Quick Links

Here are some quick links to information you can find in this blog about doing the Machame Route on Kilimanjaro

The Mountain:

Kilimanjaro - The Facts

Kilimanjaro, one of the Seven Summits

Choosing a route up Kilimanjaro

Choosing an operator

Trekkers Guide to Kilimanjaro

(Some of) The Training:

Unexpected over-night in Suicide Gorge

Elephants Eye

Lion's Head

Mauy Thai

Noordhoek Outlook

Chapmans Peak

The Preparation:

The Expense

Do it for Charity!

The Climb:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

Summit Night on Kilimanjaro

According to the latest tweets the British Celebs have all made it to the summit camp. They are resting up for a few hours before the summit assault.

The night will begin like this: Day Five

And when they think the summit will never come and the night will never end... It Does!

The summit attempt is gruelling and as you go up, you use all your will and might to get there. Once you have finally made it, it's exhilarating. The views are truly awesome!

You only have a few minutes to admire the beauty and your achievement before heading back down. 

From here you still have the longest and most testing day ahead of you. The rest of the day will look a little something like this: Day Six 

Good Luck To All The Climbers!

To all their supporters, if you haven't yet - you still have time to help them reach their main goal which is supporting Red Nose Day. They have today already raised £1, 274, 267 for charity which is a phenomenal effort! Congrats to all and let's hope each one of them gets to stand on the Roof of Africa!

To see a condensed version of the Machame Route see: here

Barranco Wall

According to their latest 'tweet' the celebs are making their way up Barranco Wall

To Quote:

Half way up Barranco Wall stopping for a rest and the new 900k plus total comes in - what a reception that gets!

31 minutes ago from txt

That would mean that they are definitely on the Machame Route and that they are facing this today:

http://machame-route.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-4-of-7.html

Good Luck to the team and if you haven't already, sponsor their climb for charity today!

Celebrities Climbing Kilimanjaro

Isn't it always the case - you do something BIG and then it seems just about everyone else is doing it too! 

But when it's for charity it would be great if everyone could chip in. Either by doing the challenge yourself or by sponsoring those brave enough to attempt it.

So a number British celebs have joined forces and have taken on the challenge of Climbing Kili. 

Included in the list of famous names are Radio One DJ Chris Moyles, Boyzone's Ronan Keating, pop star Alesha Dixon, and GMTV host Ben Shephard, 34. 

The effort is to raise money for Comic Relief. They hope to raise £1m - some of which will be used to fight malaria and providing refuge for those in need, in Tanzania.

According to the Telegraph the group left at 6am local time, yesterday. 

When we started our trip, we only managed to leave at 1pm with all the delays we faced. So we ended up walking in the heat of the late afternoon. I guess at least the celebs managed to start off with slightly cooler conditions. Although it seems that it was still a little to hot for Take That singer, Gary Barlow, who "collapsed in a heap" on his first day.

To get an idea of that they have in store for day 2, take a look at this link:

http://machame-route.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-2-of-7.html

The group have already raised more than £500,000. Other celebrities taking part include TV presenter Denise Van Outen, DJ Fearne Cotton and Girls Aloud Kimberley Walsh and Cheryl Cole .

If you would like to donate to the Red Nose Climb, you can find all the details about the climb and the climbers here:

http://www.rednoseday.com/climb/sponsor/the_team

What The Brochure Said

I thought it might be a useful exercise to go back and add to my previous posts, instead of re-writing them. Having done the trip now, it's probably going to be better to show you:

What The Brochure Said vs What Really Happened...

So go back as far as the 4th of February 2009 where our adventure begins...

Day 7 of 7

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 7/7

After a very good night's sleep, I imagine, and after a well deserved breakfast we will make the final descent to Mweka Park gate. This is an approximate 4 hours downhill walk. 

This is where we will receive our summit certificates for making it to the top. 

From here we will return Arusha for a celebratory dinner and overnight in our first real bed for a week.

Oh - and before dinner, there will be a lot of cleaning - it'll be our first bath / shower for over a week too (eeeuuww!)

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

We had dinner at around 5:30pm the previous day and went straight to sleep. It had been a long day and although the camp was pretty noisy late into the night, we managed to sleep soundly.

In the morning we woke up early and enjoyed our last breakfast together in the mess tent.

