Kilimanjaro trek - day 5

We had the luxury of a lie in until 6am.  Whoopee!  Bed tea was at 7.00am; breakfast at 8.00am and at 9.00am we set off en route to summit camp.

We crept along at a metronomic trudge, single file.  The terrain was very desolate, as I would imagine the landscape the day after the apocalypse.

I was following Kev who was wearing shorts.  I amused myself for an hour or so by trying to estimate the number of hairs Kev had on the back of his calves.

I also chatted to Willy, one of the African porters, and tried to learn some Swahili from him.  He gave me a translation for the title of this blog 'Mzembe mpaka kuwa mbuzi katika mwaka mmoja' but when Lisa checked this against a Swahili/English internet translation service it came out as 'Negligent person stoned goats in one year'.  Just as well then that I didn't take a leaf out of Kerrys book and have it tattooed on my neck!  So the Swahili at the top of this blog is a translation taken straight off the internet rather than Willys version.

We eventually reached summit camp, a craggy site at the foot of the summit which was hidden by clouds at about 1.30pm.

After a carbohydrate laden lunch we retired to our tents to rest.  I spent the majority of the next hour and a half oganising my kit ready for our summit attempt later that night.  Four thermal tops of varying thicknesses plus a down jacket and hi-viz flourescent jacket; thermal long johns, trousers and waterproof over trousers; silk glove liners, insulated mittens and self heating hand warmers; balaclava, snood, buff & woolly hat; thick socks; head torch; spare neoprene water bottle to keep inside down jacket; bum bag filled with jelly babies and a mars bar, sunscreen & lipsalve; camera.  Rucksack containing: camel back filled with 3 litres of water; gortex jacket; insulated gloves; sun glasses.  I was as ready as I would ever be.

At 4pm Ritchie gave his summit briefing.  A sombre mood descended over the group as we listened intently to his instructions for the summit attempt ahead of us.



Summit briefing

    




















As we came out of the briefing the cloud cover had lifted from the summit and we got our first glimpse of the climb to come.

Dinner was served at 5pm.  I wasn't especially hungry, it felt like I had only just had lunch, however, it was important to stock up so I forced myself to eat something.

At 6pm we retired to our tents to try to get some sleep ahead of the summit attempt that would begin at midnight.

I dropped off into a sound sleep but was suddenly awoken at 9pm by the sound of heavy footsteps and light from bobbing head torches passing through the campsite and a frantic woman shouting "How much further"; "No! No! My legs won't work" "I can't go any further - Oh no!".  Needless to say this completely freaked me out.  I stared out into the darkness of the tent listening to the wind buffeting the tent material and the patter of what appeared to be snow, mind racing, wondering what on earth was happening.  Had the woman just come down from the summit?  Was it that awful?  OMG!  I thought I would never get back to sleep but somehow I must have done because the next thing I knew it was 11.30pm and Whitey was 'cock a doodle dooing' loudly across the campsite.  This was it - our time for the summit attempt.