Kath climbs Kilimanjaro

Over the weekend there was a meeting with all my fellow comrades who are climbing the crazy mountain. We got a lot explained to us about a-day-in-the-life-on-kilimanjaro including washing with wet wipes, ablutions, the cuisine and more. It was exciting to talk to the guides who have climbed the mountain several times. The people on my team were great, there were some Starbucks crew, a soon to be writer, another kiwi, some long time trekkers and others. It is all becoming very much more real.

Despite all the inspiration my training has been less than inspirational to say the least. Although I have recently got myself a new bike – today was my first riding to work in the London traffic – I seem to be constantly fatigued and not feeling like doing anything. This is partly due to the hot weather we are experiencing (although Kili will be a whole lot hotter on the lower levels) and also that training has been going on for awhile and I think I’m slightly bored. I’ve had a couple of days off so will be right back on the horse today hoping to conjure up some inspiration. One foot in front of the other.

They told us that on summit day we are each assigned a porter to help us get to the top, and they say “pole pole” pronounced like ‘poli poli’ which means slowly slowly as we go higher and higher to make it to the top. I think I will take some of that advice onboard now, as my resolve weakens. But I think there are phases of summer and winter in amoungst getting fit, just to hang in there until it gets a bit easier.