Well it seems that the phrase “I don’t like Mondays” is very applicable today (actually it is now Tuesday am as I post this). Firstly the dog wakes me up at 5.30am (I mean just how totally inconsiderate is that?), and then I have to get up half an hour later to go to work. That is a bad start to the week! As if to compound this, the inner thighs are hurting a bit, probably from three attempts at the bleep test yesterday, but more particularly as it is the first time I have run in eleventy-two gazillion years. After a coffee or three I trudge off to the office eventually at about 8am to face that other world that I live in.

I had a couple of emails over the weekend which I need to respond to as well, as I have been lax on responding to anything. A couple from Henry – he has given me some pointers as to how to best coordinate travel arrangements to and from Tanzania to coincide with proposed climb start dates. Also another very kind one from Saira at Bowel Cancer UK – she would like a quote from me and a picture for the website. I need to get this arranged, and realise quickly that I don’t think I have a recent picture of me at all (other than one collapsing in the garden yesterday during the bleep test, that wouldn’t be good!). Oh, there was a picture of me falling (very literally) into the Thames during a recent punting attempt in Oxford, but that probably won’t work either. Need to convince people that I have the ability to stay on my feet here, lest they do not sponsor my mountain trekking adventures!

Lastly I have a response to my advert for a travel buddy! The first one (hopefully there will be more too) is from a guy called Edd, who is from Derby I think (Hi Edd if you are reading this!). He says that he would love to climb Kilimanjaro too, but would like to know the costs. I send them to him, and hopefully they won’t put him off.

I have another trawl through the travel buddy site later, and it seems that most people are off soon to the forthcoming Oktoberfest in Munich. People are putting up notices saying the likes of “Hi, we are 22 year old Australian sisters – would you fancy coming with us to drink gallons of beer in a party atmosphere at the world’s best and biggest carnival – cheap accommodation, not far to travel, and drink and sing to your heart’s content the best beers served by voluptuous fraüleins in one of the world’s foremost party capitals”. Funnily enough they are getting shedloads of responses! Why won’t people jump to respond to my advert which says something like “If you’d be so kind, would you spend a fortune flying half way round the globe with a middle-aged bloke on his own for a week or more, and half-kill yourself walking up and down a massive pile of rock”. Hmmm, they are all missing the plot somewhere I think, or is it me?

Mondays, pah!

OK, so I did it this morning – the bleep test that is. I realise now why my daughter told me that she wanted pictures, so here below (if they come out OK, haven’t worked out how to put pictures up here yet) are some pictures of the before, during, and after. Firstly, it was ugly. It is now about an hour later, and I think my heartbeat may just be back down to its normal level. So here is a picture of the before:

Trying to psyche myself up....

I tried to do it with my iPhone, hence the earphones, and had already surprised myself being the technophobe that I am (wait and see what happens next!!) that I managed to rip the file via iTunes in the first place:). So with my carefully measured 20m path set out between two of the dog’s toys (dog watching bemused from the house in case she runs up and nabs one of the toys and spoils it for me), and thankful that there is room in the back garden to do this, I begin.

I get to stage 1, part 6, and am thinking “this is easy”, when what is this, the Manic Street Preachers start playing on the iPhone! Totally bemused, I stop, set the beep test back up again, and start again. This time I get to Stage 1, part 7, and then holy shit (!), I am hit with Mott The Hoople “All The Young Dudes” (no comments on my musical taste please:)). I am ready to either give up, or throw the iPhone over into next door’s garden, or both. I look at it, perplexed, and decide that it must shuffle or something when you run with it (you can tell here that I have never ever run with this before – in fact I cannot remember the last time I ran for anything – I think it was when I was University about 20-odd years ago). My heart rate is already up, and I am not happy! I decide that running with an iPhone is a waste of time.

I cobble together a much better solution – I burn the bleep test to a CD-R, and decide to do this the old fashioned way. Armed with an old ghetto blaster, and an extension cable, I put a chair in the garden half way between the two dog toys, and plop the CD into the ghetto blaster, and bang the volume up to maximum. I am away! It is way too loud, and can probably be heard three streets away, but I care not, I am not stopping for anyone now, and pray that the CD player doesn’t have some sort of shuffle feature as well. I decide not to run too close to it:).

At about 800m or so, probably level 4 or 5, I start to feel my breath shortening (note chair in foreground with the CD player on it!):

I pass level 6 without difficulty – I can feel my breathing, and the frustrating part is that the ‘running’ bit is fairly easy, there is no real pace involved. I get then half way through level 7, and whilst I can make the distance easily, I feel myself breathing so heavily that I decide to call it a day. Here I was a moment later:

just resting, honest!

