And then......this was the view. You may look at the picture and see the toilet tent. You may see a bit of a rock. If you look closely you will see little red things. Tiny little red things along the bottom of the rock. They are people. Small people.....actually normal sized people - its just that the rock is really, really big! Oh - and I was about to climb it.
I spoke to Deo first thing as I really wasn't feeling well and was panicking about the next few days and whether I would cope. Of course he was totally chilled about it. "Of course you will do it, you've done it so far". We actually finished the day at a lower altitude than we started so there wasn't any elevation gain on day four. That meant my body had 24 hours to get used to the altitude. So with a "just stop moaning and get on with it" attitude off we went, to conquer the rock.
And Deo was right - I just climbed the rock. No fuss, no issues. Just did it. It just goes to show what your body is actually capable of. In 'normal' life I would have avoided it, just said I couldn't do it and left. But what choice did I have? So I just did it. This trip has shown me that I am capable of so much more than I think I am.
This picture shows the view from the top, looking back at the camp. Our tents are the green ones to the right.
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| Moir Huts |
Once we had conquered the rock, the walk today was quite flat. It was up and down, but nothing major. It was very rocky and was the longest day as far as distance goes. We ended up walking around 21km. The path was marked out by small piles of rocks, some of which had also been placed on larger rocks to make a great photo opportunity. Whilst really rocky and dry - the views continued to be as stunning as further down the mountain in the greenery.
The route today took us all along the north ridge of the mountain. This is the Kenya side so we had some spectacular scenery in all directions. Who knew that I was an excellent rock climber? Not me! But I was. All my worries seemed to disappear as we headed further and further in to the day. We were rock climbing all day and I really, really enjoyed it! Today was my favourite day.
The route we were taking up the mountain is an alternative to the main routes taken. It was therefore much quieter than the previous days. We did see some porters pass us - although it was so baron that we didn't even get to stop to let them past. There wasn't a narrow path so no need to get out of the way. Despite there being some porters, we didn't actually see any more groups of trekkers all day. This was definitely my favourite day.
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| Snack Break |
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| Summit in the background. We actually had a phone signal here and got to call home! |
After lunch we set off again for more of the same but with one or two more extreme rock formations to get over. The second part of the walk was much quieter. We walked in our usual formation without talking. It was really peaceful. I could have just walked forever.
What I loved about Deo was that he didn't feel the need to entertain us all the time. He was actually quite shy and didn't chat unless you kicked off a conversation with him. Like us, he was happy just to walk in silence, to take in the views, think about life, to reflect on how far we had gone and what was ahead of us. Deo does 18 climbs a year. The climbs are very therapeutic so it really doesn't surprise me that he was just so chilled out.
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| The landscape |
Eventually we made it to the Third Caves Camp. Whilst we had ended up at a lower altitude than we started we were all worn out from the rocks and the long day (in the heat) so we didn't last very long before we went to bed. The summit attempt was getting ever nearer.
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| Chicken & Chips for Dinner |
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