From the roof of Africa with love (part 1) - Up to the Gilman's Point (by Darina)

Thursday, 23rd September 11pm

“Hello”. It’s eleven pm and one of the guides is waking us up. No need to wake ME up as I was up anyway. It’s a big relief. I don’t want to think about the implications of the lack of sleep now as I actually feel energised and ready to go. It’s a hard work to get out of the sleeping bag, I am breathing like I’ve just finished a marathon. I start to dress, very slowly. Four layers on my legs – thermal, base layer leggings, thin trekking trousers, thick trekking trousers and waterproof overtrousers – and five layers on my upper body – long-sleeve base layer, long-sleeve technical T-shirt, two fleeces and waterproof jacket. Thin socks and thick socks. My head is covered in balaclava, fleece headband and winter hat, all glamorously topped up with a head torch. Undergloves and warm ski gloves are protecting my hands. Party, anyone?

Just before getting out of the tent for the breakfast I have a little problem with my Camelbak. It looks like one of the shoulder straps is ripped off. I panic as I can’t imagine how to survive the night without it, then I start to think about how I could sew it. Fortunately my brain is not totally frozen yet and after closer investigation I figure out that the strap is only untied. Easily fixed. Just to be sure I add a few pins to hold it all together. Time to go for a breakfast!

Or should I say hobble. It’s difficult to move in all those layers (can’t imagine what it would be like with the fifth layer on my legs) and when you add the lack of oxygen… It’s dark – despite the full moon – and cold – although not as much as we’re expected and were prepared for. For breakfast we have porridge and fruits, then Diamox and we get some chocolate for the trek. Sonja is already somewhere on the way up there but there is another person missing. Gary. We learn that he left the camp – rather mysteriously and in the middle of the night. The whole situation is a bit strange and surreal but at the minute we don’t have time (or energy) for any speculations. As….

… there is one very interesting hill waiting for us to climb it, so let’s go!

We walk very, very slowly, little shuffling steps, one by one. There are other climbing groups before us. We can see the flickering lights of their torches. The terrain is fairly good, it’s a scree, the stones are very small though and it’s easy to walk, no need for lifting knees too much. And the walking poles are helping to keep a steady pace. I don’t have any issues with breathing at this moment (the pace is very slow), the air is very fresh and sharp. The first few meters of the route is straight uphill but as soon as it starts to be too steep, we start doing the infamous zigzags. That’s where the mental struggle starts. Not straight away but the zigzags are going to accompany us for the next five, six hours. Some of the stretches are short but it’s the long ones that get you. You’re shuffling and shuffling, looking down on the ground, focusing on the walking poles and hoping for a little change in the direction. We should be going up the mountain, not along it!!!

My nose is runny too. It’s annoying as it’s a complicated procedure to get to the tissue which is in the pocket of my jacket but to get there I need to remove my hand from the walking pole, hold the walking pole in the other hand, remove glove, open the zip of the pocket… By the time I finish re-gloving, my nose is runny again… It’s a lost battle but very little problem in the greater scheme of things. As I am actually here, standing on Kilimanjaro….

In the first phase we all walk together, Obote being the main leading guide. Time to time we have a short break to sip water and get some refreshments. During the first one I find out my Camelbak’s pipe is frozen despite the fact it is insulated. Paul has a similar problem but soon finds a solution when he pulls the pipe through his jacket. I can’t do that but fortunately I have a half a litre of water in a plastic bottle which I’ve been dragging with me since our last hotel! I am saved for now.

As we continue I realise I can’t feel my toes. It’s strange and I am a bit surprised as my thick socks are good ones, specially manufactured for this type of situations. Why are they not warming my feet? As it turns out, Paul and Jason has the same problems. I am trying to exercise my toes which helps me with staying awake and after some time (could be minutes, could be hours), I feel them again. Not falling asleep is my other problem. I struggle to stay awake, my eye lids are falling down and I just keep thinking how embarrassing it would be if I actually fall asleep and fall down… I focus on the walking poles and wiggling my toes.

