After their achievement of yesterday, the aches and pains of today must have been, whilst not unexpected, thoroughly demoralizing. At least they had the fabulous views to buoy them on their way down the final part of the mountain.
The last part of today’s journal made me smile – I wonder if I ever found myself in a situation like this what I would want to dream about …
Day 21 – 5th August
When I woke up this morning I was tired and I ached, and I could feel just how cold it was outside of my sleeping bag. It didn’t get much better as I got up; I was feeling too sick to have any breakfast. To top it all, the Diamox we are taking for the altitude was making my fingers tingle unpleasantly – like pins and needles on steroids. Mercifully, I was not the only one feeling down, many others were as bad or worse; the peak really took it out of us.
We started slowly, doing what took us an hour yesterday at a steady pace in an hour and a half. We then cut across the hill instead of carrying on up and across it (by hill I mean a steep ascent up one of the large undulations around the enormous crater rim).
The walk was long but not as difficult as yesterday, and I slowly felt a bit more alive as the day progressed.
As we reached the lip of the crater after a difficult ascent, we paused for a small water break. Some people took the opportunity to change into a short sleeved shirt as the sun was out and I was about to join them when I noticed fog drop on us out of nowhere.
The change was so dramatic that Matt H was left shivering in his short sleeve top with very little to do about it as we marched on.
We stopped for lunch in the worst place possible; we were attacked by about 5 colonies of ants. Josh literally got ants in his pants.
When we eventually got to the camp, we discovered a large river possible to wash in. I only washed my hair but some went so far as to strip off and jump in for a wash.
As the trip has gone on I have jumped from craving to craving as my mind has wandered. Right now there is nothing I want more than as much K.F.C. popcorn chicken as I can eat. Hopefully that’s what I will dream about.
