The stars are SO brilliant an so close that it looks as though the big dipper - or is that the small on? - is dipping into the streams on the mountain. We begin single file and notice other headlamps streaming out onto the field of skree which we negotiate pole, pole (Swahile for slowly, slowly. Then we get to the practically perpendicular part, which we climb in switch-backs,one by one, but I notice these big men lying on the side, only their big whites of their eyes showingp; it is way belowfreezing. It turns out they are army men who were high and cannot go any higher.
Pole, pole, we step until we get to the r0cks that we negotiate swiveling,climbing and swerving around,over =. Each time I look up, there are more rocks behind the last set, and it looks as though it goes on forever. I have never liked the dark, and here it feels interminable; when will I EVER see the light again
By 4:00 we read Gilman's Point. I say that I've really done enough, but I realize that I will have to wait there by myself while the others go to the summit at Uhuru Peak. I trudge on. By around 5:30 I notice there is a glow at the horizen. By 6:19 the sun is really coming up,and we are at Uhuru Peak; I notice that I break away from our pack and race to the top.
This is the smile my guide captured as we arrived.
More later, but my legs collapsed on the way down, and I thought I would never make it, but I am back in the hotel, showered and ready for my first Tuskers. XXOXOXOX
Go Faith Go! Can't wait to see the rest of the photos. Looks like an amazing trip. Where to next? Don't forget to make some drawings while you are at it. p.
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