This is probably my last Kiliblog post.

I’m happy to make room for the adventures of Team Twende and I trust their experience will be as dazzling as, as amazing, as mind-blowing  as it was for me. We wish you good weather, good health and above all great teamwork on the mountain.  Do it right and you will become friends for life. We are..

• Listen to the long fellow who combines gaiters with shorts. It is a strange sight but he knows his mountain. I had some doubts about some of his decisions but in the end they all proved to be the best decisions he could make. Respect his knowledge. Mountain guides are more than people who know where to turn left and right. They know how to manoeuvre a group through a difficult environment. You know you are doing good when Whitey says Niiiiice in a James Brown voice.

• Wear your Mountain boots on the plane, all gear can be bought or hired but nothing fits as nice as your own walked in boots.
• Put as much essential gear as you can in your hand luggage. I checked the max weight and dimension for hand luggage and packed as much as possible in my day rug sack. I had about 8 kg in it. The crew is used to it, the plane is full of Kili climbers. You will not look weird. We had 4 Ascenders who’s gear did not show up at Kilimanjaro Airport with them. It showed up the next day, but they had to drive back to the airport and we all were worried the whole day.
• Feeling strong and fit, help a mate who is feeling lesser. Tomorrow it could be the other way around. We all had better and lesser days, but surrounded by a great group you trust you can go deeper than you think.
• Test your equipment in rainy conditions. It might not be as waterproof as the nice salesman told you. It is difficult to dry wet stuff on the mountain. Bring lots of transparent plastic bags to organise everything in. Transparent bags avoid opening them to see what is inside.
• When you have a good -273,15°C sleeping bag yourself, bring it with you. Ashante tours will provide you with one but the one I was given was way to small and the down in it had clogged into little balls and it gave no warmth on certain spots. Their solution was to give me two sleeping bags but the second one had the same problem. Their sleeping mats are fine, thick flat and large rectangles. But if you have room for an extra lightweight Thermarest it will help you trough your nights.
• Make sure all your gear is out of your tent and the bag for the porters is ready to go as soon as possible in the morning. Before anything else. The porters will break down your tent and will want to get going as fast as possible to your next campsite. Their speed is important for you. When they arrive at the next camp earlier than an other group they can pick nicer spots to pitch the tents you will be sleeping in. It is quite important for you sleep and rest that your spot is flat and level and in some campsites flat&level is scarce.
• Put a piece of string through your 5-layers-Atlantic-ocean-breeze-scented-asbestos-reinforced toilet roll so you can hang it around your neck. The ground can be wet.
• If your medical doctor prescribed Diamox to you, you might want to talk to your doctor about testing it on yourself at home to see if you develop any side effects from it. That is what my doctor advised.  They can be mild or more severe, but it is important that you recognize them and don’t think they are part of the altitude sickness. I had a mild tingling feeling in two of my fingertips.  Don’t drive or use machinery because Diamox can make you sleepy.
• When in Kibo camp, you might find yourself bored with a couple of hours to wander around camp, geocache, make stone letters or sculptures….  Don’t exaggerate, take more rest then you think you need. Helps with the altitude sickness higher up.

When you get back and had some well deserved rest we will have to sit down and talk about how to convince Mrs Roberts to climb Aconcagua…