And yes, that is pain on my face.

When I recover, I input my details into the VO2 calculator. The score was 37.4 for those who want to know, which equates to 7.3 on the test itself, which is apparently right about average for my age. I’m not hugely proud of the result, and it tells me two things:

1. I have a significant amount of work to do to build up my stamina if I am not to get so utterly exhausted on Kilimanjaro that it totally ruins the experience for me.

2. I am at least ‘average’ which considering I really do so little regular exercise gives me a little bit of heart.

Lastly, not that I was deluding myself or anything, but I vow to get properly fit over the coming weeks and months. I will do the bleep test again (however much it is not fun) in probably eight weeks or so, and hopefully the result will be a reasonable improvement. I decide to contemplate this further, and pop round to the pub for a Sunday lunchtime pint or two. I do have time on my side, don’t I?????

So today I woke up with the mother of all hangovers. I really don’t know why either. Did, I admit, have several too many glasses of wine last night, but that isn’t exactly unusual for me. I’m going to blame the dog, which seems only fair. You see, I was woken up by Abigail, our Yorkshire Terrier, at about 4.45am this morning. So that just wasn’t funny, especially when she sat on my head and stuck her tongue in my ear. I did doze for a while afterwards, but it wasn’t really happening for me on the sleep front.

So I sort of sat around on the sofa this morning – went and cooked some sausages on the barbecue, but it didn’t really make me feel any better, which is definitely a bad sign….

I think for about one very brief second thought about doing the bleep test, but my head is banging so badly that I can’t even walk without pain,  let alone contemplate running relentlessly between two bollards until I pass out. The thought is therefore dismissed from my mind as quickly as it enters it.

I sign onto a site called travbuddy.com, which looks great, and advertise for a travel buddy for February in Tanzania. Fingers crossed on that one.

I resolve to drink substantially less red wine this evening and to do this bleeping bleep test tomorrow instead…….

I was pleasantly surprised today when checking my emails. No, make that gobsmacked. On two counts in fact.

Firstly I have two fantastic emails from Henry, whom I have told I will book with to climb to the roof of Africa. (That sounds so good I feel like writing it all over again). As ever, he is tremendously responsive, and I get all the information I request and more besides. I have told him that I will either book on his trip at the end of February for Rongai, or will ask for a separate trip date, depending on what flights I can get out there. He is totally fine with this, and says whatever I choose is great. He has given me so much help on this it is incredible. Perhaps he is a great salesman – and I think that is in fact true, but I know that he is a lot more than that – he is first and foremost someone who loves Kilimanjaro, and has shared his experience with so many people. I admire him greatly, and am in fact envious of the fact that he has climbed the mountain and I have not, and that I may not even make it (though that I know now will not be for lack of effort). I dispel quickly those selfish thoughts from my mind – they are gone.

Next the really gobsmacking part. Yesterday I set up a page to link via Yougiving to make a commitment to drum up support for Bowel Cancer UK. Today I receive an email from Saira, who is Assistant Community Fundraiser at Bowel Cancer UK. She tells me that she has read my blog, and thinks it is “brilliant”. This is fantastic! Even better still – she asks me if it is OK with me if they feature my fundraising efforts on their website, as they would like it if other people could be inspired by it. Is it OK? Is it OK???? Errrrr, yes it is!! I am delighted, not for me, but for the fact that this thing has got legs now. This I hope means that the charity link can be seen by a whole lot more people than I could ever reach, and so hopefully the charity gets to benefit a lot more from it – that makes me very happy. I vow to be even more determined to make sure that I raise as much money as I can for them. I need to think of some good fundraising events to get things started as soon as possible…..

Meanwhile, tomorrow I am still going to do the bleep test. If it all goes very badly, I avow not to share my results here and to say that I decided to postpone it :). Lets see what happens then………truth or dare perhaps?

Not a cheery blog tonight, but probably instead the most important one that I will end up writing. I have decided to raise money for bowel cancer, and a specific charity – Bowel Cancer UK. Their website is here: http://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/

Why? Well there are several reasons, but the most important is that my mum died of cancer some nine years ago now, and I have never really done anything to raise money for cancer before. Guilt trip? NO! I just think that if you are going to do something as outstanding and memorable as a walk up Kilimanjaro then there will be people (I hope) who follow my progress, and some of them will ask (some of them already have) whether there is a charity involved, and so now there is.