I have no idea how long we’ve been walking. Our group is now divided into two. I am not sure with whom I am walking as all of us our disguised by and hidden in the layers of clothing. We pass the sign marking 5000m. Meaning in another 100m or so we will reach Hans Meyer Cave! Sounds simple but it could be another hour of walking! (Note: Hans Meyer was a German geologist and the first European who got to the Kibo top). Looking up we can see the top, little lights dotting the route that we will walk in next few hours. It seems very close and very far at the same time.

We stop at the Cave for re-charging but we can’t stay long as it takes only a few minutes for us to start feeling very cold. So we continue, zigzag, step by step. I manage to wake up a bit and resolve my falling asleep issue. Zigzag, zigzag. The next important stop is the Jamaica Rocks in 5500m. The track up there is still the same, just scree – it sometimes gets very slippery but that’s probably because we’re not as fresh and focused as we were at the beginning – and dust. Some of the zigzags seem to be taking forever before we reach the bend and that’s when I realise how mental this walk is. It’s when you realise how ridiculous it is to be here at four am, in the pitch dark and cold night, walking like an idiot in a slow motion, covering the distance which is just around 1 kilometer in about a 4-kilometer zigzag detour… But hey, soon we’ll be standing on the top!!

At Jamaica Rocks we can see a little light peeking on the horizon. The morning is coming and the idea of the sun rising soon is filling me with new energy. Which will be much needed as the part of the route between the Rocks and Gilman’s Point is a killer. I actually feel a bit betrayed. After almost six hours of zigzagging and surviving the biggest mental challenge of my life so far, we are forced to start lifting the knees and very carefully find our way through the rocks and stones. The track is suddenly steep and occasionally we need to scramble. I realise for the second time that I cannot feel my toes, this time it’s difficult to exercise them and I just hope they will be sort out when the sun is out. This part is a real test. We can see the Gilman’s Point being just a few meters above us but it feels like miles and miles away. Despite of eating all the meals we had, I am starving and we’re not even there yet. It’s starting to be warm but it’s still cold at the same time. Breathing is difficult. The bloody rocks are everywhere. But then I look around and back towards Mawenzi which is now bathing in the morning sun. Is there anything more beautiful then this?

And then we’re there! We stand next to the wooden sign telling us we’ve reached the Gilman’s Point. I am not sure what I feel. I am trying to catch my breath and then I sit down. It’s a good feeling. We are here. We are at 5681m!!! The sun is up. We get tea and hugs from our guides. We hug each other – me, Paul, Nadia. Nilam and Salma are soon following. Obote shows us where the Uhuru peak is. We just need to walk along the crater and there it is! Just! Doesn’t look horribly far but it’s about another hour and a bit of walking. But for now we can just sit for a few more minutes and enjoy the feeling we made it this far....

Day 1 - Pole, pole (by Darina)

Monday 20th September 2010

Grateful that the morning is finally here, I get up at seven thirty and have my last shower for next six days. The breakfast is short and sweet and then we all meet in the reception, just before half past nine. Oh, btw. the morning is cloudy again so although Kibo IS there, we still can't see it! Our luggage is weighted in the reception; mine is 15 and half but still pass without re-packing (little sigh of relief!)

The cars that are taking us to the start of the route are already here and we also get pre-packed lunch boxes. The atmosphere is a bit rushed so nobody has time to be worried or scared. Until... there is a lady sitting in one of the armchairs in the reception room and she wishes us good luck. She is also saying that she had to come back from Kili the second day because she woke up in the morning blind! I am doing my best not to freak out. Blindness?? She was told it was due to the altitude sickness but really? Trying to think logically I am calming myself thinking that nobody ever mentioned blindness to be a symptom of an altitude sickness and on the second day morning she couldn't even be in a very high altitude? The next think she says - and it's an advice too - is to be prepared that from day one we will be covered in dust and dirt. Before we even have a chance to ask more, her sister comes to the reception - unfortunately another unsuccessful story; she came back on the third day because she couldn't handle the dust and while now safe in the hotel, she still can't talk properly and her coughing is right scary. Right, ten minutes before setting off, two bad stories are something we don't exactly need... But it's too late for anything anyway, we are being called to get into the cars as all the luggage has been loaded.

