Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Day 3 A Day of Ups and Downs

Not again, yet another night of restless sleep, despite being really tired after evacuating the student to the ranger's station. All I got was a couple of hours' of good sleep, before waking up in the wee hours of the morning, shivering from the cold (the temperature had dropped to below freezing) and the strong wind blowing. A number of us were woken up by the banging of the toilet's roof which was blown up by the strong wind. Getting out of the sleeping bag, I could feel the nip of the cold.

Today, we would be climbing to the highest altitude than most of us had previously done so, which so far had been Mount Kinabalu (4095m). I knew it was gonna be a long day, and going up to an altitude that I've never been, I gotta admit that I was feeling a bit apprehensive, although I'd been taking Diamox from the day before Day 1 on the trek. As we got ready to go, I was feeling the slightest of ache in my legs, which got me paranoid. Then again, it could be paranoia that was making think that I have a slightest of ache in my legs. At the back of my mind, I was worrying if the lack of sleep and the late night evacuation just a few hours before was going to get to me.

Lava Tower

Trekking up towards Lava Tower (4630m), it was expected it was going to be an upward trek from the word "go!" (or in Swee Chiow's favourite words, "Let's rock and roll!"). Speaking of rocks, the vegetation started getting sparse, as the terrain became rockier and even the bits of vegetation were dwarf shrubs, with the only tall form of vegetation being the giant Senecios, a mutant pineapple looking plant that grew in the alpine desert. Trekking along, I was able to see the wide expanse of rocks of on the rolling terrain, with the cloud sweeping in now and then. The temperature would also vary depending on whether the sun is out or not. 

The giant Senecios in the background

During on the rest stops, Swee Chiow took out his GPS to get a reading of the altitude, and told us that we were about 4200m, the highest that most of us had ever been. Of course for Swee Chiow, this is less than half of the highest he'd experienced (8840m). And since none of us had ever been this high, some signs of altitude sickness started showing for some of the students as we continued our way up to Lava Tower. Many of them were having the classic syndrome of a throbbing headache, while a couple of them were nauseous.

Barranco Wall at the back. You can see the trail on the left

We finally arrived at Lava Tower sometime after 1pm, where we stopped for lunch before going down to Barranco Camp at 3860m. Yup, after all that effort, we'd lose the 800m gain in height and end up with a net gain of.. *drum roll please*.. 20m over the previous night at Shira Camp. The whole purpose of climbing to the altitude and then going down to a lower camp, follows the climbing maxim of "climb high, sleep low", which aids acclimatisation greatly. Generally, it is not recommended to climb to a gain of more than 300m in a day, but with "climb high, sleep low", it exposes the body to an higher altitude to allow the body to adapt to the conditions (adapt to the lower oxygen level and increasing production of red blood cells), then descending to allow the climber to rest properly. 

Lava Tower is a rock tower formed thousand of years ago by molten lava which formed the tower and then solidified and hardened as it cooled. As we trudged around the rock to get to a sheltered area away from the wind for lunch, we passed a couple of tents which had set up camp at that altitude. Sitting down for lunch, we ripped open our lunch packs to see the content: chicken, sandwiches and fruits. I wasn't so keen on the chicken since I found the chicken that we had during lunch on day 1 to be pretty darned tough, but I was so hungry, I just tore right into it and thoroughly enjoyed it. While we were eating, the familiar ravens and mice were hanging around waiting for the scraps again. 

Going down from Lava Tower to Barranco Camp proved to be a teeny weeny preview of summit day. Some parts were quite steep, and covered with scree (broken rock fragments and loose rocks). Joseph took the chance to get us mentally prepared by telling us that the steepness was going to be something like 6 hours long, with the scree 3 times deeper. Descending to a lower altitude eased the headache for some of the students, but descending on scree also made the footing unsure. I was quite glad when the scree slopes ended and we scrambled over rocks. Stopping occasionally, the surrounding rock structures were breathtaking, with several caves and increasing number of Senecios, and with the fog rolling in, it was quite a surreal scenery: this was the Barranco Valley. 

Just before 3.30pm, with fog getting thicker and obscuring the sun, it was getting a little dark, so we were ecstatic to get into Barranco Camp, almost 8 hours after departing from Shira Camp this morning. As we got into camp and started identifying our bags for the porter to bring into our tent, we couldn't help but notice Barranco Wall, 250metres high. What was daunting was seeing the trail that went up the wall, seeming so small, hence making the wall look a lot bigger and higher than the 250 metres. Oh well, "whatever will be, will be", we told each other, and that's basically been our motto so far. We'll just take each step at a time, and we'll reach the top when we get there. There was simply no point in stressing ourselves out ahead of time and worrying about the future. 