We packed up our gear, gave the tips we had brought with to our head guide. 

**A word of advice: it would have been better to give each porter his own tip, however we didn't have the required change to do so, so left everything with our head guide who assured us that the tips would be split out accordingly.

We also gave away anything we thought they could use and we could do without. Our water bottles, my camp boots, Marco's thermal outer gloves, spare trail food, water purification tablets etc. The porters are very grateful for anything you can spare.

We started our final decent to Mweka Park gate. Arriving is a little surreal. After nearly a full week away from civilisation, we walk back into an area that is full of noise, trucks, cars, locals trying desperately to sell you curious, clean your shoes, just about anything to get money from you.

Below - this is me after 7 days of not bathing or showering and sumiting Kilimanjaro... Which is to say, filthy dirty... blagh!

We made our way over to the office to sign the book (for the final time - yipppeee!!) We collected our Gold Certificates and headed over to the now familiar Leopard Tours van.

The hopped in and together with Ali went to Moshi. On the way, we stopped and had lunch. The company paid for the food and we paid for the drinks (I say 'we'; actually Ali did - thanks for the beer dude!)

After that we dropped Ali at his fancy hotel in Moshi and then made the 1h30 min drive back to Arusha.

We drive right past the Outpost Lodge and get dropped off at the Arusha Resort (or some such place). This place (no offence to them) is an absolute dive. On arrival, I protested, saying that this isn't right. They show me my reservation and assure me, this is correct.

Of course it isn't! My 2 bags from Day One of our climb had been taken back to Outpost Lodge as that is where we were supposed to stay.

So, after 7 days of no bath, I am now stranded at a hotel with none of my clean clothes, non of my cleaning products (shampoos etc). I have been informed that Leopard Tours cancelled my reservation at Outpost Lodge and re booked me into this shitty hotel.

I'm dirty and tired and really, really not in the mood. So I get onto the phone to Leopard Tours. Many, many arguments and phone calls etc later I finally get LT to agree to move us. Myself and Marco as well as Andy & Deon, two other climbers who also got bumped down.

According to Arusha Resort, this happens ALL THE TIME...

It pisses me off because after all we had just been through, I now have to go to Outpost Lodge to collect my bags and then be transferred to another the hotel on the back of many phone calls and arguments.

We were (eventually) taken to the The Impala Hotel in Arusha. The hotel itself was very nice (and quite expensive, I think). Try as they might LT couldn't get us back into the Outpost Lodge so they had to fork out for something better in the end.

After much debate and messing around we eventually made it to a clean shower; there was soap, shavers, sponges, clean clothes! 

You simply would not have recognised us between the time of arrival to dinner time. We met Deon and Andy in the hotel lobby for drinks and a celebratory dinner afterwards.

The rate, initially paid to our operator, Destination Africa Tours, included a celebratory dinner on the last night. Once we were moved over to this new hotel, LT decided it was expensive enough for accommodation only so did not want to pay for dinner. They told me that if they paid "it would come out of their pocket". Oh shame. This has ALREADY come out of my pocket!!

But, (diligently) there I was on the phone again disagreeing and insisting that dinner was included. 

In the end we agreed that they would pay for dinner and we took care of the tips and drinks.

And so finally, we had a wonderful celebration - rehashing stories of the mountain and talking nonsense and drinking beer. 

It turned out to be a Wonderful Evening!!

Day 6 of 7

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 6/7

This is it!!

From our Operator:

Around midnight (your guide will judge the time that is optimal for you based on your pace thus far) quit camp for the assault via Stella Point (5752m) to the summit. 

Tonight is very difficult - particularly the final 500m - and you’ll need to commit to fight for the summit. 

You will inevitably feel like giving up and going to sleep. This is normal and can be overcome with perseverance. When resting please ensure you only stand or sit and do not lie down or close your eyes. 

Please trust your guide; he is very adept at judging whether your condition will allow safe progress or whether you have succumbed to a potentially dangerous condition and to proceed will not be safe. 

Nausea and headaches are normal and around a quarter of climbers will vomit at or near Stella Point. While very uncomfortable, these are not symptoms that are indicative of being at risk, per se. The onset of cerebral and pulmonary oedema are marked by distinctive early warning symptoms that your guide is capable of identifying. 

