Sharing The Passion: Coaching The Staff Dragon Boat Team

For those of you who have been following my blog, I'm still very much a newbie when it comes to dragon boating. I'm still nowhere as fit nor strong as my team mates (our coach's latest fitness challenge for us: 100 pull ups, followed by 100 push ups, 100 squats and 100 sit ups, the challenge is how quickly you're able to finish the routine. The quickest so far is 17 minutes.. I'd be contented if I can manage the 100 pull ups!), nor am I technically consistent enough yet. But it is a sport that I thoroughly enjoy, and both Kat and I have been very fortunate to have great team mates who'd advise us on our strokes, as well as a great tough-loving coach who's always making sure that our strokes are efficient and consistent. He's come up with loads of interesting drills to make sure that we get more power from each stroke because unlike the younger teams (like the universities), we simply aren't as fit nor strong as them. It's about being smarter.

My enjoyment of dragon boating got rekindled last year during my school's inter-department race, and subsequently, Kat and I joined Naga. Because of our travel schedule this year, I wouldn't be able to join my department for this year's inter-department race, but I decided to join them for their training in a coach's (ahem.. simply because I know something about dragon boat) role. What a great excuse to get out of the office on a mid-week afternoon and be a passenger in the boat for once!

The staff who turned up were a mixture of participants from last year, and also several new members, some of whom who aren't the most active. But hey, they were there and ready for an experience, so that's a great start. After paddling around a little, I got them to do some drills that my coach used on us to get our technique right, and then it was off to put everything together for more paddling around the river. It was a challenge trying not to be ambitious by doing too much with them in a short space of time, yet making sure that they are taught the necessary skills. 

There's no better to gauge the effectiveness of your training than to have a race, so we got the other 2 departments who were also training for a couple of friendly races. After some final instructions, the race started! I was really pleased that the department were following instructions really well, focusing on getting a good catch and power on the paddle rather than worrying about the stroke rate of the other boats. True enough, although our stroke rate was lower, our starts gave us a good lead, and we never looked back. I was extremely happy that everyone kept rowing although they were tired, and nobody was terribly out of sync. On their part, my colleagues were so happy to see the outcome of their training. The spirit was high and they made plans to catch up over dinner at the nearby hawker centre. And that's what I loved about the sport of dragon boat, the building of comaraderie, and the usually sedentary members realising how much fun it can be despite the physical challenge. Although they were complaining about feeling tired, and aches and pain when they got in to work this morning, they were chatting excitedly about the experience, using dragon boat lingo (already!), searching for YouTube videos on draogon boating, and some even doing "air rowing" to practice their strokes. 

It was such a great feeling and when I told my coach about it, he had this to share, "As long as they are willing to listen and learn, the sport is for everyone". 

Food Places: J & J Special Beef Noodles

As much as I love eating, I surprise myself with the fact that I've yet to write about food places yet, so here's my first entry. My inspiration came from our usual post dragonboat training early dinner, and last weekend, it was at the Old Airport Road hawker centre. For those of you who are not familiar with the Singapore scene (if you ARE from Singapore but don't know the hawker centre.. which rock have you been living under?!), the hawker centre is located just a 10 minutes' drive away from Suntec City, and for dragonboaters, a mere 5 minutes' drive away from the Kallang Water Sport Centre (where we train). The place is literally chock full of delightful eats, so if you want a place where you can try some nice local food in a wholesome environment, cooked by hawkers who actually run their own foodstalls. 

We stumbled upon this stall purely by accident. It's located at the side closer to the Dakota train station, where it's quieter, and easier for us to find seats for our group. Most of us usually venture towards the famous stalls like the famous western food stall (known for its garlic sauce), rojak, soya beancurd, etc. The first time I'd ordered from J&J Special Beef Noodles, it was purely because I was too damned lazy to walk too far after training, even if I was starving. I tried the "Beef Muscle" while Kat had the beef tendon, and both were really tender. The tendon was really soft and gelatinous, and it just melts in your mouth. A friend of ours reckoned that it's full of collagen, something that the ladies would be interested to know. 