According to the itinerary we were supposed to go first to the Marangu gate where everybody entering the Kilimanjaro National Park needs to register. Marangu gate is about twenty minute drive from the hotel. As we're now driving for more than a hour (the driver estimates two and half), I don't think we're going to stop there. As it turns out - we don't bring us to Marangu but Marangu brings itself to us. At the start of the Rongai route - at Nale Moru village - there is an officer waiting for us and we all have to register into his ledger book.

The drive was about hour and half after all as some parts of the road are now tarmac and therefore easy and fast to drive on. Still the last bit coming to the village was quite rough and we were all quite grateful for our 4x4. So here we are. It's around eleven in the morning, it's us here, another group from Exodus company and many porters and guides who are sorting the luggage. We have some time so we take the opportunity and offer our best smiles for a group picture:

Please meet - Salma, Jason, Nilam, Nadia, Sonja, Denise, Darina, Ryan, Paul, Gary and Katherine. All happy and smiley :-)

Soon after our registration, Niagara guy - who is here with us but is soon coming back to the civilisation and beer - is introducing our dream team: lead guide Obote and three of the other guides, Dixon, Robert and Salomon. We greet them happily and I am thinking that these are the people in whose hands our lives are now. For some reason I feel ok about it.

We set off around 12 noon. We're currently at 1950m amsl. Our today's guide is Salomon. The porters are still sorting luggage and other stuff they need to carry while we're on our way to the first camp (2700m). Salomon assures us that the porters will soon catch up with us, pass us and then arrive into the camp hours ahead of us. No wonder, as from the first minute we walk very, very slowly. While it can look strange to some, I think it's a clever way how to get us used to walking slowly before we get to the high altitude.

We are walking through a forest - I could say a common forest and we could be anywhere in the world. It's strange to be walking on Kilimanjaro but still we didn't see any of its peaks. What's even stranger though is the fact that our conversation turns to the topic of toilets (don't ask). Salomon is teaching us new vocabulary - apparently on Kili you don't say you need to go pee (or otherwise). You say you "need to send an email" (or "make a download") and the toilet is a "cyber cafe". Very neat! Needless to say it doesn’t take too long for us to implement this system :-)

From the forest we get on the path leading us through corn fields where we also come across some of the villagers. The field is the place where the dust first introduces itself. The lady in the hotel was truly right. The dust is soon covering everything we carry (including ourselves). Thinking back about our preparations we realise that in no book or blog we have encountered anybody complaining about dust or warning us to be prepared for it. I wonder if that’s because we are in the middle of the dry season…? Maybe?

We stop for a lunch in another forest and can see monkeys in the trees (apparently waiting for what food we leave behind). There is also a first attempt of some of the ladies to use the famous SheWee device, I’d rather not go into any details as I am risking some leaking myself as at the memory I still have to laugh hard… From there we continue slightly uphill on a neat (dusty) path, small trees and bushes around us. It’s like a Sunday afternoon walk, no rush, just a slow pleasant walk. We arrive to the camp in the late afternoon, Salomon says it’s called Simba camp. There are other groups of climbers too, already settling for the evening. We only have a brief rest before Salomon takes us for a short acclimatisation walk, up to 2850m. The path is now mainly bordered by bushes and grass and we can see that soon we will be walking in and above the clouds.