There will also be that added extra item to drive me on (I don’t need the motivation as such, but maybe if there are really dark and bad times of doubt that I end up having when I am shivering in my tent half way up the mountain, and wondering what the hell I am doing there, then I will recall this point in time, and more importantly the people who I hope will donate to this very worthy cause).

Thank you in advance to anyone and everyone who gives money. I will try to find time later on to thank everyone individually. There is a link to the charity site on the “Blogroll” section of this website, and there is also a link here below. Naturally, every penny goes directly to the charity itself, enhanced by Gift Aid if you are a UK resident and tick the box:

http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Kilimanjaro2010

So, I shall not quote the immortal words of Bob Geldof……but you know what they are…….

So having decided yesterday that I was now wavering towards the Rongai, today I am still in the same place, except more so. Trouble is I had a really busy day (don’t you hate it when work gets in the way of the things you really want to do? :)). Had to get up at 5.45 to go to meetings in London – not good, and so little time to think about the mountain – except I didn’t stop thinking about it at all!

Got a recommendation also to advertise for some walking buddies on a couple of trekking forums (I hadn’t realised before today that such things existed, although I suppose that there are forums for everything these days). This, if I manage to get some fellow trekkists, would enable me to choose my own travel dates, and so that is a good thing, or it would be if I knew exactly when I wanted to go. Will have to put up some adverts – maybe I should say that I am a 21 year old Swedish blonde, and see how many responses I get. Err, on the other hand, maybe I REALLY shouldn’t do that at all, cancel that thought right away:). I will register for these forums tomorrow and see what comes back, if anything. How many more mad people are there like me? – I have no idea!

Will go and find some traffic cones or the like tomorrow too so I can do my fitness test at the weekend – not looking forward to that one at all – will maybe take some photos of that, and see how I put photos on this site – where do I start with that one? Oh, and I need to get my passport renewed too – you need a passport with six months to run to get into Tanzania, and mine expires early next year sometime. So so much to think about….

I am enjoying this hugely – maybe it doesn’t show – does it?? Well I am, I think it is the most exciting thing I have ever done, and I am still nowhere near it yet. Bring it on!!!

No no no, not about going, I mean about which route to take! I will be going – definitely! Got to talk today to two people who have done the mountain before. One of them has done it twice, once by Shira and once by Rongai. The other has done it about 12 times, and said to me (amongst many other pieces of helpful advice) that I should do the Rongai route at that time of year. It’s apparently quieter, more scenic, and the ‘saddle’ is fantastic, and must be seen! I know I should listen to people who have done it before, but what about the voices in my head, shouldn’t I listen to those too? – I mean they’ve never let me down before:)

Oh and the second person above that I spoke to has lots of kit which I can borrow if I want to, which is really really nice of him. He said to drop him an email and ask him whatever I want, which I really appreciate (was introduced to him by a work colleague, and so us never having met each other before this is really great of him). Oh, and one of the other things he told me was to “take Diamox early”, like before getting on the plane. I’m unsure totally about this, I’m really not a pill popper at all, but if it stops me getting AMS then I’m not going to dismiss the idea altogether yet – more of Diamox I think in a later blog…..

I also got a wonderful email from Henry, who tells me amongst other things that Meindl boots are the absolute dog’s danglies, and that his have lasted him forty two billion trips up Kilimanjaro, and a lot more besides, so that is good enough for me. In the words of Roman Abramovic, ” I buy them!” Oh and he also offers to put a link to my blog on his website (not sure why yet, I am sure he hasn’t read any of it), which is very nice indeed….I must book a holiday with his company one day:)

Talked to my daughter on Skype tonight about the trip, it is the first time we have chatted about it. She said that she thinks that I’m mad, but that she can maybe understand it if it is something that I really want to do. However, she concludes again that I am mad, about three times. I think that on balance, she is probably right, so I agree with her.

Finally, I found a link to a way to test your fitness (or at least oxygen absorption) levels, which involves a VO2 test, or something like that (I thought it was a type of shampoo?). Apparently you download a pulse test, and play it over your MP3 player, and then place two traffic cones on a field twenty metres apart. Then you simply have to run between the traffic cones (do you need to dress up for this one?, I’ll have to find out…), and count the number of times you can do it backwards and forwards before you cannot get to the next traffic cone before the next pulse sounds. Sounds like I need to do it 63 times to be “average” for my age – sounds like a lot to me, especially if I am seen doing it and burst into hysterical laughter. Maybe my daughter is right……..

