Mountain day five - part two

Hello everyone

I hope this post finds you all well and enjoying the summer. My last post saw us reach Karanga Valley camp from Barranco camp......if you remember we had decided to walk two camps in one day so we could go for our summit attempt through the day rather than climb it mostly through the early hours in the dark. We had all agreed this was the best thing for us all....I for one was grateful for this what with suffering with high altitude sickness, my balance was shot and it was hard enough avoiding stones etc in the daylight!

Karanga Valley Camp to Barafu Camp - 13,000ft - 14,928ft - Day five part two

It seems so weird that on day five we started at an elevation of 14,928ft at Barranco Camp to drop down to 13,000ft to then climb back up to 14,928ft.....but that is exactly what we did!

The really exciting thing about our walk to our second camp of the day is that Barafu camp is the ultimate one - the one we will strike out for our hopefully successful summit ascent. In  less than 24 hours we would be setting off to reach the "Roof of Africa"!

I got to tell you lunch break wasn't nearly long enough a recovery time after the hardest and steepest descent and ascent up to Karanga Valley Camp - that was the steepest ravine I've ever seen never mind climbed. Just thinking about sets my heart off pounding as if it's struggling to pump the blood around my body like it did on the actual climb!

So our climb again was going to be around the three hour mark and I was expecting my altitude sickness symptoms to intensify the higher we climbed. Expecting but hoping that they in fact wouldn't. This climb was quite nondescript in the fact there wasn't anything really to capture my attention. It was just a proper up hill and down dale walk. Very steep hills that were totally draining, especially after the really tough first part of our day. The higher we ascended, the more my symptoms increased, the pain in my lung/chest increased as my breath became more laboured, my headache was becoming a constant thud again and my balance was unsteady.....

It was a walk where it was so steep it made you breathless to walk so talking was to a minimum, we were all trying to stay in the groove of Pole pole Kilimanjaro ( not that walking any faster was an option for any of us! ), so this left us all with time to reflect on what had already passed and what was to come. It was really nice actually, to be able to take some time to just try to absorb what was going on. It was so impossible to talk for much of this second walk of the day unless you wanted to pass out from lack of oxygen. This Mountain is definitely no walk in the park!

I found my mind wandering all over the place and just let it do so. During these extended silences so many things mull around in your mind. Different people pass through, some almost on a constant loop. The emotions I were feeling at the time, overwhelming me on occasions as I looked around, at what I was calling my mountain in my head. Overwhelmed at the feelings that welled up in me as I said to myself....I'm here, I made it, I have finally made it and I am going to conquer it! wondering what everyone back home is up to, are they thinking about you....It's a constant and I have to say it's what helps you get through the day at times. When things are hard and gruelling, it's great having things to occupy your mind and in my case taking it off my lung and how it feels like it's going to actually explode.

As I'm walking I'm thinking of my two buddies Suzie and Molly, how are they, is Molly driving Suzie nuts asking how many more sleeps until I get back home. Does she know where I am, have I climbed to the top yet. Molly telling her teacher and class mates that her best friend is climbing Mount.Kilimanjaro, but she doesn't know where I am exactly. The antics of Molly are making me chuckle because as I picture her bombarding her mum with these questions over and over.....I can envision her body language that goes with them! Now I'm smiling like a lunatic!

I've been missing my two best buddies a lot, and it makes my heart melt and eases my worries knowing Suzie is taking Molly dog out for me while I'm away. I've really been missing my pooch, we do after all spend all day together each and everyday......the joys of my been self employed and the business I run!

Thinking about my mum, her birthday's Feb 10th, and thinking of what I could possibly get her while out here in Tanzania - which is actually pronounced Tan-zane-ia!! these thoughts and many more are going through my head all the while we climb steeply up and down on the mountain while all along steadily increasing our elevation towards camp.

I'm actually chuckling to myself as I think back to my head first tumble and how I flipped myself over so my backpack took the brunt of my landing....and how I was shouting I'm alright to the others as I was still inactual fact sliding to who knew where....all I could see was blue sky and Chacha's eyes....could have been heading towards a ravine for all I knew, but I'm alright is what I was shouting hee hee....I do amuse myself with my own antics!!

And finally we make it to our last camp on the ascent - Barafu at 14,928ft! - this feels such an accomplishment in itself - truly amazing to be here on day five instead of day seven. I'm really glad we changed our plans from the original - I dread to think how much time I'd have spent on the ground from falling over rocks and slipping on the loose scree by climbing with just the light from our headtorches for hours. My balance is terrible!

Wow this camp is very rocky, it's like a boulder assault course just to get into it! the tents are all over the place, anywhere you can find some level ground. Suffering badly with altitude sickness now, head pounding away to the rhythm of my heart beat....thudding loudly in my ears, lightheaded with bad balance. very tired and very relieved to have finally hit camp. Hoping for a great nights sleep and a successful ascent for each and everyone of us!

Even at Barafu camp we cannot see the summit, we can see roughly where we are going to be heading and how steep it's going to be, but no sign of the summit. I'm so very excited to be this close to fulfilling my dream of conquering Mount.Kilimanjaro....all those years in the making. the frustrations of the delays, the ill health preventing me taking it on have now faded to nothing....here I stand swaying looking around me knowing it's penultimate night and at 4am we will be getting up ready to start our climb around 5am!! guys.......it's nearly time!

I just wanted to lay down and rest my pounding head, again I didn't want anything to eat. Poor Bec's was suffering with nausea and so food was off the table for her also. We both disappeared into our respective tents to lay down and try ease our altitude symptoms. I gotta say from all our hard work on this climb and having to depend on our walking poles so much - I'm gonna be mad if my bingo wings ain't gone....lol!


Next post is summit ascent day and all the dramas that went with it. Hope you'll pop by to read what went on. Day six Summit day!

So me myself right now - I've been waiting since March to be referred to the chronic pain clinic for my never ending saga with the pains in my sides. I, who don't like anything medical voluntarily made a GP appointment to see what was going on with my referral. I cannot carry on with the physical job I do on an average of three hours sleep. The pains wake me constantly, affect me obviously throughout the day. Sadly I started getting intermittent pain in my right side again.....I had a good six months pain free after having my gall bladder out, but it's all started up again. It's built back up in the last eight to ten weeks to almost constant. At times the pain is very acute and pretty unbearable. I even felt like I'd passed a stone a couple of weeks ago, that's how intense the pain was. The really annoying thing with the pain on my right  makes me sick, I actually vomit because of it...so to cap things off, I'm back to been sick daily and so the little food I do have isn't staying down.

So being fully aware that I cannot possibly carry on covering the mileage I do on next to no food and very little sleep and not expect to feel as fatigued as I am starting to do I went to see the doctor.

He checked the system and no referral letter had been received so said he was tied as to what he could offer me....after a fairly lengthy chat he prescribed me Tramadol to take on a night to see if it would help my pains enough so I could get some sleep. He said without seeing what my consultant was saying he could do no more ( he wasn't even going to do that at first! ). They didn't in fact work so I'm not taking now...I don't do tablets unless really pressed.

I then left a message with my consultants secretary to find out if the referral had been sent out. This actually took a couple of weeks to get a response and only after I had phoned four times! long story short, the referral was resent and I've finally got a letter so I can choose and book.

Three months to get to the point where I can choose and book - ridiculous!....but at least now I can hopefully find something when dealing with the clinic that's going to help me relieve some pain off so I can sleep and eat better than I am now. I know my food intake won't ever be brilliant, it's not been great since my chemo days. But if I can get back to keeping down the one meal I actually eat a day - that would be a start!

Until next time
Tracy