Kilimanjaro Climb Prolouge

From Russia With Love

So before I get into the sordid details of the climb proper, let's talk about the day or so before. No, I'm not going to mention that ridiculous dala dala I saw with the motif 'doggy style' emblazoned on the side in yellow letters..

So we had all our gear and it was time to start taking our Diamox ie a wonder drug that aids faster acclimatisation to altitude. Makes you breath faster or thickens your blood or something...has some side effects (tingling in extremities, a feeling like being drunk etc)so we had our dose a day before we were due to climb.

And man did I feel it. I felt drunk, disorientated. Just had to hope the effects would wear off a bit. In order to relax we decided to check out the new Moshi movie theater that Friday night to see the new Stallone movie 'The Expendables'. The decor of the theater was nice (with animal heads and wrestling playing on the tv by a bar) and the people working there were very earnest...however when the 'film' began it became quickly clear it was a dodgy Russian (as evidenced by Russian subtitles) pirated copy. Poor picture and awful bass heavy sound. Stallone is hard enough to understand at the best of times let alone in this execrable print.

Still the staff were nice, popping in during action sequences to ask me what I thought of the picture and sound...um....simbaya (not bad) At some point it all became quite funny and I laughed gaily at the poorly rendered explosions and Stallone mumblings.

Saturday we met our guide Chunga, who came round to our house to inspect our gear and brief us on the route. He seemed like a good guy, who I could trust my and my wife's life too. Our gear passed muster and he promised to come pick us up Monday morning. Needless to say at Mass that Sunday I offered many grovelling/bargaining prayers to the Man Upstairs asking for a safe return and uneventful climb...we would see.

To be continued...