So further to my indecisiveness yesterday, I actually made a decision today, or I nearly did anyway….

I decided that regardless of when this happens, I have to start walking again at some point, and so went in search of some new boots. I need some new ones that are waterproof and also Goretex lined, so they can cope with walking at 90 degrees in tropical rainforest and also on snow in the extreme cold. My current ratty old boots are great for a Sunday stroll around Dovedale, but will not be up to the challenges that I face ahead of me. I also have crap feet, and suffer badly from blisters any footwear (even flip flops!) that are even vaguely new. I therefore need to get something that I can wear in as soon as possible.

I had seen on someone else’s blog that they had chosen some Meindl Burma GTX boots to walk Kilimanjaro, and had never looked back, as it were. I had also sent an email to Henry Stedman, asking him form some recommendations on boots, and had said that “Meindl, Salomon and Berghaus” were all popular choices at the moment. Now I’ve never heard of Meindl at all, but thought as they came up twice in a row that I should find out some more. Oh and apparently they are German, and I haven’t bought anything bad from Germany ever.

I duly googled both Blacks and Snow & Rock, and finding a Blacks in nearby Oxford, toddled off there for a look. I have always liked Blacks – they seem to have such knowledgeable staff, and I was most certainly not disappointed by my experience here, in fact totally the reverse. I was treated in fact to a hugely educational (but never in an over-salesmanlike sort of way) explanation of various boots by Tim, whom I thanked for his great help. I also tried various pairs on. The ones I liked best were in fact the Meindl Burma GTX, and although I did several double takes and sharp intakes of breath at the price ( a rather hefty £175 I thank you) I decided that these would be the boots for me! I did not however buy them there and then, as I thought I might just see what the price difference was online or elsewhere first.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to see what else they had in Blacks too. I duly told Tim that he’d be “seeing a bit more of me over the coming weeks and months”, as despite the fact that I may well do some online shopping, I do really appreciate good customer service (and my pet hate is the reverse), and so he will definitely be getting the majority of my custom. I know I also need fleeces, overtrousers, daypack, rucksack, sleeping bag, head torch, socks etc. – this could be getting rather expensive!

I asked him about sleeping bags first – I think (not having done enough research yet) that it needs to be able to withstand -25 degrees or so. He said they have some nice down ones which pack up really small, and they looked great. Only draw back was the £150 price tag – yikes! I then asked him about the carry mat that I would need – apparently they are called ‘thermarest’ or something, and I admitted to not having heard of them before. Again he was tremendously helpful, and showed me a Thermarest (for the uninitiated like I was, it is basically a sort of self-inflating plastic mat), which looked great, and was going to be around £75. All of a sudden I had the thought that “I’m going to spend two grand in here and still not get everything I need”, and so I took my leave, thanked him sincerely for his time, and told him that I’d be back, which I will.

Got back home early afternoon and sat in the garden (it is Bank Holiday Monday and the sun is shining beautifully) with a bottle of three of Magners, some ice, and my Henry Stedman book. I had another very helpful email yesterday from Henry whom I had asked all sorts of questions. One of these was about which route he would recommend, and I told him what my criteria were – I wanted either the Rongai or the Machame, and he suggested either the Rongai or the Lemosho. About four hours later, the book is finished (it is outstanding – read it if you are reading this, and no I am not on commission!), and as well as being more inspired than ever, I have decided upon my route! Yes, it is the Lemosho for me, for sure. There were a number of reasons why, but it seems to me overall to offer the best mix of everything, and has a good amount of “climb high, sleep low” (which is supposed to be best for helping to prevent altitude sickness) mixed in. I check the website – there is apparently a Lemosho trip going in February – decision made!

I duly email Henry, and say that I want to do the Lemosho, and tell him that I like these new boots I have seen. It is all seemingly getting a bit closer. It is September tomorrow, and all of a sudden February does not sound very far away at all………..

So having made the leap of faith to actually do this thing (what have I let myself in for? No, it is really too early to have doubts – they will all come a lot later and I am sure very strongly), there are apparently an incredible number of things to decide. I have checked out probably twenty websites to date, and the one which impresses me most so far is http://www.climbmountkilimanjaro.com,  which is written/produced etc by Henry Stedman, the guy whose book I bought yesterday. The book is called “Kilimanjaro: The trekking guide to Africa’s highest mountain” (ISBN is 978-1-873756-91-1), and is riveting.

I didn’t expect booking up to be easy, but there are lots of things that you need to know before you decide to take the plunge for a certain date.

