KILIMANJARO-CLIMB ......DAY 1.....

Day 1 - 16th October 2012
Out_Cause ...KILI-CANCER
Start from Londrossi Gate to Mt. Mkubwa.
Altitude-2360 M to Mkubwa 2895 M
Hiking time-3-4 hours..
Distance-7 km.
Terrain : Walk through the rain-forest.

The evening before

And I woke up at 5 am after that wonderful dinner we all had at Arusha ..and after a near death experience as a lizard decided , he wanted to sit on my lap, and look at me...
I screamed and yelled , much to every ones amusement..
I'm sure , everyone was having the same thought pass their minds, "and she is going to sleep in tents in a forest and try to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro ...."
Well...


I was sharing my room with the soft spoken Shallu Jindal..

And so when I realised that I was definitely not being able to go back to sleep,at 5-05 am, I decided to take a walk out side...
So I pulled my favourite green shawl around me and walked out, to be greeted by a dark sky still sparkling with stars..
And while I sauntered into the open, I suddenly saw an animal, stop in his tracks , as did me, whilst we both chanced upon each other...
I saw his ears stand up...
My first impulse was to run...
Then my mind said, calm down, animals only attack in self defence, and if I can stop my racing heart beat , with the breathing skills I acquired , while doing pregnancy yoga..
I'm good..
So I stopped and then , walked slowly like , "you don't scare me" ..
As I put my glasses on...

It was a big "Alsatian" ...
I could have kissed him tight ....
Ha ha ha ...
And he ran away and came back with two more ..
But before that , every scary creature that was about taller than 2 1/2 ft in height came to my mind..
This pack of burly dogs , were then taken away by their care-taker , while I walked towards reception ..
Where I went in search of food...
But as the kitchen was to open at 7 ..
I just sat there watching TV in a language that was alien , imploring the guy at reception to please give me some fruit...
Which he finally did at 6.30am...

4 bananas the size of lychee's, that I gobbled ..

After a bit of time, the breakfast area was a flurry of activity...
We were all packed ,and repacking , and getting ready , for what was going to be a first for many of us...
Living in a tent..
No bath..
No rest -rooms...
Climbing such high altitudes..
Getting acclimatised..
Trying to summit the highest free standing mountain in the world...

Well I'm sure all of us were thinking of the same stuff...
We were all really excited and raring to go..
We all hogged breakfast like it was our last breakfast ...ha ha ha ...
Then after a few photos we all got into the jeeps, with our luggage and we set off on muddy roads to meet the mighty and elusive Mr. Kilimanjaro ...

The front-benchers and the back-benchers...

We stopped on the way to buy towels..White ones , if you please...
Which would be very much needed in the next few days...

We all chatted , and the jeep was a flurry of activity...

We reached Londrossi gate after a long drive...
Where we signed in our names and then we had a lovely lunch ...

The "Buffet before the Kili climb "

Under a beautiful Tanzanian sky. ..that beckoned us towards it..
Puffy clouds passed us by..
It was an idyllic start...
After lunch, we got back into our jeeps and were driven further up into the thicket of the rain forest ...
After a point, we were told that we now had to walk , as the jeeps could not go any further because of the slush...

And that "now" our walk begins..
We all got off from the vehicle, and adjusted our haversack's...
Checked our water..
Pulled out our trekking poles ..
And started off , on what was going to be the longest walk of my life...

We sauntered , into the rain-forest..
Tara and Kabir were the first to take off...
Then Yudi , Ram and Anish ..the crew that was basically documenting the whole journey...

Anish....the voice !

Followed by Shallu, Shyamal , Vikram and me....
And basically , this was how the walking pattern stayed till the end...

When our guide and main-boss man , God-Listen or G-Boy, said this was going to take us 5 hours...
I really did not take him seriously...
But after three hours of walking and not reaching any where, I finally got the drift..

Then to make things a little more interesting ,he started teaching us a song, that we would all kind of sing intermittently ,to push each other , or generally for fun...

The crew kept running up and down...
While climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro ,the word for the next 8 days was "POLE-POLE" ...pronounced "polay"
Which means "slowly"...

And as I really wanted to make this trek right up to the summit...
I took this very very seriously..
I could hear Warsi's voice saying, " Don't show off and try to be the first one, just go slow, that's the only way"
 Shallu's friend had just climbed Mt.Kilimanjaro with her son , and that's the same advice , she gave to her...
Vikram who is a partner at Aqua-Terra, said that the key to acclimatisation is to just be slow and drink enough of water ...

And so armed with all this information, we all walked through this beautiful lush rain-forest filled with beautiful flora and met these white tailed monkeys...

The rain-forest ablaze with the sun..

We all walked, exchanging stories, about ourselves, and how we got onto this trek and with a few songs....

We reached camp, just as the sun was setting ...

We were allotted our tents ...
Shallu and me , realised that we had never ever lived in a tent before, this was really alien and new ...
We snuck into our tent,which was to be our home , our bed-room , cupboard , closet , hall, and bathroom for the next 7 nights..
Ha ha ha so this is what you mean , when people say they are going camping ...
Ha ha ha ...
Not what we see in Karan Johars " kuch-kuch hota hain"...
Which is the song that we heard all the porters sing a lot ...
They called it " kuchi -kuchi hota hain" ....
They all love Shah Rukh Khan ...
Well I wanted to say, stand in line ...who does not ...

And so Shallu and me , with a small bowl of hot water , and fresh towels we bought,proceeded to have our first bath...
The first of many firsts, we would experience on our climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro
Ha ha ha ...
We then had some amazing dinner , prepared by Rashidi...
Bless him , and his lovely yummy steaming hot vegetarian food...

We all then ,kind of retired , some sat talking, some checked the beautiful sky...
Shallu and me , put on our head-lamps and tried to find, stuff that we had packed in our bags...
It was like a treasure hunt without any clues ...

Finally...
Could hear the zippers of every one's tent , zip down...

We did it ..
Day 1- over , successful, everyone had taken their Diamox..
And so we will all wake up, at various times in the cold night to pee....
He he he ...

Bloody diamoxed and happy, we all slept ...
(Vikram and Ram , steered clear of Diamox...)
Happy under a beautiful star filled Tanzanian sky..
We were blessed and blissed out ...
Slept with a smile on my face...
Could not believe I'm actually sleeping at the foot of the mighty Kili...
A mountain I have incessantly talked about walking up, with many people who also wanted to do the same...
And tonight I'm just 5 nights away ..

Thank you Yudi and Shyamal...

Thank you God...




NOTE FROM SHYAMAL...
FOUNDER OUT_CAUSE....
 
The OutCause Kili Cancer Team is supporting the Karunshraya Cancer Hospice.
Karunsharya means 'a compassionate abode' and that is exactly what the hospice is. Its a sanctuary thats offers support when a patient loses the comfort and security of a hospital as no further treatment is possible. They serve to bring peace and dignity to the patients life when the inevitable is close at hand. This institution that operates solely off the generosity of patrons such as yourselves,  have managed to help more than 12000 patients since their inception.

I am writing to you to humbly request that you and your close circle of friends please join the cause and help in the fight against cancer. The OutCause Team has pledged to raise money for this hospice so that they can continue their unbelievable work. Please reach out to family and friends and request that they be generous. All monies raised will go directly to the Karunshraya Cancer Hospice.
 
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