Please maintain regular dialogue with him and frequently update him on how you are feeling.   When you reach Stella Point you will sit and rest. At this point the body often thinks you have finished your uphill fight and will be trying to coerce you into giving up and turning around. 

While you may genuinely believe that you have already exhausted your reserves in reaching this point, this is actually very unlikely to be so. 

Remember that you are only 143 vertical metres short of the summit, the journey from here is much less steep, and you have plenty of time for further pauses. If you do feel the need to give up at Stella Point please proceed towards the summit for just two minutes before making your final decision. 

In most cases this act of re-establishing momentum is enough to persuade the mind and body to co-operate with your intentions and you will ordinarily find hidden reserves for a final push, reserves that you were not aware you still had.  

Almost there!   

Keep your thoughts positive, as your thoughts become your words, 

Keep your words positive, as your words become your actions, 

Keep your actions positive; as your actions become your destiny you can do it!   

On the summit your guide will advise how much time you can spend there in consideration of your condition, your timings, and the weather. 

The brain does not function very intelligently at this altitude so please remember to take many photographs in all directions or you will probably regret not having done so at a later stage.   

From the summit you will descend to Stella Point and from here your guide may opt to switch left onto the loose scree, a departure from the ridge up which you ascended. 

On arrival at Barafu your tents will still be erected and ready for you to rest an hour or so before continuing the descent after some refreshments.   

From Barafu you will usually descend to Mweka Camp (3090m) for overnight. If your guide judges that a shorter day will benefit you and preserve sore knees and ankles, he may decide to stop short at Millennium Camp (3820m) instead.   

Distances on summit day 

Barafu to Stella Point: 3.3km 

Stella Point to Summit: 1.2km 

Summit to Barafu: 4.5km 

Barafu to Mweka Camp: 6.3km 

Total = 15.3km

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Following on from my last post, we climbed up towards Stella Point, thinking it simply would never end. As with everything... eventually it did!

We reached Stella Point at around 6 am. We'd been hiking vertically for 6 1/2 hours in sub-zero temperatures with only about 10% of the oxygen I am used to breathing at sea-level. 

When I got there, I promptly laid myself on the ground, hoping to stay there for a while and rest. Our guides had to have been the best guides on the mountain that night. At Stella Point they hauled out plastic cups and a flask and produced warm, sweet tea! 

How awesome to be sitting at Stella Point, watching the sun come up with a cup of warm sweet tea!

We were only there for a few minutes. I was ready to go back down (been there... done that...!) but Marco said we had to keep going. Just start walking he said - just get moving... If I had any more energy, I may have thrown a tantrum because he obviously didn't understand just how tired I was feeling... (very selfish of me, I know!)

Anyway, he was right. We got up and kept going. Although the elevation from here was nothing like that last bit up to Stella Point, the exhaustion and lack of oxygen was really getting to me. I was now taking 5 steps forwards, break for 10 seconds, 5 steps forwards, break for 10... and so on.

I had to go slow, but no one was rushing me, so on and on we went. Those that had gone before and were on their way back down were wonderfully supportive: "You're nearly there" and "Not much further!"

We eventually make it to Uhuru Peak (5895m) at 07:10 am. When we eventually got there we were buoyed up with adrenalin! So happy to not be walking up-hill anymore was enough to make us both feel fantastic!! 

Oh, we'd told Ali to go on ahead as I was taking an age to get there. He waited at the top for us and we celebrated the achievement together!

By now the sun was up and our surroundings were just incredible! One good thing about taking a bit longer to reach the top is being able to see all this. Some other hikers got up and down so quickly that they did it all in the dark.

We didn't spend too much time up here, by now Marco was starting to feel nauseous from the altitude, so we started making our way down again.

Now it was our turn to tell those behind us "Not much further now" "Keep going; it's worth it!"

This photo (above) is looking into the crater from the rim at Uhuru Peak.

Here you can see the glaciers meeting the clouds.  One of the main reasons you summit overnight is that the ground is frozen on your way up making the ascent easier. With the sun up the ground starts to defrost and the fine sand is up in the air and makes your downhill journey fairly treacherous. With each step you slip-slide down and have to be careful not to fall on your ass... which happens frequently to everyone anyway.