The Weather

Amongst the things you should decide upon are firstly when to go, on account of the weather. This it seems can be a bit of an obstacle. Apparently there are distinct wet and dry seasons, and Kilimanjaro apparently has its own weather systems! It is however on a massif stetching 60km long by 80km wide and is about 6km high, so this is not surprising! Apparently there are two sort of ‘monsoon’ (or very wet anyway) seasons, being October to December and March to May. This therefore influences when you might want to go, assuming that like me, you want to see as much as you can of the mountain and also not get (if you can help it) wet as hell every single day. Apparently January and February, and then June and July are the favourite (and most popular) times to climb.

Full Moons

This came slightly out of left field in my research I have to say. Not being terribly astrologically minded, I stumbled upon most websites giving out dates of full moons, and thought “WTF?”, but then it dawned upon me – it transpires that (without exception I think?) the final (1200m or so) ascent takes place at night (you start out at midnight), and so the clearer and better lit the night sky, the more you can see the path ahead of you in the darkness. Then I began wondering “why do they do the last bit at night?” – “is it because if you could see what you were actually facing you would turn back?”, and thought that maybe I should choose to do it whenever there is the opposite of a full moon – is that a new moon?

Which Route

OK, so having thought about when and then when in the month, you have to choose which route you want to take up the mountain. Yep, it’s not just a case of turning up with your $1,000 (or thereabouts) climb fee, and then trotting off towards your goal. No, there are (as far as I can tell) at least six different options, all with various names, being the Rongai, Machame, Shira, Umbwe, Lemosho and Marangu. They all appear to start from about the same height (all around 6,000ft or so), and all end up at Uhuru Peak (the pinnacle of the crater, at about 19,400 feet, or 5,985m). They are all fairly different too it seems (other than the Shira and Lemosho, which seem very similar indeed). They all have different characteristics too – whether by steepness, ruggedness, variety of eco-systems en route, busy-ness etc. Oh, and they are in different locations alotogether – like if you go from Rongai the gate is effectively in Kenya, so you want to fly to Naorobi in the first place. Which one to take? Oh, and when you have chosen your route it seems that you can have a six day route, a seven day route or more. How much time do I need to acclimatise?

Which travel company to go with?

This seems hard to decide also. The choice is split into broadly two categories – you can choose a local operator in Tanzania, or one in your country of departure (England in my case). You will (almost certainly) have more to fall back on if things go wrong by choosing an operator in your local country, but they are going to be considerably more expensive. For your climb fees, it seems that you are  broadly speaking talking about roughly $1,000 (it seems that the dollar rules in Tanzania) if you book with a local guide, or (a minimum of) $2,000+ if you book in the UK. I have seen some companies charging $5,000 or so. Am I going to get a better trip up the mountain if I book here before I go? No idea! Then when you have chosen from which country you want your company to come from then there are seemingly hundreds to choose from!

What else?

So the above need to be decided upon even before you can tell someone “I am going to Kilimanjaro”, or otherwise you aren’t going anywhere at all. And all of the above are before you decide which airline to take to get you to Tanzania (there are no international flights travelling very close by it seems, so transfers are in order and some of them get there very late). Should you then take a day to acclimatise when you get there? Should you go and stay in Moshi or Arusha first? Should you book into a cheap hotel or a more expensive one when you arrive? (They seem to range literally from $5 a night to $1,000 a night).

The above are all very much before you have to make a whole lot more decisions – I have just looked at the kit lists, which are split into “essential”, “recommended”, “useful” etc., and realised that I have nothing at all of the items that I need (what the heck is a Thermarest for pity’s sake? How will I decide what boots to buy? How do I decide how many camera batteries to take to strap to my legs to stop them freezing? Then there are the vaccinations, then there is the fitness regime (“when to start”, “how extensive”), then do I take a camera and a separate video camera (if so, what sort works at -25?) etc etc.

My head, as is probably yours reading this, is simply spinning. I used to be indecisive, now I’m not so sure! The thing is, if these things weren’t all seemingly fairly critical to whether you make it up there in one piece or not, it wouldn’t be half as difficult, but the fact is, they are – they matter. This is going to be a “once in a lifetime experience”, and I don’t want to get things wrong now, or they can never be made right again. Am I worrying too much? Probably. Can I make a decision yet on any of the above? Not at all – need help!

“There, ahead, all he could see, as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro. And then he knew that there was where he was going” – Ernest Hemingway: The Snows Of Kilimanjaro