i am strong

yes, i made it. right to the top, to the summit of mt kilimanjaro. it was hard work, but my guide kept telling me 'kelly, you are strong' and i was like 'i am, i am strong'. but i have to say, we were also pretty lucky, we had perfect weather. on the night we went to the summit, we set out at midnight and the sky was clear and there was no wind at all. and i got to the summit just as the sun was rising, it was awesome. i was so screwed though. i have never been so exhausted. and it was not all fun and games going up the mountain either, my torch went flat so i was walking in the dark and then i started getting altitude sickness. i had a massive headache and i threw up 4 times. but i was kinda thinking, 'headache, throwing up, i get worse hang overs than this!' actually it brought back memories of when i used to go visit lisa in ballarat and i'd wake up hung over as hell and lisa would say, 'c'mon kelly, let's go. it's only a 3k round trip!' which in lisa terms is at least 3k each way. so thanks stilly, you put me in good practise for climbing the mountain.

small tip for you all. if you're ever hiking and it's sunny and you're wearing shorts, remember to sunscreen the backs of your legs. otherwise 3 words for you 'WORLD OF PAIN'. my god, you don't realise how much you like bending over until it hurts to do it. and try using the dirty old squat toilets when the backs of your legs look like their pretty much cooked.

but all in all, the whole hike was good. i was actually in a group by myself, so was hiking alone with my guide Rashid. but i stayed with the same people in the huts at night. 2 dutch chicks and a canadian guy who were all pretty fun. i learnt some new card games, so i'll have to show them to you when i get home.

my guide was really good. he had just finished a safari guide course so was telling me lots of stuff about all the african animals and the plants on the mountain and all that jazz. he also tried teaching me some basic swahili, but i kept forgetting. the one thing i remember is 'pole-pole' (pronounced pol-lay pol-lay) which means slowly-slowly. He kept telling me on the first couple of days, 'pole-pole kelly, you need to go slow for the altitude changes'. but i naturally march around like i'm on a mission, so that was probably the hardest thing for me to do the first couple of days. on the hike to the summit though it wasn't so hard to go pole-pole. we were going so slow it was like; take a step, count to three, take another step. And i was so tired that i thought my feet wouldn't move anymore, so i started imagining that there were pieces of string tied from rashids shoes to my shoes so that whenever he took a step my feet had to go. that way it felt like he was pulling my along and i wasn't so tired.

oh man, but the way back down was good. it took 7 hours to climb up, but only 2 to go down. on the way up all the slope was frozen, but on the way down it was all thick loose rock and soil and when you step on it, you slid down. so i noticed rashid was just sliding with it, kinda like he was skiing. so i thought i'll have a go at that. it was so fun and easy that despite my tiredness i was like 'rashid, let's race'. so we raced down the mountain until i almost came a cropper and thought maybe it would be best to walk for a bit.

anyway, that was my adventures at mt kili. now i am back in nairobi where i am going to hang out my the pool in my hotel until thursday when i can catch up with my safari. they left without me damn it. because of the fuckup with my flights and all i was a day late and now it's going to be two more days before the truck is in a spot where i can find it easy. but that's ok, hopefully all will be sorted.