Final countdown to Kili – Less than 24 hours
Breakfast of champions
December 4, 2018
All packed & ready to go
December 5, 2018I now notice a slight nervousness and inner tension. I packed my equipment for the third time and unpacked it again. Do I have everything with me? Isn’t it too much? Or too little? In my mind I went through all sorts of situations again. The climate at the foot of Kilimanjaro: Hot and high humidity, so wrap up shorts. Or rather long pants because of malaria danger by the mosquitoes? Then the first mountain section: mountain rainforest, so rain and rather warm. Then the other three mountain climbing days: It is getting drier but colder. How are the hours where we are in the camp in the evening? Cold? Very cold? What if it rains heavily and is cold? Do I have the right jackets and pants for that? How should the things dry after they get wet? Do I have spare clothing for it? Then the summit day: cold to very cold! Down jacket, mountain pants, possibly Goretex overpants, headlamp for the night (we go through the night the last stage), replacement batteries, insulated cover for drinking bladder, gloves, poles etc. And I also have to bear in mind that we shouldn’t have more than 15 Kilo of luggage with us on the mountain! What has to be in my luggage, what can I leave at home? There are so many situations and so many “unknowns” that have to be considered!
Ultimately, I decide to pack packages for the individual stages: rainy day, heat day, cold day, windy day, summit day. Finally everything packed! Less than 24 hours then I’m in the plane together with my nice colleagues of the team The Ascenders! I’m a bit excited and looking forward to this adventure!
The only one who is sad that finally everything is packed is our cat … 🙂