As I walked around taking pictures of some of the desert flora, I made the mistake that Joanne (who was part of the first team of Singaporean women who summited Mt Everest) had warned us about before our trip: standing up too quickly. With oxygen getting increasingly scarce, standing up quickly would cause you to be dizzy, and it was definitely not a good thing to be feeling dizzy in front of some cactus. A potential "ouch!" situation. 

Here's the numbers for the day:

Max heart rate: 145bpm

Average heart rate: 128bpm

Total calories burnt: 4935

Total time on trek: 7 hours 50 minutes

Garden of Senecios

Kilimanjaro 2012: Day 2 Finding My Pace

I've never been a fan of sleeping bags, and the horrid combination of not being able to sleep in a new environment (even in a nice hotel on a nice bed) meant that I hardly caught any sleep all night. I guess it was also because of the excitement, looking ahead to the coming days ahead. 

The amazing porters

Our typical breakfast comprised of oatmeal, bread (there was jam, peanut butter and margarine), eggs, sausages and food. Our usual routine before breakfast was to make sure that we clear our tents before going for breakfast, so we have to pack everything away into the duffle bag and leave it out for the porters, and the tents would also be taken down and packed, ready for transportation to the next camp. It's amazing how efficient the porters are (we had 50 porters for the 19 of us). We would leave camp at least an hour before they do, and yet, they would've caught up with us after an hour (mind you, they do it with 20kg packs on their heads) and raced ahead of us so that camp can be set up by the time we arrive. Of course, they're more conditioned than we are, therefore they are able to work harder without feeling so much the effects of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) or altitude sickness. But that being said, there's no doubting the seriously hard life that they have. I felt so sorry for a porter (from another group) who was throwing up at the side of the trail, presumably from the effects of AMS. While trekkers like us could afford to give up and turn back, he's dealing with his livelihood. Joseph (our guide) was telling me about how he started out as a porter (all the guides start out as porters, before moving up the ranks to being cooks/ kitchen hands or assistant guides, and then taking an exam to be certified as a guide), that because of the weight on his neck for the long period, he couldn't turn his head for some time. So whenever someone called him, he would have to move his whole body to look at the person. 

Today's trek was definitely harder than day 1, with plenty of ups and downs, as we made our way to Shira Camp at 3840m. It was pretty much a whole day of of different terrains, with rainforest vegetation giving away to shorter ones, and vegetation was also getting sparse as we encountered more rocks. Certain sections were narrow and winding, even needing a bit of scrambling. There's something about moving up and down, climbing over one peak after another, and it kind of got to us mentally as we started asking our guides how much further have we got. It really wasn't about the fatigue, I guess it's quite disorientating going up and down when we expect to the going up... I mean, we were supposed to be climbing a mountain. The fog that kept rolling in and out made the mood a little depressing for me as well. Guess I was missing the sun already. 


I was also careful of how my body might take the ups and downs, always worried that my body might start breaking down soon. While following Swee Chiow, he gave me a very good piece of advice that I reckoned helped me through the trip: if you find yourself breathing too hard, you probably are working too hard. He also explained that the reason why older climbers fare better is because they are able to breathe rhythmically. So whenever I found myself breathing harder, I'd take a quick look at my heart rate monitor and if it was indeed higher than 140bpm (that was the threshold that I'd set for myself because any lower than 140bpm, I felt very comfortable. If you wish to try my method, I'd advise that you find out the "magic number" that works for you), I'd tell myself "pole pole", and slowed my pace down CONSIDERABLY, and practically dragged my feet along just to make sure that work as lazily as possible (my rational was that I wanted to use as few muscles as possible). It was a tactic that worked really well for me all the way up, and it's something that I will keep using for my future climbs.

White-necked raven

We took a longer break on a plateau, where we got acquainted to the local fauna, namely the four-striped grass mouse and the white necked raven. These guys are really contrasting on the cute factor: the mice were scampering around, hoping for food to fall for them, but shy as can be, while the ravens were in your face, sometimes coming so close that I reckoned that it was going to snatch the food right out of our hands. They stand at 50-54cm with a weight of almost 900g!! Check out the beak on that face that only a mother would love. 


Thankfully, just as the sun appeared, we caught sight of our camp. We were really pleased with the short day, finishing about 5 hours after starting. The camp was set up on a flat expanse of desert like land, and the first thing we noticed was that it was VERY windy and there were so many ravens hanging around. A couple of the students decided to take advantage of the sunny day to sun their clothes on the rocks, while keeping a weary eye out for the ravens that were hanging around. While they didn't have an appetite for socks, we did see the ravens tear up a plastic bag and eat it up. 

Lunch was macaroni with minced beef, and it was such a welcomed meal! Not only were carbohydrates essential to replenish our body's fuel system, but being a meat lover like myself, I was grateful for a nice hot meal like that. Plus, with the early end to the day, I was grateful that I could rest up, pack up bags, and catch a nap to make up for my lack of sleep at night. 