Our first evening on Kili starts with green bowls. In the Kili language they are called “washy-washy” and apparently these green bowls with warm water are our new shower system. It’s hard to use the water from the bowls to wash all of the body, fortunately we have more than plenty of wet wipes which are working perfectly (at this altitude at least; later, when the dust gets too deep into our skin, the wet wipes only re-distribute the upper layers of the dust but don’t actually clean much :-))! Another funny business is our toilet tent. Oh yes, we have our own toilet tent – which is basically a bucket containing chemicals with a toilet seat over it. Believe me, compared to the “general public toilets”, ours one is a luxury!

Satisfied with the result of the evening hygiene routine I join the others in the dining tent. We have popcorn! Unbelievable. I don’t normally eat popcorn but this one tastes soooo good. For dinner we have some sort of vegetable soup, fish and roasted potatoes. I am not sure what I expected but this food has definitely exceeded everything. Yum! After the evening Salomon comes in the tent to greet us and tell us about tomorrow. Apparently, the second day is very hard. Actually somebody says that there are two very difficult parts on this trek. The second day and then the summit night. Hmmm. Shall I be worried? So far I’ve been feeling great. And we stil haven’t seen either Mawenzi or Kibo peaks!!!

Soon after the sun sets, our tent is in the dark. Turns out that Niagara guys forgot to bring lights so we’re sitting by the candlelight. Very romantic! Unfortunately it makes us asleep – at least I feel like that – so soon we separate and go into our tents. But before than we are warned that the camp has an armed guard (I believe this is because we’re very close, if not on the border with Kenya) and if we have a need to visit a cyber café during the night, we should have our torches with us. This way the guard will know we belong to the camp and won’t shoot us… Touching, non? J

I feel asleep but cannot sleep. There is noise coming from the other groups’ camps and the porters are awake till late night. When I finally fall asleep it feels like a few minutes before the morning knocks on the tent…

Packing!

Sunday 12th September 2010 @ 11:35am

It's Sunday but more importantly it's a Sunday before our immediate departure next Friday which means... it's a packing Sunday! This week we have sorted out our travel money and I have just found out that some of our dollar bills are old and wouldn't be accepted in Tanzania. Just when we thought everything was sorted, another little issue comes up. But back to packing.

I wonder why there is a little tension in my stomach when I only think about the packing... I know I've tried to fit the stuff into the rucksack before and it went more or less well but since then more stuff was bought and I've also realised another thing. It's not just packing of clothing and medicines and toiletries into a rucksack - it's packing of all the time we spent preparing for this trip and all the experience we have gained. The hours we walked and talked and discussed, the time we spent researching and of course the money we spent. We're now packing all the bits and bobs that got us here from spring last year when we started to plan this holiday adventure.

So here we go. I don't know where to start so I remove all boxed items like bandages (tubegrips), batteries, medicines and similar from their paper boxes and put them into a sealed plastic bags. While doing this I am developing (in my head) strategy as how to fit everything in and still be within 20kgs. I am fully in control of the situation :-) but what I need first is... a tea!

12:20pm

Two teas later. All little bits are now safely in plastic bags so I am ready for any rain that could sneak upon us. Having said that I have just re-checked that my rucksack has a big rain cover (as advertised) so all the stuff inside it should be safe anyway. Time for the big items. It's not just taking the clothing out of the drawers and stuff them into the rucksack. It's important to decide what should be in the hand luggage, what will I wear and what needs to be in the rucksack. For that purpose I have a colourful spreadsheet showing all items I am taking and which location I have appointed to them (rucksack or Camelbak). Sounds like stocktaking! :-D

Does it look like I am still in control?

13:30

Most of the clothing is in, some space is left, didn't have time to worry about the weight yet. Need a break. Tea and a bagel.

I checked the KLM website to find out that the allowance is up to 23kg. For hand luggage we are allowed 12kgs, however my Camelbak doesn't fit the maximum hand luggage restrictions so this is going to be interesting. It's only a few cms (1.6 to be precise), hopefully they won't notice. Although it's great that KLM allows generous luggage allowance we shouldn't forget that our porters are only allowed to carry 15kgs and the same we can take with us to Zanzibar. The more I take the more I will have to carry myself then. Who said packing for holidays was fun??