What goes up, must come down. Although it took us 8 hours to reach the peak, it took us 3 1/2 hours to get back to Barafu base camp. It is very, very hot up here and by this point we were so tired that we couldn't even be bothered to take the very much needed sun cream out of our packs and put it on. We just wanted to get back, so burnt our hands (everything else was thankfully still covered up) for three hours while we painfully made our way back to the camp.

Please be warned about this stretch of the little adventure. At 10:00am we eventually made it back to camp. We were far too tired to be elated with our amazing achievement.

We were told that we had 1 hour to rest, get changed and pack our things. For safety reasons we had to continue our decent as soon as possible. We were still at 4600m and not out of the danger zone for AMS.

We took an hour and a half to rest up and get our things organised. We had a quick lunch and then we were on our way again. Our porters packed up our tents and quickly passed us as we made our way downhill.

Below - that's me and in the background that's where I had come from only 4 or 5 hours earlier.

With our relatively quick decent the terrain thankfully changed. In the end we decided that we weren't all to fond the alpine desert part. Hot and boring! (Remember by this point though that we're so exhausted we don't even have any enthusiasm left... that will come later again!)

So as tired as we were we, stumble into Millennium Camp. The boys were so happy to have arrived. Spoil-sport that I was I had to dampen their joy by informing them that this is a 'trick' camp and we won't be staying. They of course didn't believe me and went straight to our guide Rayson, who confirmed that this is a camp for hikers who do a different route or who are very late in coming down the mountain.

So, after a short break... we continued down what must, for me, be the worst part of this entire trip. For a further 3 hours went down a dried up river bed. This is no path. We're stepping down, on, over and around small rocks, big stones, some secure, others loose. 

Every single step required attention. Every jolt sent pain up my knees and every foot forward felt my toes bashing the inside of my shoes. It hurt like hell and didn't seem to want to end.

The worst I think was just the expectation that was set. When we asked "how much further" (in the nicest way possible way, of course) we were told 40 minutes. After an hour we said... "so; how much further" and we were told an hour. 

Either time keeping in East Africa is nonexistent or its in a whole new dimension that we haven't yet named.

In the end... we got there! At 4:00pm we stumbled into Mweke camp. Realising that we had been walking from 11:30pm the night before, with only one real break of 1h 30mins... It's not surprising that we had been a little moody!

For the last time, we came to our camp with the wonderful singing and celebrations of our guides and porters. 

After taking our packs off and after a well deserved break at camp and with oxygen levels starting to rise again (we were now at 3090m, from this morning's 5895m!), we started smiling too. Finally we could look back on the day and the day's wonderful achievement.

WE MADE IT!!

Day 5 of 7

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 5/7

We have opted for this highly recommended additional acclimatisation day at Barafu camp. 

To quote: 

"Acclimatization day at Barafu camp with additional acclimatization hikes up the assault path" (Assault path???)

Oi!

After that we will try to rest, have an early dinner and prepare for our summit attempt. The key here  is to eat if we can and go to bed as early as possible and rest as much as possible.

We will be woken at around midnight for our all night trek to Uhuru Peak.

Send us lots of love and good luck for this night!

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID, THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

As mentioned in the previous post, we stopped at Karanga camp rather than going all the way through to Barafu. So instead of doing the hikes mentioned above, we hiked instead from Karanga to Barafu and stayed there for the day.

We got up at 7:30 again and left Karanga at 8:30. This was a fairly short hike seeing us reach the camp at 12:00. 

We've entered Alpine Desert territory and being so high up the UV is very strong. This was a particularly hot day. Notice the extreme weather variations from one day to the next? 

Because you don't know what you're going to get, you end up taking clothes for all occasions in your day packs, which the higher you go, the heavier they seem to get.

The campsite itself is very hot and very windy. Signing in at the campsite seemed challenging (I don't think my entries are at all legible)

The view from our tent and you can see Mawenzi, which is one of the 3 volcano peaks that make up Kilimanjaro. (The other two peaks consist of one we climb to the summit and the other is actually collapsed and is now the Shira Plateu)

The lack of oxygen here is really hectic. Moving from the tent to the toilet is exhausting. Taking my sleeping back out of my bag and getting it ready for sleeping seemed like an endless exhausting chore.

