27th October
This was the first night that I got a good night’s sleep and when I woke up at 5:45, I was reinvigorated. Atul and I watched as the sunrise. It was also freezing cold. Before long we hurried back into our huts until breakfast at 7:30. While dining on porridge, toast, tea, omelette and banana it began to snow and rain. We tried to delay our start, but at John’s insistence we got a move on it at 8:30. This time we took the Lower Trail. To our luck the rained stopped 15 minutes later. Despite the biting wind the scorching sun was making a roast of our skin. At every stop we reapplied sunblockers. By 10:15 we had reached 4150 meters and Kibo laid before us in all its glorious beauty. We reached the stony desert of Saddle at 11:00. Our breaks became ever more frequent. At 11:45 and 4425 m we broke for lunch. By 1 pm we had reached Kibo Huts (4700 m). Rainer never felt better. Kathryn and I were gripped by vice-like headaches. Painkillers were no help at all. A woman gave me blood-thinning pills. Kicking into effect an hour later it at least allowed me to some clarity of thought. Atul had of course already been to Kibo Huts. For him it was the end of the journey. Many trekker would have taken to heart his sensible statement, “I came here to have fun, not to die.” Underestimation of the challenge of the climb can end in death, as medical aid up here is zilch up here. At 2:00 we snacked on popcorn, nuts and tea. Sitting in front of the hut I tried to catch some sun and make my headache go away. By this time, I had decided not to continue the climb. After a supper of soup and toast, at 5:00, and another pill, we laid down in the dorm room and tried to sleep. I had to get up several times to go to the lavatory – this involved wearing a lamp on a headband and balancing on a squat toilet set on the side of a cliff. When we were waken at 11:00 that night I was feeling a lot better and after tea and biscuits we started out at ten minutes to midnight. It was -18° C out and so we dressed appropriately. I pulled on long underpants, trekking pants, rain pants, an undershirt, two long-sleeve sweatshirts, a rainproof trekking jacket with filling, cap, hood and gloves.