We were back there again after training last weekend and some of our team mates who actually had no intention of eating because they were heading off to a gathering after that, tried what we ordered and decided that it was too yummy to resist. This time, Kathy ordered the beef ball noodle (it comes with only kway teow, or flat rice noodle) soup, with slices of onion and spring onion in the stock, and it reminded us very much of the lovely bakso that we had in Manado, Indonesia. The soup was kinda brothy without being too salty, and had a hint of sweetness which I reckon comes from the onion. Being the very boring person that I was, I wanted something without the carbs, I'd ordered the same "beef muscle" again. The beef and the tendon are cooked in soy sauce, and dipped in the chilli that comes with it, provides a great combination of flavour with just enough bite in your mouth without being too much heat. In fact, the soy sauce based gravy reminded our friend Kheng of "kong bak pau" or braised pork belly slices wrapped in steamed bun. And J&J does sell that combination of "beef muscle" with steamed bun. Our group ordered quite a number of items from the menu because they enjoyed what they'd sampled, and so we had a bit of a J&J buffet spread on our table.

If you're in the neighbourhood and wanna try something different or not willing to queue at the usual stalls, do give this shop a try! It's located at #01-162. And do check out our friend's food blog, this guy's a huge foodie and his pictures are lovely! The blog just started started, so do keep going back if you want some ideas of where to go for your gastronomical fix.

My lousy picture does little justice to the braised beef muscle, pictured here with the steamed bun

The beefball noodle soup

Living By "The Paradoxical Commandments"

While I was on my way home after my evening gym workout one day, I swung into the supermarket to pick up some groceries to prepare dinner. While I was queuing at the checkout counter, I couldn't help but notice the glum faces in the queue, and customers were ignoring the politeness of the cashier to the point of being rude. Understandably, with each glum customer, her energy level just got lower and lower, until it came to a point when her Ps and Qs seemed so contrived and tired. 

Just before I came down to the supermarket, I had the lift door slam in my face just as I was rushing to get into the lift but the lady in the lift just couldn't be bothered to hold it although I'd called out to her to hold the lift.

The book by Kent Keith

The whole evening made me wonder why should I bother being polite and nice to people when chances are, I'll be met with indifference and even rudeness. I know that kindness begets kindness.. but only occasionally, it seems. I've even felt that people would just think that I'm weak to give way to them. Then one day, I was attending the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" workshop, and I came across "The Paradoxical Commandments", written by Kent Keith (when he was 19 years old!). The poem had hung on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for the children in Calcutta (India), and had been wrongly attributed to her, although the version below was rewritten by her in a more spiritual way. Anyway, I find great meaning in the poem, and I hope that you find the strength in the words, just as I had:

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 7- When A Flushing Toilet Is A Novelty

Gemma, a buddy of Kat and myself, had mentioned that my blog included lots of references to toilets, so I thought I might prove her right again by including the subject of toilets in the title of this blog.

For the first time since the trek began, I had slept like a baby and not waking up once through the night! Perhaps it was because of the hard work of the previous day, or it could also be because of the fact that we're down at 3100 metres, where the air is richer with oxygen as compared to the past couple of days. Nevertheless, we still had to get up early so that the porters could take down our tents, and then there was the delicate matter of tipping.

I've always hated the intricacies of tipping, especially when there's no set rule such as a 10% charge off the total cost. I've read on several blogs that the matter of tipping requires some negotiations with the guide, and there's actually an interesting guide on tipping on this website which I'm sure would be useful for those of you who are planning a trip to Kilimanjaro. Thankfully, our tips have already been factored into the cost of our trip, and when Swee Chiow announced the tips to our entourage, they were happy enough to break into song and dance. It was a joyous display, and understandably so because we were the last big group of the season and with the rainy season upon us, this would be their last wage for a couple of months. I thought I'd captured all the singing and dancing, until I reviewed the clips and was horrified to see that only 1 miserly minute of the 6 minutes was captured. Nice... I must've left some of my already miniscule brain up on Uhuru Peak. Am sure it wasn't even much of a snack for the little four-striped mice anyway.


We weren't told of this beforehand but you could bring along your old (but working) trekking gear along as a gift to any deserving guide or porter. The locals hardly earn enough to buy the necessary gear, so if you don't want your gear anymore, it'd be much appreciated by them. Since I was thinking of getting a water proof hat when I get home, I decided to give Joseph my hat since it would be hot and sunny when the season opens.

It looks like a boulevard of nature, doesn't it?

