot more cloudy than the previous night, so we get a totally different type of sunset. However after sunset the cloud clears, and we get a great view of the stars. Unfortunately the loss of cloud cover meant the temperature dropped. So there was no more staying up after dinner, in fact most people went straight to bed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_holding_cabbage
No comments:
Post a Comment