Anyway, back to Africa! The ambush on Charlie was orchestrated brilliantly by His sister and I. However by the time they arrived at about 10.30pm I had been sitting around the hotel bored out of my brain all day so as soon as the door opened I literally rugby tackled the poor chap! Kind of killed the moment a little but not to worry!
After the shock reunion, beers were in order so we went to the bar for a quick one and this gave me a chance to meet the fourth and final member of the group, Richard. South African guy who reminded me of an old friend in blighty, so all in all things were looking rosey.
Diary time:
........'Charlie woke up and peed loudly, then at 6.30 Charlie jumped around! Brekky in the hotel, bit worried about the raw egg but tummy fine so far. Guides changed from the ones that Charlie and Jo had met last night. Big road accident involving Brother of original guide which prevented him from continuing (we were to find out later that it had been a fatal accident). Our guides gave us a big bottle of water at the hotel and told us to drink it all asap. From there we headed into town to collect something and then on to a garage/supermarket to get the prop shaft removed (whatever that is). apparently it was making a funny noise and needed to come off even though this also did away with the 4WD.
After a long wait while the Land Rover was worked on and buying a little bottle of whiskey for the summit we were off. Soon we were off into some hardcore off-roading. Followed by some more dicking around at a base camp where we had to sign paperwork and give our passport numbers. More off roading before Lunch and then walking began at about 2pm after eating in a forest clearing at the end of the road/trail. Saw some monkeys which looked like big skunks. Walked until 5.
We are now at 2600m and I am sitting in the dark writing this and waiting for dinner. It is 7pm. Last 2 hours been spent washing and sorting stuff out. Almost forgot to mention that when they dished the kit out, my cold weather coat did not show up.....big problem. Then Charlie unpacked his sleeping bag to reveal my jacket! Good for me but not so good for Charlie! Soon sorted though as the guides had spares...... Guess they like carrying extra weight for the hell of it!
I have a slight headache which is unusual for me and we have a 6 hour walk tomorrow....I cant wait to get stuck in'.
Just remembered that we had spaghetti bolognese that night. Perfect.
We are now at 2600m and I am sitting in the dark writing this and waiting for dinner. It is 7pm. Last 2 hours been spent washing and sorting stuff out. Almost forgot to mention that when they dished the kit out, my cold weather coat did not show up.....big problem. Then Charlie unpacked his sleeping bag to reveal my jacket! Good for me but not so good for Charlie! Soon sorted though as the guides had spares...... Guess they like carrying extra weight for the hell of it!
I have a slight headache which is unusual for me and we have a 6 hour walk tomorrow....I cant wait to get stuck in'.
Just remembered that we had spaghetti bolognese that night. Perfect.
To give some idea of the walking, it was through rainforest and we walked for almost exactly 2 hours. Initially it felt like painfully slow progress but after an hour or so we settled in to the 'Pole, pole' (pron; Poley) routine. Which you can prob guess is 'slowly, slowly' in Swahili. To indicate how slow this is Charlie and I both agreed that had we been left to our own devices we would of taken around 45minutes.
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