I was glad that I brought along my knee support and I'd slipped it on just for the psychological boost, but because I'd transferred the weight to my left knee so as to take the strain off the right, my left knee was starting to hurt as well. Fortunately, there were less steps on the final day, and it soon gave way to long downhill slopes. The narrow trails gave became wide semi-paved tracks where we were told is used by the rangers' 4x4 vehicles, until finally.. the ranger's hut that marked the end of the trail! We had arrived! After 7 days on the trail, out of civilisation and seeing the same faces everyday, it sure felt good to exit the trail. We had to wait around to sign out off the trail (we had to sign in at the end of each day at the ranger's hut, which I thought is a great idea to keep track of trekkers), so we went to the toilet, which turned out to be a bit of a novel experience for us. Seven days ago when we first started using the field toilets, it felt so weird not flushing after we were done (we were half expecting the person after us to yell at us for not flushing), and it just didn't feel clean not washing our hands under running water although we used wet wipes or/AND anti-septic wipes. There was a bit of silly exclamations of "Ooh!" and "Aah!" at the flush and running water, but I'll tell you that it did a bit of getting used to, like remembering to wash our hands before we walked out from the toilet. 

We'd finally arrived!

It was also at this point when we started being swarmed by groups of hawkers peddling everything from handicraft, maps to even boot cleaning. With the season closing, they were desperate to earn the last bit of dollar and were following us everywhere we went. Even when we were on the bus, it didn't stop them from knocking on the window to get our attention. 


Although we had started the trek from Arusha, we finished in the town of Moshi (Machame Route is a circuit), which has the reputation of being Tanzania's cleanest town, thanks to some very draconian (and Singaporean style) measures. We stopped in Moshi for lunch (had some local fare and really quite enjoyed it) before making our way back to Arusha, and then we got caught in the middle of a roving political rally. Ok, here's the lowdown on the action that took place: the incumbent Member of Parliament had passed away, and hence the by-election. His son was standing to replace his father, and they are from the political party, CCM, which has been the ruling party since independence (the party was founded by the first prime minister of Tanzania). The previous prime minister was passing through Moshi to rally support for their candidate, and coincidentally, the strongest opposition, Chadame, was also passing through. It was a very interesting half hour as we got caught in the middle of the convoy, where one side of the road lined the supporters of CCM, while the other side of the road were the supporters of Chadame. Although it was a highly charged affair, but you can also sense that it was largely good natured. Our guide was telling us that the CCM is supported largely by the older generation who are grateful for the what the CCM had done for them since the days of independence, while the younger generation are craving for change and hence support Chadame. I was struck by how similar the political situation is with Singapore.

Here's a picture of me with our guide, Joseph. This picture probably gives a good idea of how gaunt and worn out I'd looked

When we finally got back to the hotel, it was many fond farewells as the students took photos with their guides and bade them farewell. I grabbed my bag and got to the room to have a nice shower. The first shock that I had was when I took my shirt off: I had lost so much weight!! I honestly got quite frightened! Haha! In fact, fast forward to a couple of days later, Kat actually wasn't able to recognise me at the airport. The next shock was when I blew my nose, and large clumps of dried blood clots came out. As much as it sounds gross, it was painful as hell because it was kinda like ripping off the scabs to start the whole process of scabbing again. This process kept going even a week later. And after a week on the trail without shower facilities, it took me 2 washes before my hair felt squeaky clean, and I was glad that I had my wash cloth with me and it served as a loofah of sorts to scrub me down. I've probably never had a such a long shower before, but it felt so good. 

Climbed it, drank it

After the shower, I made my way down to the restaurant where I reveled in the fact that I now have a choice of food, rather than having to eat whatever was cooked. As I enjoyed my dinner and looked out at the pool, I took the time to reflect upon the last 7 days, and what I had learnt. It was unbelievable how the last 7 days had gone by just like that, and although I was delighted that I had summited, I had learned a great deal of humility. I'd seen how the mountains are no place for the ego, as it is an unforgivable place and will break you down no matter how strong or fit you are (or think you are). I'm so thankful for the support that Kat and dear friends have given me, such as Joanne Soo (part of the first all-female Singaporean team to summit Mt Everest) who kept encouraging me by sharing her own stories when she was preparing for Everest, and also to Swee Chiow for his little nuggets of technical advice that had gotten me through. Of course, the guides and porters who made it all possible for us. And finally, Mother Nature for being kind to us and allowing us to summit in the mildest of conditions. I honestly cannot imagine the kind of conditions that I had read about, the blustery wind and the snow that was expected during that time of the year. 


