Day four started well, except for the fact that our porridge is getting increasingly runny... Semjon's not happy and has had a polite word with the chef. We wonder if it is because there is a very limited supply of oats. It is real logistical and human effort to move a mobile camp up towards the summit of Kilimanjaro. You can only carry so many provisions and perhaps oats is low on the list of priorities. There is a resupply every three days so perhaps tomorrow will bring more oats...
I estimate that we must have at least 8, if not 10, porters carrying our tents and baggage, etc. The porters are amazing, as they carry so much more weight and move so much more quickly up the mountain than us. Its kind of embarrassing, as I huff and puff up some of the steeper sections of the climb and the porters glide by, balancing incredible weights on their heads.
After breakfast we started our hike (it was pretty flat). After a cold night, the morning sunshine was most welcome. I soaked it up as we walked across the expansive volcanic plains. As every hour passed Kilimanjaro magnified in front of us, looking increasing formidable...
On a less positive note, our guide, Bruce, has hijacked my iPod. It seems that he's obsessed by two things - the first is Whitney Houston. He is playing Whitney's greatest hits on a continuous loop, intermittently giving us falsetto renditions of 'One Moment in Time' and 'The Greatest Love of All'. Paul provides ample vocal support. I chime in too where I can, but don't know many of the words... however, I have a feeling I will know most of the words by the end of this trip. Its all pretty surreal.
Bruce's second obsession is movies... Action movies, especially war movies, to be precise. He watches them so many times that he is able to quote scenes from films like 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Universal Solider' and 'Full Metal Jacket' verbatim... Bruce is a big Jean Claude Van Damme fan and is the only person I have ever known to list 'Streetfighter' as one of his favourite films (if you have tried to ever watch it you will know exactly what I mean)... I got so fed up with his incessant film quotes that I have permanently lent him the iPod... I can handle his Whitney renditions much better than the Jean Claude Van Damme impressions...
We stopped for lunch in a nice spot and we all felt pretty good. Semjon and I had a beer and we took a few pictures of the mountain that now felt almost on top of us, even though it was still some way away. After lunch we climbed for about two hours to our next camp at 4200 metres. We all still felt pretty good, but it was at this point I definitely began to feel the air thinning.
After about 40 minutes after we got to camp, I started to feel pretty unwell. I developed a severe headache and began to feel very nauseas - classic symptoms of altitude sickness. However, I had not been wearing a hat all day and I could also feel that I had had a lot of sun... also there was the beer at lunch... however, Semjon also had one and (as always) he felt "Great!". I took some Nurofen and hoped it would pass...
Unfortunately, I continued to feel worse. I could not face dinner, but sat with the guys (mostly with my head in my hands). Then Bruce came by and I explained how I felt. He suggested taking some Diamox as a precaution. Unlike Paul and Semjon, until that point I had resisted taking Diamox (they both decided to take the drug from day one, as a prophylactic). Diamox is a drug that is prescribed to treat altitude sickness. It works by acidifying the blood, which stimulates breathing, allowing a greater amount of oxygen to enter into the bloodstream. The percentage of oxygen in the air is much lower at altitude so Diamox acts to compensate that. I wanted to attempt the climb drug free and let my body try to acclimatize naturally. However, under Bruce's recommendation I took a 250mg pill... this decision didn't matter much, as Bruce also advised me to eat something. I tried a banana and promptly projectile vomited anything that I had sitting in my stomach. I immediately felt better, but went to bed feeling weak and sorry for myself. I still was bemused as to what was wrong with me, but Bruce gave me some magnesium tablets, which really helped settle my stomach.
Paul and Semjon also got early nights, as the camp was quite exposed and got very cold after the sun disappeared. We were to climb up to 4600 metres tomorrow so we all needed rest, especially me...
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