We had an early dinner (at around 5pm) and were told to go to bed and try to sleep. They were waking us up at 11:00pm and we should be ready to go by 11:30pm.

We were advised to pack everything we'd need for the summit and to sleep in all our layers except the outer ones and to wear all our socks and have our shoes ready so that when the time came we didn't have to do much. That was good advise!

Marco and I were both exceptionally lucky in that we managed to get some sleep before we left. Most people, I believe did not - again I have to stress the importance of the ear plugs and the blow up mattresses - I really believe they made all the difference.

At 11:00 we were woken up. We had a nice hot cup of tea and then had to begin our accent.

With the one day old full moon we didn't need our headlights in the end. Again, weather wise, we were superbly fortunate to have perfect weather for the entire ascent. No cloud cover, no wind, no rain... the previous night, we'd heard, people made their summit attempt in a blizzard... so I guess you just never can tell!

It was awesome going up by moonlight. There were lots of people on the trail with head lights on, so whenever you looked up, you could make out the trail by following the lights of those ahead of us.

For me, the first portion went well. I was surprised when we stopped for a break and even more surprised to learn that we had been going for 2 1/2 hours. We were going Very Slowly, but steadily. We learnt very quickly, however, that every time we stopped the cold seeped in very quickly. So our breaks were few and far between.

The next break was at 4am. Also, when I say breaks, I'm not referring to all the little ones where I had to stop for a minute to catch my breath. I am referring to the official 3-4 minute breaks where we could take our packs off.

From here it started getting difficult for me. I felt I needed more breaks more often. My breaks became almost as rhythmical as my climbing... 15 steps up, 20 seconds to break, 15 steps up, 20 seconds to break.

I was beginning to feel tired and so would look up occasionally only to see the stupid head lights still just going up and up and up... Where The Hell IS Stella Point??

So by now, I'm cold, tired and there just isn't any end in sight. I say to Marco - Babe, I don't have any more legs to keep going... Don't worry they say; just another 40 mins to Stella Point. 

Hmf. 40 mins. Those last 40 mins to Stella Point believe it or not were the steepest part of that climb!! Just when you think the elevation could not get any worse.... it does! 

Actually to their credit, we had 3 guides for the 3 of us and they tried their best. They joked with us, talked to us, sang for us. They were superb - kept our spirits up and distracted us from the cold and pain that was seeming eternal.

Day 4 of 7

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 4/7

After breakfast we will leave Barranco through the Karanga Valley for an 7-hour walk. 

Trek from Barranco Camp to Barafu Camp (4681m) via the 257m high Breach Wall across the valley from Barranco. 

We've been told that we should be aware that there are three rises and falls before reaching Karanga Camp where we have lunch at 4040m.   

We depart from Karanga the route ascends 640m to Barafu. Distance from Barranco to Barafu is 9.4km. 

They say that it is advantageous to have a mental image of today’s profile so we don’t get psyched-out by all the rise and fall:

OUCH!

We overnight at Barafu camp at an elevation of 4600m.

Tonight the Full Moon rises. Climbers are generally advised to try and plan their summit attempts to coincide with the Full Moon. Can you imagine being on the roof of Africa on a cloudless night with the light of the full moon shining on you?  

We've actually planned our summit to fall 2 days after the full moon because we've been told that at this time we will still have the bright light from the full moon, but a couple of days later it rises later, which means it'll up and shining later in the night (early morning) when we need it most.

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

This particular day did not go as planned above. The route that we took was much better, I think.

We were woken up at 7:30. Later this morning as today was to be a short day for us. We took our time getting ready and eventually left at 9am.

The total hike today was only 4 1/2 hours. The first portion of the hike was going up Barranco Wall. This was very steep and required some 'climbing' and 'kiss the wall' manoeuvres to get up and around. It is very steep and if you are scared of heights this is the one part of the trip that could be quite testing for you.

Luckily none of us were, so we enjoyed it. This was an absolute highlight for me. The views were spectacular. 

Unfortunately, however, my camera battery died and the manual charger I had brought along was not in my luggage - this charger never turned up, so I don't know where it went missing. I suspect somewhere around the time I had all my gear laid out on the ground at the start of our climb when I was repacking everything.

What I did have was my cheap point & shoot which had been brought along for our Zanzibar diving trip. It has an underwater casing and was (luckily) accidentally packed in. Although the pics from here weren't great, we're happy to just have some.