14:17

Ugh. Almost done. Space-wise ok. Weight-wise not sure. Going to put all the stuff I marked for hand luggage to the Camelbak.

14:35

Camelbak was easy, plenty of space left and currently only has 5 kgs. I shouldn't forget that with the full bladder it's going to be 8kgs though!!! Still am starting to be more positive about all this luggage thing. Also starting to appreciate porters' job! I have tried to put the rucksack on my back and lift it and boy what a struggle it was not to fall backwards! So that's packing for now, I need to call home and probably leave this until Tuesday/Wednesday evening. There is still some washing to do, I still need some strong(er) painkillers for my potential hip problem, oh and I need to prepare and pre-pack mixture of nuts & dried fruits!

One more picture showing a voodoo doll of a Traveller which I got from my dear cousin Iva for good luck on our travels!!!

Diamox part 2, Malvern Hills & will all this fit into my rucksack?

This week we have decided to try "the other" Diamox, meaning the tablets I got as opposed to the bright orange capsules Paul did. After that w

e went for a trek in Malvern Hills. The day started fairly bright with an occasional light shower. We didn't encounter any rain on the hills but the wind was very, very strong and on several places I saw myself flying away towards Hereford, it was so difficult to stand on the ground.

The trek was approximately ten to eleven miles, very hilly (as you'd expect :)) but pleasant. We started in the car park under the North Hill and then went through the Worcestershire Beacon to the British Camp and then back. We didn't do the full walk over all the hills purely because of the fact there isn't any direct transport back to Great Malvern.

We tried our Buffs, which are a multipurpose headware - you can use it as a bandana, beanie, scarf, balaclava etc. etc. (more information: http://www.buffwear.co.uk/pages/product-info/ways-to-wear.php) Seems very useful although you can end up looking very silly:

And one more picture from the area:

This week there were also a few more parcels for me. I now have all my batteries, all energy bars & gels, contact lenses and a running headband, specially shaped to cover ears. We are also recommended to have some reading materials as there will be plenty of resting time (during the first few days); for this occasion I have purchased a book called "Competitive runner's handbook" which has almost 700 pages and will help me falling asleep fast during the long evenings :-)

So now I've got most of the stuff, I thought - let's try to fit it all in the rucksack. I laid out all the clothing & toiletries & other bits and bobs on the bed and it looked like this:

Lots of stuff but it's a three week trip covering various climates and any possible weather conditions. Then I tried to pack it all in my red rucksack. It did go quite well although when I was trying to put it on my back and carry around afterwards, I have almost fallen backwards... I am glad my Camelbak Commander (daypack) is quite roomy and I will be able to accommodate some more stuff there. I just need to check what luggage weight allowances we actually have for the flights!!!

Another good news is that I am (after all) getting my (swine) flu jab! I got a call from the nurse earlier this week asking me if I still wanted the jab and if so, could I please come in on Tuesday morning? :-) Wonderful. It will cost me ten quid - I guess they realised they could at least earn a few quid as these will be soon discontinued anyway...

Less than three weeks to go!

Diamox party anyone? How about a nice 10-mile walk?

Time for partying? Not yet. But my GP recommended to try one of the Diamox (Acetazolamide) tablets (that are used to prevent the altitude sickness) to see if I have any bad reactions to it. The list of side effects is quite impressive (in a bad way) so we both (Paul and me, not the GP) thought it would be quite a good idea to try one and see how it goes.

Paul got his prescription sooner than me (also his GP prescribed him 28 pcs, mine only 10. Are the GPs in West Bromwich just more generous?) so we tried one capsule (apparently Diamox comes in different shapes and textures too) each on Monday evening. And then we went to play squash... I regret that there wasn't anybody to take a video of us :). Paul claimed his fingers tingled (which is one of the side effects) and my throat had a weird metallic taste (another side effect) but we were not sure if we were just making these up (just a plain common paranoia) or if they were real. In any case our game was a bit of a comic tragedy starring a giggling five-year old (me), dizzy cows running around the field (both of us) and one very crappy performer (you see, Paul is usually very good in squash so he had to blame the bad game on something :-P). What a show though! Still giggling just thinking about it.