So there you have it, my big adventure for 2012. Well, there's still my Technical dives in June, but that's found on my scuba diving blog. In August, I'll be tackling Mt Kinabalu again, but this time, Kat will be with me as I told her that it'd be a shame for her not to tackle her country's highest peak. Who knows? She might get bitten by the trekking bug and join me for future expeditions. To be honest, I'm so thankful that she's not only my partner in life, but also my activity partner. There were so many occasions on the trail when I wished she could see what I was seeing.

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 6- Day of Days

So much for going to bed early to catch some sleep. My mind was super active playing through scenarios. My usual tried and tested method of plugging my ears with music didn't work either. Before I knew it, I could hear the voices of the students who were leaving an hour before the rest of us, getting ready to leave. Oh well, I figured that I would get up earlier to wish them well and see them off. 

Getting out of the tent is always a rather painful affair because of the cold. After hanging around a little, a couple of the other students started coming out of their tents because they couldn't sleep either. More students soon started coming out from their tents and we were soon huddled in the dining tent for hot drinks and biscuits for snacks. Paul was going through everyone's packs to check on the weight, and he was really strict about the amount that we were bringing along. 

As expected, the wind was blowing and I've got my down jacket, fleece and merino base layers on, but I was surprised that my hands and toes weren't feeling the bite of the cold.. yet. I had liners and outer shell gloves, and liner and merino wool socks on. At midnight, it was time to go: the longest day had begun. 

The first part was easy enough, scrambling a little over the boulders which marked the entrance/exit to the camp, but soon, the long climb up the mountain of scree began. We were really fortunate that the expected blustery wind didn't kick up, and in fact, we felt a little warm from the exertion. Unlike other days, we were taking breaks every half hour, and on a day like this, it was especially important for us to keep our breaks to no more than 5 minutes. In fact, in that 5 minutes, we could actually feel the cold and our energy getting sapped. 


My plan for summit day was pretty much the same strategy for the past couple of days: keep my head down, keep moving one foot ahead of the other with as little effort as possible, and keep my eyes on my heart monitor while monitoring my breathing. Knowing well that it was an estimated 7 hours up, I tried not to keep track of time so as not to concern myself with potentially demoralising thoughts like "how much longer to go?". When I decided to sneak a peek at my watch, I was pleasantly surprised to see what we were halfway through the expected 7 hour journey up the mountain, and I was still feeling good. Apart from the lack of blustering wind (hence no worries about windchill), there was no snow despite the fact that the rainy season had just started. However, the water in our bladder had frozen despite blowing the liquid in the tube back into the bladder. Thankfully, the water in our Nalgene didn't freeze, and that kept us going, and I was thankful for the oat biscuits that I popped to keep my energy level up.


We soon came to the toughest part of the climb, where the scree was so deep that a third of my trekking pole sank in and I punched my trekking poles into the ground just to get better support. Each step we took, we lost our footing and slipped down lower. It wasn't just a physically challenging time, but also one that tested us mentally, and it soon took a toll on many of the students as they started to fall behind and the group started to separate. Soon, it was just me and 2 other students, with our guide, Joseph.


To encourage the group, Joseph pointed out some lights along the horizon and told us that it was Stella Point, a major landmark for us as it would mark the end of the steepest portion of the climb. When we crested Stella Point, we were so happy because I knew that the summit was at most an hour away. By this time, we could see that the sky was starting to get lit up from the rising sun. It actually energised us and we found the energy to walk faster, only to have Joseph call out to us "Pole Pole!". Oops! Let's not throw caution to the wind although we have only less than 200 metres of altitude to go. 

Sunrise, as seen from Stella Point

As we trudged closer, we started passing the first trekkers that we'd seen all night. The good thing about climbing during that time of the year, was that there was hardly anyone else. In fact, we were the only group on the summit trek (on the Machame Route) that night. We passed a pair of trekkers who called out to us, encouraging us to push on as it was just a bit more to go. At 6.45am, we were arrived at the summit. After months of training, mentally preparing for the possibility that I might not make it to the summit, the support and encouragement from Kat and many of my friends.. all of that emotion came flooding into me and I admit that I teared up at the summit. I had done it. Although I was feeling better than I'd expected all the way up, I just could not believe that after months of preparation, after all the worrying, I was finally at the roof of Africa.

