A Climbers Diary

Day 3 - 22/02/09                             
Acclimatisation/Travel Day - 13.00hrs              
Moivaro Lodge - 1450m

Morning dawned and despite only having 5 hrs sleep we woke refreshed and ready to go. A bit more Floyd on the tune box and a bit of Take That in honour of Barlow and the crowd climbing next week and we were ready for breakfast. We found out that David is deeply religious and he went off to the local church straight after grub. When he hadn’t returned by 11.30 Guy and I decided to go out on a rescue mission but we were told that tourists should not be wandering around the locality without a guide. It’s not particularly dangerous but you just never know! Feeling brave Stan and Trev co-ordinated the rescue mission from the pool side. Advice was given from everyone as to whether we should go out. We trooped bravely up the road surrounded by kids playing and eventually found the main man at the front of the church singing like a good ‘un and waving his arms in the air. We managed to prize him away and back to the lodge and he was totally uplifted. Upon our return we found that the main topic of conversation between the lads in our absence was whether they would continue with the trek if we did not return. They decided they would with or without us.

Day 3 - 22/02/09
Acclimatisation/Travel Day - 19.00hrs 
Kilimanjaro Mountain Resort - Alt Unknown

As we packed to leave Moivaro it was exciting stuff as the trip became real and changed from a holiday to a trek. The acclimatisation was over and it was now time to get on with the job. The drive to Kili Mountain Lodge was too long but quite exciting as we caught our first sight of the mountain in the distance. It’s so big and the area so flat it was quite hard to judge how big it was.  En route we got stopped by the police for having a “dangerous roof rack” which I tried to film but was suggested to stop. Matters were “dealt with” and we were on our way only to have said roof rack nearly snap off the roof a little later on up the road. Towards the end of the journey we had to unload everything off the roof and leave it at the side of the road with a porter in a rather suspect looking village. Eventually we arrived at the Kilimanjaro Mountain Resort, a hotel at the foot of the mountain which would be our home for the final night and also the place we would meet the rest of our group for our safety briefing and issue of kit. The gear that had been taken off the roof arrived later in the evening  so worries were unfounded

We met the others on our trek who were Erin and Stefanie (two American girls working as doctors in Swaziland), Nick a good looking looking American dude (who was also working for Economic Development in Swaziland), Kate and Candice form London who deal with the ICAP charity day, and Dasha (a Czech medic working in Tasmania) whose name Stan misheard and immediately asked whether she was part of the Rudolph the reindeer team much to everyone’s amusement. It seems like a good team although we’re not sure how the Americans will take to our sense of humour.

After the brief we made the mistake of talking to another group that had just come down off the mountain. It sounds like a nightmare and they talked about sickness, loss of sight and all manner of other drama’s. Time for bed and a bit of Trevor panicking about what to pack as he kept asking us what we were taking and what we were leaving behind. He’s sharing with Guy so Mossy will have to field all the questions.