1FaithfulWarrior – Brilliantly Bold

I am back again! Continuing on here with my journey of climbing Kilimanjaro.

Day 3: Camping at 14,000 Feet Today I realized that I have all of my days wrong because I never changed my watch to Tanzania time. I am not sure if it has been 3 days or 4. LOL Slept like crap even after taking 2 ambien and now I am up at 5:14am. I have my headlight on as I am writing this. I am completely frozen in my tent so I can’t leave or go to the bathroom until I hear someone else get up! The zipper won’t open!

Haven’t had coffee in 4 days…so you know what that means. Shower either. Thank God for these wipes…that is all I have to say!

I am happy I brought my foam roller with me. I taught all of the porters how to use it last night and it was hilarious to see all of them yelling and screaming with pleasure as they rolled their IT bands and backs. I am going to give them my roller when I leave as a parting gift. I will probably give all of my gear away. These dudes are tough. I learned that being a porter is one of the most high paying jobs that you can have here. The average person in Tanzania makes about $300 USD a month and they can make that in 1 week here with all of the tips etc. No wonder why they were all lined up to see us when we got there hoping that they would get picked to join us. Sure puts a lot into perspective.

Being with a bunch of physicians has been interesting. They have held a CE class every night and last night I sat in on it and learned some interesting things like: how to pee standing up as a girl, high altitude sickness indications, why you should cut and sew zippers into your hiking/trekking clothes (wish I would have known this bit earlier), how to have sex while camping, and how to purify water. Hmmm…interesting stuff. To think they are getting CE credit for this stuff LOL. WTH.

Today is supposed to be harder than yesterday as we are going up over 15,000 feet and then coming back down to camp at 14,000. Hiking for close to 11 hours today to get to the next camp.

**Later that day…Today was fucking hard but it was fun. I am tired and potentially delirious. Having a cup of tea and that is all I got for today.

You can see how far we had come!

Ramesh (from Australia) was so tired, he fell sound asleep at dinner.

Day 4 or maybe day 5: I want to die (not really) This morning when I woke up, I just wanted to die and I felt like a truck hit me. I am concerned about my knees. They are taped and I somehow managed to foam roll in my tent even with all of the crap in here. Note to self, bring more socks next time.

Today actually turned out to be great though. We ascended to about 16,000 feet and then cam back down to 13,000 feet. Now at Caranga Camp and sitting around a fire with the group. It has been really wonderful getting to know them. Everyone has really opened up to each other and it is really amazing being with people from around the world. We are all so different, yet very much alike.

Sure hope that I can stay warm tonight. Despite having like 5 layers on to sleep, I have been still freezing my ass off because I don’t have anyone else in my tent with me. Sure wish I had someone to go on these things with. That would be cool. Jed switched sleeping bags with me which was very nice. I have been literally frozen in my tent every night.

Tomorrow we ascend to base camp where we will then go to bed after dinner and then wake up at 11pm in order to start our ascent to the top…then back to base camp to sleep for a little bit before we pack it up and move to a lower altitude to sleep for the night. Almost there…I can do this.

Selfie in my tent 🙂

Camp

Porter Pic – they are amazing

Day 5 (I think) Base Camp: It is funny because I don’t know what day it is. I woke up way too early, but was asleep before 10pm. Slept so well in my “new” sleeping bag and I am hoping that Jed wasn’t too cold. I hope he slept well. Writing with my head lamp on and I can’t find my gloves so my hands are freezing! Frozen in my tent again! So I can’t leave quite yet. I wonder how much weight I lost so far. I wish I could poop HA.

We hiked for almost 8 hours to get to this camp. I am tired. 

The trek has been great so far. Huge personal challenge and I have met some really amazing people. I wonder where my next trek will be?? Hmmmm.

There are these giant freakin crows here that are literally the size of chickens. It is crazy! I swear they get fat from eating hikers who don’t make it. They are the only animals I have seen up here…nothing else could survive. It is like the apocalypse up here. Barren and like a nuke hit. 

I will write again after the summit that starts later tonight at 11pm. We should get to the top by sunrise if all goes well. Almost there. 

Thank you again Lord for giving me the ability to do this. I know you are with me wherever I go. AMEN.

Getting to base camp was tough and now I am starving, They are warning us to eat way more than we think we want to because we will need the energy. Sure hope that I can sleep. 

Ramesh had to descend today. It was sad. He got really bad altitude sickness. It was scary. He kept on throwing up everywhere and he was like a totally different person. Yas had to do the same thing…she turned into a complete psycho with her sickness. Crazy!

About to eat dinner and you should see all of the people up here. From like everywhere around the world. It is so freakin cool. After dinner, we are going to fall asleep for a few hours (Lord, please let me sleep) and then up at 11pm to eat some again and then begin the trek up. This is supposed to be the most difficult part because the incline is much greater than usual. Very steep with lots of pebbles. they are teaching us how to walk. Small and tiny steps. Slowly. Almost like a foot drag so we don’t lose our footing. Shit.

Oh man…soup never tasted so good.

I have all of my layers ready to go and this is what I am wearing:

• wool pants
• fleece pants
• wind and rain pants
• gators
• heavy gloves
• spare gloves
• T shirt
• wool shirt
• fleece
• down jacket
• wind jacket

It is supposed to be freezing ass cold up there. Remind me of why I am doing this again??

PS. Next time I write, I will have summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro! How freakin’ cool is that?

Me at Base Camp…pointing to where we are climbing later tonight!

Stay tuned for Part III coming soon! Summit day and the safari 🙂