At last!

There was another pair of trekkers who reached the summit before we did, and one of them was obviously very tired and was resting in front of the summit sign. We were in no hurry as we had planned to wait for the rest of the group to catch up, so I called Kathy on the satellite phone to let her know that I had reached the summit (she was waiting for my call) and then called my boss to let him know that we'd arrived. Joseph was concerned about the exposure and so he started to hurry us. We took our summit photos, and then proceeded to make our way down the mountain. We made a slight detour to the see the glacier, but my student and I quickly realised it wasn't the best idea because the volcanic ash was really soft and deep, so it took a lot of energy to negotiate the slope. We decided quickly that we'd seen enough and decided that we should preserve our energy for the descent.


As we approached Stella Point, we met the first of our group that were making their way to the summit, and we offered them all the encouragement and when we stood at the edge, we were daunted by what we saw: an impossibly long way down back to camp, covered with loose scree. What we had gone through in those 7 hours finally struck us, and honestly, if it was daylight, we might've gotten demoralised going up, seeing how much further we had. I decided to ski/run down the slopes and quickly realised it wasn't gonna be easy as my knee started to hurt and for the first time since the trek started, I was really starting to feel the fatigue. In fact, the two students with me were also struggling hard as well. Come to think about it, it was the longest day for us, after 7 hours of climbing, we now have to drag our weary bodies back to camp. We used all kinds of strategies, like skiing down and then taking breaks, to walking down slowly before taking a break. Either way, we were physically and mentally exhausted, and we fell plenty of times when the scree under our feet gave way. 

It's a long way down to the glacier

Looking down the endless slope of scree

We finally arrived at a point where the landscape flattened out somewhat and when we turned a corner, we were confronted by another deep valley before we could actually reach the camp. That dealt another blow to us psychologically. The sun by now was blasting down on us. Well, there really wasn't any other choice but to just do what I'd been doing for the past week, that is to keep moving one foot ahead of the other. It felt so alone in the totally barren and desolate landscape, devoid of vegetation. The ground beneath our feet soon from scree to broken slabs of slate, and walking over them felt like I was walking over broken pieces of floor tiles. It honestly felt like an eternity and I just couldn't see where the camp was until I caught sight of the ranger's hut. After negotiating a few of the boulders, I realised that I was approaching camp, and as I walked into camp at about past 11am, some of the porters who didn't follow us to the summit came up to shake my hand, and after a drink from the kitchen helper, I throw my pack into my tent and collapsed on my mat to rest. However, I could hardly fall asleep because the sun was blasting down on my tent and turned it into a greenhouse, so even though we were high up on the mountain, it felt REALLY hot. 


I managed to catch some sleep and got most of my packing done, and welcomed the rest of the larger group back into camp as they staggered in. Almost everyone had made it up the summit, with the immense help of the guides and porters, and even those who didn't make it, came back with an great sense of satisfaction knowing that they've done the best they could. We grabbed a late lunch and at about 3pm, we started to make our way down to Mweka Camp (3100m). Yup, the day was definitely not over yet, and after spending a good part of the week inching almost 4000m to acclimatise, we would descend about 1500metres in 4 hours.


Kilimanjaro was the reverse of Mt Kinabalu for me, where I had suffered during the ascent but breezed down the descent. My right knee was in total agony on the descent down Kilimanjaro because it was hurting so much when I bent it, and it came to a point when it was starting to lock up. I was massively grateful as I staggered into camp at about 6.30pm. Eighteen and a half hours after our day started, the day has finally ended. We were surrounded by the lush greenery once more, and I was so grateful to climb into my tent. As I was wiping myself with the wipe wets, I thought to myself "one more day" as my knee throbbed with pain. Off to dinner for one final dinner by the candlelight, one final briefing for the following day. Many of us had thought that it would be warmer after descending 1500 metres, but we were wrong as we started dashing back for our fleece, gloves and even down jackets. After dinner, no one really hung around much as fatigue really kicked in and by 8pm, I was already in my sleeping bag and fast asleep.