After we got over the wall, we hiked up and down valleys which seemed never ending. It was also very cold here. Very cold = around 0 Celsius - I think.

There were more strange plants that we came across:

On arrival at Karanga camp, we had lunch at about 2:30pm and then dinner was at 5:30pm. We could just chill out for the day, which was pretty awesome.

This particular camp is pretty steep and has mist and fog rolling in and out very quickly. We're advised not to wonder off as ppl have wondered right off, never to be seen again. Pretty scary thought, so we just hung out together with the other hikers and talked about the climb so far and what each of us was expecting for the next day.

The "Queen" as the guides referred the peak is very elusive - only showing parts of herself through the clouds every so often.

Day 3 of 7

Kilimanjaro Climb (7 day Machame route) Day 3/7

After breakfast we will trek from Shira Camp to Lava Tower (4600m). 

Our climb on the moorlands eventually comes to an end and we follow a rocky path leads us towards Lava Tower.

We've been told that if the weather’s good (and if we have the energy) we can ask our guide to take us to the summit of the Lava Tower (4688m) where the views are supposed to be magnificent. 

Lunch is normally taken at the foot of the tower.

The rule for acclimatising is to climb high, sleep low, so we'll descend and overnight at Barranco camp. 

Distance from Shira to Lava Tower is 7.0km (4 hours). Distance from Lava Tower to Barranco camp is 3.7km. (Elevation is 3950m)

When we arrive at camp we can freshen up. We've been told that each couple will be supplied with a bowl of hot water for washing (Yippeeee) and enjoy dinner prepared by our cook with passion! Peanut butter sarmies & popcorn anyone?

This is reportedly one of the most difficult days - so wish us luck!

THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

After another good night's sleep we were woken up at 6:45. After the usual breakfast and getting our gear organised we were ready to go by 8:15. You can see it's taken us an extra 30 mins today to get ready - between the cold and the thinning oxygen everything takes a bit longer to do.

The weather was fine we we got going and some of the views were amazing too. You can see again how the terrain and the flora have changed along the route.

From here to Lava Tower the weather turned and we walked in rain and hail for many hours.

It also started getting very cold. On the way to Lava tower Marco started experiencing some headaches and sense of humour failures. Ali throwing a snowball at his head didn't go down too well (even though we thought is was funny)

Ali was also dealing with migraines that seemed to come and go. I was very fortunate that I hadn't felt any problems as yet.

The walk from Shira camp to Lava tower took us 5 1/2 hours.  Again we got to the lunch spot long after everyone else had left. So ours was another quick lunch before heading off again. 

The weather was really bad and we couldn't even see the top of Lava Tower so there was no point in going up. 

To be honest with the headache that Marco was having and as tired and cold and miserable as we were getting the best thing to do was to move on to Barranco camp.

In the photo below we walked all the way down through the first and second valley you can make out in the centre of the photo.

This portion took us another 2h15 and was all downhill. 

Today we walked up to 4900m at Lava Tower and then almost back down to the same altitude as where we woke up: 3950m at Barranco camp. 

Again, this is all to help with acclimatising. On the way down were saw lots of strange plants - this was a good distraction as the way up was mostly barren.

I started getting very pressing headache on the way to Barranco camp (which, even though we were at a much lower altitude than Lava Tower, is apparently normal.) I took 2 neurofen and that was the end of it. I was very fortunate not to have any further affects from altitude for the rest of the trip.

On our arrival our porters were singing and dancing again for us. This did help put a smile on our tired faces :)

We had arrived back at 4:30 in the afternoon and with no more hikes planned for the day, I took the opportunity to have my first "bath". This is to say that I cleaned from head to foot with LOTS disposable wipes. This was my first and last official bath of the trip. The rest was just a case of washing hands and face - where possible.

I got into clean clothes (I'd been wearing the same trousers for the past 3 days - I had only managed to change underwear, socks and t-shirts) so this was quite a treat. I started feeling much better and we walked around this absolutely AWESOME campsite. 

The thinning oxygen was becoming very apparent. Marco and Ali both dashed from the mess tent to our tents to put gear that had been drying back in the tents when it started pouring with rain (again). They both came back exhausted as though they'd just done a 1km sprint!