In summary we didn't experience any bad reactions which is a good thing as Diamox could be the trick up our sleeve to win the battle with altitude.

As a part of training we went for a nice ten mile walk this Friday. First we drove to Worcester where we left the car and took a train (had to wait for it for three quarters of an hour!!!) to Droitwich Spa. Our goal was then - yes, you got it right - to walk back to Worcester. We were following the canal walk (once we found the canal, you wouldn't believe how difficult it could be :)) which was not very physically demanding and a little bit dull (I do have this feeling that when we face the dullness of the higher stages of Kili, we will be happily recalling the memories of the neverending grass and lines of water plants though) but the weather was foul which was great. I mean, it was raining and normal average person would describe the weather as foul, but we were happy to be able to try our kit! Btw. I now know I am definitely not a rain stopper :-D.

The walk along the canal was a long drag, interesting at times, boring at others, then we left the route and hopped across some fields to join Northwick heritage walk along the river Severn. This eventually led us to Worcester, although the directions were not quite clear and at times not very useful either. I mean, what would you imagine under the term "elegant pump house"? And that's only if you actually know what a pump house is? The ugly building we eventually came across wasn't elegant at all and if there wasn't a big sign saying it was the pump house we wouldn't know anyway.

So after something like four, four and half hours, lost and found on several occasions, confused (both), tired (me a lot, Paul slightly), with a sore hip (me) but otherwise happy and ok, we got back to Shrub Hill train station in Worcester, got into the car and drove back home :)) Great experience and our kits are waterproof - tried and tested, yay! My hip is recovered too and I managed to walk three miles to War Memorial Park this morning, run 3 miles there and then walk another 3 back home without any big pains or problems! 27 days to go!!!

Updates - 8 weeks to go!

Eight weeks to go exactly, what a blast! So here's what's been happening:

The current status of our fundraising efforts: £1709.06, yipee!

We have been shopping and spending money like crazy but managed to secure some really good and useful stuff like insect repellents (DEET 100%!!! - quite scary really, the list of precautions and storage instructions is longer than its actual usefulness), balaclavas (can't wait to take a pic wearing it!), wet wipes (Johnson's baby rocks!), Imodium tablets (lots of them...), some sting & bite creams, more baselayers (Paul) and undergloves (Darina). Our visas arrived on Thursday too, the insurance is sorted and I've had my yellow fever vaccination today! Happy days!

We made a little trip to Lickey Hills to do some more walking as well. We have chosen the Woodpecker trail which was supposed to be 7miles long (the others were only about mile or so long) - the only thing expected from us was to follow the red arrow. How difficult could that be??? Oh well...

At the beginning it was quite easy as the red arrows were stuck to wooden poles along the path every hundred or so meters. During this time Paul has discovered that when his Camelbak is full of stuff, the shoulder straps get a bit tight so it is actually a good idea to use their "adjustable" property and adjust them so he could walk normally again and also the trousers won't be as loose if he clips on the belt... We learn something new every day, right :-)?

Then we sort of lost track of the red arrows (please translate to: he wanted to go to the left, I wanted to go to the right... I was - of course - right) so we improvised and followed an unmarked path that eventually after some mild descends through a forest led us back to the main path and we re-discovered red arrows route. That worked well for a few more meters until I made a mistake and forced us to go in a direction which kind of looked ok to me even though Paul was sure it wasn't the right one. Never mind. We women must sometime let the men think that they are the ones who actually know what's going on ;-)

In any case... we haven't found the seven mile route and we doubt that you can even find seven miles in the Lickey Hills country park as we kept coming back to one place (the car park & visitors' centre). We were supposed to go over 4 hills on this route but I am not sure we actually found any hills at all. This could be a question of personal perception of a hill though. The walk was nevertheless pleasant and we clocked in some more miles towards our Kili preparations.