Here are the final numbers:
Total time: 18hour30minutes
Max Heart Rate: 155bpm
Average Heart Rate: 131bpm
Total calories burnt: 12150 calories

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 5 It's All So Close Now

Frost, on my tent

Woke up today and found that instead of a tent flap, I had a tent door instead. Yup, it was another freezing night and my tent flap had pretty much frozen solid, and I had frost falling on me when I opened the flap. Another day below freezing temperature, and it's hardly surprising considering that we were pretty close to the summit. 

It was a short day today, where we got into high camp, Barafu Camp (4600m), which was also our final camp before the summit attempt. As we were already in the arctic desert zone, the day's trek was a walk through the barren desolate land, under the gaze of the glacier. With this being the 5th day on the trek, my legs were starting to strain under the exertion of the climb. The inside of my nose was hurting like crazy too because of the freezing dry air, and it made sleeping at night really uncomfortable. The only solution was to pull the Buff over my nose so as to have a warm protective layer which might help warm and even put some moisture back in.

So close...

Swee Chiow was really happy today because we had become so efficient with our stops, we actually made it into camp in 2hours and 45minutes, better than the expected 3 hours. In fact, we had actually got into the camp before all the porters did, so we had to wait around a little while the porters caught up with our duffle bags. As we were on the steeper part of the mountain and was strewn with large boulders, it was really cramped. Thankfully, it was only our group at the campsite.


Due to the fact that we had to leave camp for our summit attempt at midnight (a couple of the slower students would be leaving at 11pm so as to have a headstart), we had an early dinner at 5pm. I'm not sure if it was because lunch was merely a few hours ago, or it was because of the nervous anticipation of our longest day ever (an estimated 7 hours up, 7 hours down, a quick rest at high camp, then 4 hours down to Mweka Camp, our last camp of the entire trek), but I just didn't have that much of an appetite that evening. "Wow... last camp of the trek... that's quick...", my minded wandered before I shook myself with the realisation that before I could get to the last camp, there's still the matter of 7 hours of a steep climb on a slope covered in deep scree. 

After dinner, our head guide, Paul, came into the dining tent as usual to give our brief for the following day, except this day, it was different: it was THE brief for the most important day of our trek. Paul has done about 200 summits on Kilimanjaro, and he had this ominous message for us: all of the guides, almost all of whom have chalked up over 100 summits, still feel the bite of the cold on their finger tips and toes, no matter how covered up they were. There wasn't much we could do about it, but to put up with it and push on. A valuable tip that Paul shared, and one that I'd never read about is about preventing our Nalgene bottles from completely freezing. We had already planned to keep our Nalgene in a bottle insulator to keep the water from freezing, but Paul suggested that we keep our bottles upside down in the insulator so that if it does start to freeze, it would be the bottom of the bottle that froze first, ensuring that we would still be able to drink from the bottle. Genius! And because of all the exertion, we were told to keep our backpacks as light as possible. In fact, he told us to have just 2 litres of water because we wouldn't be losing much hydration due to the fact that it was night. That, I'm not so sure if trekking at night would mean losing less hydration.


Back to my tent after dinner, I took the opportunity to repack my backpack and change to new lithium batteries for my headlamp. I brought along less food, mainly just oatmeal biscuits that were bite-sized, ensuring that it'd be easy to pop whole into the mouth for quick energy. After a quick entry into my Moleskin notebook, I tried to turn in and catch some sleep before waking up at 11pm for supper. Yeah right.. wishful thinking. On the previous nights on the trek, I had SO many problems trying to fall asleep, and honestly, although I was mentally exhausted from the lack of sleep, all I could think about was the summit attempt. I kept thinking about scenarios, and how I could plan for the contingencies. "What if" kept going through my head over and over again. I honestly cannot remember if I managed to catch any sleep at all, and even if I did, it might've been merely minutes. Nothing I did could help me get some much needed sleep. Before I know it, it was 11pm.. time to go to the dining tent and get ready. 


4 months of preparations, 5 days on the trek later... the time had come.

