Appalling nights sleep, but I wasn’t the only one, no one we spoke to slept at all!!
Up (officially) at 1.00am and we all got cracking with getting prepared and sorting the correct clothes, although no one is too sure what is “right”…down for breakfast but didn’t eat much and chatted with the people we’ve connected with.
Loads of coffee taken on board and the hope of a decent morning, the rain seems to have run dry, as at the time of writing, 2.00am, it not raining and to be fair, it pissed down all night!
I hope that’s not a bad omen by me saying that…Elvin just mentioned that if we have a clear sky then we should get to see the stars, so bloody obvious but we’d not even contemplated that.
Next update later, we just waiting now until 2.30am for Jeanus.
Everyone started congregating outside at 2.20am so we joined them and Jeanus came down, checked we were ready and then set off. It was a very steady slow pace and for good reason, we only had a headlamp each to see where we were going. We were happy with the slow pace so that was fine.
Sure enough it started raining after about 30 minutes and we then had a scare where we didn’t move for 7-10mins as they were checking with the pass office if they were going to allow us up there. It was an anxious wait because we’d all got so far and thankfully we got the green light and trudged on.
After about 90mins at a break point I noticed Tasha’s torch wasn’t working so we replaced batteries and still no good. I was worried we’d be sent back but by giving Tash my headlamp and me having phone as a torch did the trick, but it genuinely made my life harder as I could only use one pole as I had to hold the torch.
On we continued and all you could see was your own little lit up area and all you could do was put one step in front of the other. This 2km was purely rock face (granite). There were no steps just a rope as a guide and sometimes the only way to get up some of the steepest slopes.
Every now and then you’d look behind and there was this trail of lights in threes and fours snaking their way up the summit. It was so cool.
The rain did ease but but the temperature dropped and it was windy, nothing as serious as we are use to but we slowly put on gloves or a snood but didn’t really need a thick ski coat or such like.
I read in a blog that this was very challenging, he wasn’t lying. It was exhausting. In fact I forgot to mention that we walked past Jean at about 500 metres, she just couldn’t face it. On our way down Ewen was throwing up with altitude sickness, he was wobbly and all over the place and other people that we’d seen at the hostel didn’t make it to the summit either.
So anyway, slow and steady wins the race and we were definitely slow and steady but I think that was to help with altitude and also making the route more comfortable, we were zig zagging all over to reduce the steepness of our steps.
It felt like we were super slow but no one went past us and gradually we got closer to the top. The last 100 were really hard, it was difficult terrain, we were tired and a bit dizzy so we were on hands a knees a lot of it and then we’d done it. There were a couple of people there but it couldn’t be crowded as it was literally just a pointed at the top of the mountain, there was no flat space to stand comfortably.
We had a couple of photos taken but it was dark still as it was 5.30am. We moved down the slope a bit but didn’t have any water left and I had no appetite for food. I felt funny and was happy to leave. We established that there wouldn’t really be a sunrise and because we were sat still
Now we were getting cold.
So we started making our way down. Very quickly, 10-15 mins the sky lightened and we could make out the trail that we had come up and the remaining people coming up the mountain.
We took loads of photos as the views were amazing and we were so pleased with ourselves for the achievement. Most of the people coming up the mountain were really struggling and we recognised a few where only one was completing it as their partner had stopped.
The trek down was challenging too and we got to see the landscape hat we’d climbed throughout the night on, it was quite scary.
Anyway, we got back down to the hostel in decent time and had a coffee and by 8.45am we’re back underway for the trek down the second part of the mountain that we’d trekked through yesterday in the cloud and rain. That was definitely one bonus, we got to see everything that we missed yesterday and again the views were so very good. I kept stopping to take photos of course.
We ploughed down the 6km in about 3 hours and same as yesterday we started walking past people that were on their first day of the trek and they were mostly knackered! We also passed so many of the porters carrying up provisions, absolutely incredible endurance by them and they all appeared to be suffering and I am not surprised looking at the weight of the things they were carrying. I did wonder how many times a day they would make the trip up and down. I bet it wasn’t only once!!
We got back to the meeting point, I was very tired by this point, I was struggling to put one step in front of the other. But we made it, took some photos and taken back to the lodge to collect our bags and certificates and were told we were the first ones back there. We were shocked by that.
We then got a minibus with another couple to KK, no one spoke, we’re we’re all knackered.
The hotel we were dropped off at (The Magellan) was amazing, it was absolutely huge. Clearly a golf resort type place but the lobby was like one I’ve never seen before. Just a massive expanse. We had a nice room and went out to the pool for a bit, huge, but unfortunately it started raining so we gave up after a bit and got ready to go out and find a laundromat.
There was one sort of nearby but the resort and local area just doesn’t seem designed for pedestrians, everyone uses scooters I guess. Anyway, wasn’t the nicest looking area but we were there so tough. Got it on the go and went across the square and had some nice food. Tash went back and forth for the drying and then we packed our bags again and walked back to hotel.
Went into the bar area and had some wine and beers and Tash called Zoe for a catch up which was nice for them.
It was a long day but we feel amazing by our achievement. All my worry and genuine concern was in vain. Although the training we did ahead of this quite clearly was a massive help, so it shows how it is to be prepared.
Hopefully I’ll continue with the walks/hikes/climbs back in the UK.
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