The email from ATR (our travel agency) came through this morning, asking for paying the balance so we are now expecting their response regarding how many pounds they will want from us and after then it's all done and sealed and there is no turning back!!!

Training Begins.....

We've done a lot of research in to suitable training for Kilimanjaro, obviously when we are spending so much money and travelling so far you want to give yourself the best chance of being succesful, however I have not read anyones comments saying that they just got too tired of walking and decided to just sit down and give up (don't know what actually happens if you do this, do they jsut abadon you on the mountain?) , the only reason anyone ever fails to make it to the top is through altitiude sickness which we can't train for.

Anyway as per everyone else that seems to do Kilimanjaro we decided we needed to do more walking to prepare, also as I have not camped out anywhere since I was about 12 years old and that was in a freinds small back garden in West Bromwich and not on a big mountain (let's face it there are far more dangers in West Bromwich......) I could also do with some practise sleeping in a tent. We arranged to do a trip to Wales where some friends live, the plan was to spend the weekend trekking and sleep in the tent on the two nights.

I bought the tent a few months ago withe the intention of spending more time camping in preperation for Kilimanjaro, in actuality I removed the tent from the bag once and tried briefly to erect it in the house before realising there wasn't enough space and I packed it back away and didn't unpack it again until today. I chose the tent as it was suitable for backpacking as it packed away to a very small budle, weighed under 3kg and was quick and easy to assemble. Still we decided that the best thing to do when we arrived was to build the tent first as we had no idea how long it would take.

The tent assembly was actually really simple, if we weren't camping in a garden we may have been short of a hammer to put the pegs in but other than this we built the tent in around 20 minutes and didn't experience any problems (with the tent) all weekend.

Our home for 2 days

With the tent completed we went for our first trek of the weekend. Will and Kate (our hosts) went with us part of the way and provided us with a map to work out where we were and where we were going, unfortunately between us our map reading skills left a lot to be desired and we ended up walking up a track that must have been maded by sheep rather than an official walking path. This seemed to be a common theme for the weekend with us also wandering through some woods on a steep hill trying to find an exit from a field and also getting sent back from a field by a farmer on a tractor for walking on his property. Luckily on Kilimanjaro we will have a guide who hopefully knows the way!

Extreme close up of Darina, with the fields of Llangollen in the background......

The kit we have so far was very good though, I think I am going to stick with the boots that I have despite them beign a bit low and teh trousers I recently purchased were fantastic including side pockets the perfect size for my phone and camera, all this and they zip off to make shorts and even have colour coded zips so even I can't try to put the legs on the worng way around!

Me and my trousers (That is just an unfortunate crumple on my t-shirt and not my belly, honestly......)

We  have also sorted out the insurance for trekking now with a company called Dogtag, not only do they give us a set of gimmicky dog tags to wear with our name, insurance policy number and a contact telephone but they were also the cheapest we found (although I did stop looking when I saw the gimmick).

The holiday balance is due imminently so it really is no turning back now, the fund raising is also going very well with one of our suppliers sponsoring us £1200 which is absolutely fantastic. Louise is also looking to organise a party for a couple of weeks before we go to help raise some more money.

So that is the latest status of how we are progressing, I went to Go Outdoors yesterday to take advantage of their 15% off sale and buy some more trousers (pretty much the same but in grey instead of green) another fleece, a base layer and a buff headwear which will hopefully be enough to keep the sun off me as I really don't want to wear a hat! I still have to sort out my vaccinations for Yellow Fever and something else that I can't remember but is written down somewhere, I do however have my Malaria tablets that I must have had from something else as I found them while doing a clear out of my medicine cabinet (I actually had some medicine that expired in 1997 in there!) so hopefully I won't end up like Cheryl Cole.