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 4 Scrambling Up and Down

Up the wall we go

The night before in the dining tent, I was sharing that it was "hump day", meaning it was the mid point of the trek, between the start of the trek and summit day. There was plenty of excitement leading up to the trip, but now that the trek had started, and 3 days down, the nerve were starting to really kick in, and Barranco Wall would be an interesting challenge. We'd seen photos of the Wall and also videos of climbers going up the wall, and it was certainly no trek. I mean, it's called "Wall" for a reason, so there'd be times when we'd have to use our hands as well to get up the wall. 

The morning was the first of the minus 5 degrees ones, and we were amused that the water in the wash basins (that the porters leave out for us when we wake up to wash up) had frozen into solid discs. After breakfast, as we were getting our backpacks on, we could already see that some trekkers had started their way up the wall, and I tell you, I had to squint hard to see them clearly. No, my eyesight was perfectly fine. It was because they were quite far away and so small on a large wall. 

Click to enlarge the vid, and try to locate the climbers

As I'd reckoned that my hands would be preoccupied with the scrambling, I decided to dispense with Kat's Panasonic GX-1 camera and strapped on the GoPro on my head. I was hoping that I would be able to get some nice video grabs of the scrambling up the wall from a first person point of view (yeah, Blair Witch camera motion that makes you nauseate from motion sickness). No luck with that. Seems like the freezing temperature had wreaked havoc with the GoPro, and it was flashing through all the modes. I'd previously brought it down to 60m depth underwater and it still performed well, so looks like temperature had finally defeated it, albeit temporarily. Oh well, no luck then. 

The amazing porters. Nothing stops them

I must admit that although I was nervous as I approached the wall, when I started the first bit of scrambling, I started to realise why people told me that the scrambling would be fun! It was definitely a nice and refreshing change from the last 3 days of trudging along on our feet, hands on the trekking poles. For the scramble up Barranco Wall, I had to figure out the best places to put my foot on to push myself up, and also which hold would be best to push or pull myself. I'd done a little bit of sport climbing before, so the prior (albeit limited) experience was useful, and even made the whole experience fun. I'd read in some places that the if you're afraid of heights, going up Barranco Wall would be scary, and to be honest, I've yet to decide whether I'm actually afraid of heights. But when I was on the Wall and I looked back, seeing how much ground we've covered, seeing how small our camp seemed from up where we were, gave me a thrill. 

After an hour and half, the whole team had made it up to the top of the wall, and the view from the top was breathtaking. From the top of the Wall, you have a commanding view of the Kibo volcanic cone, and the surrounding landscape. It was the perfect photo opportunity and Swee Chiow practically set up an outdoor photo studio and got each member of the team on top of a rock for photo shots. Unfortunately, I've yet to get a copy of mine, so I can't post it here. But I still managed to get a student to take a picture of me up there. For the first time since the trek started, the whole team was together on the trail, enjoying themselves. The sun was out, the weather was warm, everyone was happy. Half an hour later, it was time to move on.

Going over the top, the trail continued with many up and down sections across small streams and then up to the Karanga campsite. Now, keep in mind that the Barranco Wall is a 250metre near vertical rise, so the descent on the other side wasn't going to be a walk in the park. It was rather steep and with numerous patches of wet boulders, and also parts of the trail was broken rocks, so it was rather dangerous at times. We were advised to use just one trekking pole so that we have a hand free to do a bit of scrambling. One or two parts required us to stretch and lower ourselves down to the next boulder because some of the boulders were pretty darned big. At the bottom of the descent (as you can see, it's a valley), it's a bit of a river flowing through, and once we were over that, it was another climb. Well, same ol' same ol' again, up we climbed.


3.5 hours after we started, we'd reached Karanga Camp (4200metres), earlier than what we had anticipated, and everyone was delighted at the efficiency with time. After identifying my duffle bag and it was sent to my tent, I took the opportunity to catch a nap before lunch, and another one after lunch. As we'd gotten into camp just after noon, it meant that we had a lot of time. I was glad to see some of the students sitting with the guides and some of the porters, chatting with them and finding out about life and the culture in Tanzania. When I woke up from my nap, I also had a chat with a couple of the guides and found out much about Tanzania, the politics, the people, and its post-independence policies to foster nation building. Overall, it was a very good afternoon for me, getting to know a country that its people had welcomed us. 

View from the top

Down the other side of the wall we go

Down into the valley, up the trail that you see, and our camp is at the top