Well when I started this blog, whenever it was, I could not have believed that February could have come around so quickly. It is now just nineteen days until I go.

It is strange, and maybe a reflection on state of mind, to note that over the last couple of days a couple of things have come to the fore. Firstly a couple of people have told me, almost unsolicited (although not much is entirely unsolicited these days as it is at the forefront of many conversations that I have, and so I must be a Kilimanjaro bore) about ‘bad’ experiences on Kili.

The first was last evening. A lady who I have just enlisted to clean my house for me (six bedroom house for one person is getting a bit too much for me) told me about a friend of hers. The friend is an experienced marathon runner, who did Kili last year, and found it the hardest thing she had ever done. That sort of made me think “shit, I can’t make it three quarters of the way through a Body Pump class, what the heck am I going to feel like?” The second was a lot more humbling. I learned of a person whose brother, at 43 years of age, made it to 15,000 feet up the mountain, and then basically succumbed to severe altitude sickness and died. If that isn’t a horrible and humbling and scary thought then I don’t know what is.

When I first thought about doing Kilimanjaro I read all of the stuff about it, good and bad. The good got me fired up beyond compare. The bad didn’t bother me at all. It is not that I felt invincible, I suppose it was a stage of my life that I was at that meant that it didn’t bother me. I feel different now. I have fear. I have respect. I am hoping that is a good thing.

Six months ago when I decided to do this, I was of the opinion that I would conquer it, regardless. I decided that if I was told that I had AMS, that I would deny it, that I would go on and defy the odds. I feel differently now. I have a reason to come down from the mountain. If I get AMS I will listen, and will come down. I know now that you don’t necessarily get a choice in these matters, but my head is sort of there. I may of course be a stubborn bastard when I get up there, but we will see.

It is currently Tuesday night, late, and I am thinking that I wish that time would slow down. I am captivated, mesmerised, more than ever. I have done my gym session tonight, and yesterday (nothing at the weekend, I’ll tell you about that tomorrow) and I’ll stop the ramble now.  I will do exercise now every day without fail. It felt good tonight. So 18 days to go tomorrow…………I have my Yellow Fever and malarials tomorrow – hope they don’t hurt:)………