Most Inspirational Moment
Reaching the top!
Being above the clouds and wending through the grand rain forests at the start and the very end were all highlights for me as well. Shira cathedral and the Baranco Wall also made good scrambling (climbing) and although I got a bit of a headache at the lava tower, that was something else I had been looking forward to and it did not disappoint.
Thoughts on Group Leader
JT and his team were friendly, knowledgeable, supportive, capable, polite, skilled, very VERY experienced, professional. He's already won the award for best group leader and he fully deserves to win it again.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Be prepared, think about what you need. Your kit doesn't have to be perfect, just enough. Anything else is a comfort you're welcome to (but remember, either you or your porter, who WILL become your friend, will be carrying it). Consider what you will want to use when:
- Travelling
- On the plane
- When you arrive
- Leave the hotel
- Wake up in the tent each morning
- When it's warm at the bottom
- When it's cold at the top
- When it rains
- When your camera loses charge
- When you go to sleep in the tent
- When you wake up in the morning
- What information you need and how to store it (what reception is available)
Just go through the situations of what the holiday will bring and consider what you need for those situations.
Research altitude sickness. You don't need to be an expert and you don't need all the drugs - I personally did not take diamox and was just as well off as everyone else (some people did).
Pole pole. Going slow sounds boring, but remember when sitting in your office thinking about the trip, but you're out in the wild by the tallest free standing mountain in the world. Make the most of it, look around, take pictures. You're only going to have to wait around when you get to camp. Even if you're really fit and the fastest walker in the world, you'll still fall short of breath at some point. And unless you can beat the record of under 5.5 hours to summit, I'm not interested in how fast you can do it. I'm more interested in what you get out of it, so just relax and see the sights.