Just need to update my kit list now to find out how many more things I still have to get.........

Wales Oh Wales

In an attempt to do some proper trekking and try camping we have set off to Wales. The destination: Llangollen, Velvet Mountain, Kate and Will's home's garden. It's not that they wouldn't let us sleep inside but we really wanted to see if we're able to build a tent and more importantly survive a night in it.

We got to Llangollen just after the midday on Friday (9th July) briefly stopped in the city centre (which was very lively and busy as the Musical Festival Eisteddfod was on since the beginning of the week) and then drove to the Llantysilio where Kate and Will live in a cosy cottage with a magnificent view over the hills and meadows. After refreshing lunch, building a tent (carefully following the instructions from the inside of the tent bag), observing the various birds on the bird feeder and petting Kate's and Will's cat Blackberry we set off for the first trek.

Now, the Welsh names are like jaw-crackers so I don't remember any so this is going to be fun describing :-). We have climbed one of the closest hills, I believe it was one of the Llantysilio hills (which would kind of make sense...) and followed the path towards the old tramway route (I believe it was called Oearnant, please someone correct me if this is not the case...). Trying to get to the top of the mountain led us through some tough and very very off-road paths; at one point we were fighting with bushes of some kind of fern that led us to one of those fences over which you cannot exactly get without some damage to your clothing or your skin. After some more fighting we got back to a proper path though and accompanied by many sheep we trekked over the Llantysilio hills.

The route led us back towards where we started, namely to Britannia Inn on the Horseshoe Pass View road, where we rested briefly with a pint of Guinness and a lovely view over the valley in front of us. We were walking for about three hours on day one during which we learnt how to read a map (a little bit), that there are vast blueberry fields in the hills, that the trekking trousers Paul finally bought on Tuesday that week were really cool (I am sure he will praise them in his post immensely) and that we are able to survive a night in the tent. Oh and there were no sheep marching through the garden in the morning (which was a little disappointment) although there was this cow that booed so loudly in the early morning that it almost felt like she was actually standing next to the tent... you could hear her breathing!

Day two was slightly overcast - at least in the morning. We set off around nine am and took a different direction for our trek. We walked through the meadows and forests of the Eglwyseg, got a bit lost in one of them and again tried what it is like walking in a very uneven and varied terrain, and then joined the famous Offa's Dyke trail that led us through Panorama Walk back towards Llangollen. On the way there we encountered intriguing creatures, something looking a bit like sheep but also looking a bit like cows:

Before ascending to Llangollen for a lunch we also climbed a very steep hill to the ruins of the Dinas Bran Castle.

The weather has cleared a lot since the morning and the sun and lunch made us a bit slow and tired. Still we continued our walk and followed the path along the canal, from Llangollen towards the Horseshoe Falls. The canal is known for its horse-drawn boat rides (unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the horse actually drawing the boat so this is how it looks around the canal):

After reaching the Horseshoe falls I have noticed a persistent pain around and above my left ankle which wouldn't go away and was most likely caused during our tackling the uneven terrain of the forest near Eglwyseg. That meant we started to look for a shortcut back to Will's and walked through some fields and meadows to avoid rather boring road walking. Funnily enough we ended up in Britannia again which was quite handy as we had a chance to refresh ourselves , we just avoided a heavy rain downpour and after we finally made it back to Will's we looked great and not a bit tired! :-) The second night in the tent was as good as the first one, this time we had a chance to experience a little bit of rain and some strong wind, fortunately the tent didn't fly away. Still makes me think about what it's going to be like on the slopes of Kili without the comfort of a cosy cottage nearby or even a comfortable grassy ground under the tent...

Big thanks to Kate and Will for letting us camp in their garden and for feeding us through the weekend! The burgers from the barbeque were excellent!!!

So this was Llangollen, fairly tale place where biking and running is not for the faint-hearted but which offers wonderful views, great trekking adventures and many sheep and cows' encounters. Hoping to be back there soon again...