Shira Camp, with magnificent view of Cathedral Rocks

One thing I noticed was that a number of students were lagging behind and weren't back in camp even after we'd finished lunch. When they returned, I found that they were either suffering from fatigue or nausea (some even vomited), all of which are primary symptoms of altitude sickness. We were particularly concerned about one student who hadn't really managed to keep any fluids down. In the evening, Swee Chiow passed out the oximeter which measured our heart rate and the amount of oxygen in our red blood cells. Most of us were in the range of 80-90%, which was normal at altitude, but we were concerned about the student whose reading had dropped to 66%. Swee Chiow gave him a Diamox and his oxygen saturation raised to 88%. But the point of concern was that he still wasn't holding down any fluids, and didn't have any dinner either. We huddled together and decided that we would wait until the morning to see if his condition would improve further. However, just before dinner, the student came to us to tell us that he wasn't feeling any better and wanted to get off the mountain. It was probably the best decision for him because any further up, evacuating him would've require greater logistics (via helicopter) as it was the last camp where evacuation by road would be possible. 


While his gear was being packed up, Paul (our local chief guide) administered oxygen, and some of the local guides were summoned to help with the evacuation. Swee Chiow, myself and my colleague set off with the local guides who were holding on to the student as they skilfully maneuvered him quickly over the rocks to get to the ranger station on a very blustery night, with just the headlamps for illumination. Following the local guides, I was full of admiration of the skills of the guides. When we returned to the hotel after the 7 days and I managed to speak to the student, I asked him if he was exerting much effort and he said that he felt as if he was floating along as the guides helped him along. Seeing how dehydrated the student was that night, it was really worrying, but he was still lucid as he was still able to laugh at a lame joke that I made. 


After the student was evacuated and sent off to the hospital in Moshi for observation, we were joking on the way back that we were having our rehearsal for the summit attempt. And to be honest, it was really a rehearsal for me as I eventually used the same kit for the summit attempt. I had a chance to experience the blustery cold wind which was to be expected on summit day, and I was pleased to find that I was well protected. By the time we got back to camp, it was almost 2am and I was really tired (mentally) and I collapsed into my tent, mindful of the demands of the following day: the high climb to Lava Tower (4630m) for acclimatisation, and then descending down to Barranco Camp to sleep low. It was going to be a long day.

Here's my readings for the day:

Total calories used: 4935calories
Max heart rate: 145bpm
Average heart rate: 128bpm

Kilimajaro Expedition 2012: Day 1 Plugging Through The Rainforest

Well, today's the day. We hopped onto the bus which took us from Arusha to Machame, where we will start our 7-day trek. For me, the first day would be a test because it's a 6-hour long trek, and I remembered that my last climb up up a mountain (Mount Kinabalu, 4095m) basically killed my quads. Granted, we'd be training heaps (8 hour treks), I'd also learnt my lesson of making sure that I replenish my salts, and unlike Kinabalu, the trek up Kilimanjaro is gradual (read: NO STEPS!). So many people had told me that climbing Kinabalu would be easy but they've obviously never climbed it in the kind of conditions that I climbed in: through a storm with the wind gusting, making conditions really cold. Some of the students were told that if they can't afford base layers, they could make it with several layers of dri-fit tee-shirts, a sweater and a jacket. What a massive mistake! I'm thankful that I had a base layer that I used for drysuit diving, a fleece that I'd had for some time, and a half decent outer shell. I had a hard time fighting the nip on my fingers and also my face because my gloves were soaked through (bad advice from a shop which reckoned that I won't need waterproof gloves because it won't rain) and my double layer of Buff just couldn't keep the rain out. Although I managed to summit, I was massively humbled, and I swore that I'd never take the mountain for granted anymore. I'd read up heaps about Kilimanjaro, made sure that I had the appropriate gear (thankfully, we had an experienced guide in Khoo Swee Chiow, an adventurer who'd summited Mt Everest three times, and he provided far better advice than what I'd received for Kinabalu). 

While waiting for our local guides to sort out the administration for our expedition, we had lunch and tinkered with gear adjustments. After being introduced to the guides and some last minutes group photos, it was time to start. Walking through the gate, we could see blue monkeys scampering from tree to tree. Today's trek was very comfortable, and we were wearing the kind of clothing we would for the tropics, so there was no need for base layers. And we also learned a new word today: "pole pole", or "slowly slowly" in Swahili, words which would come to prove extremely valuable to me and eventually contributed to my ability to summit. I found the pace set by our guide, Joseph, to be extremely comfortable, and being the gadget freak that I was, I was keeping a close eye on my heart rate monitor to see how my body was adapting (yes yes, plus I wanted to see how many calories this fat man was burning). Today's trek was largely uneventful, apart from our first experience with the toilet (a really deep pit, though not wide enough to fall in, with a shed built over it). It also started to rain, which hardly came as a surprise considering that it was the start of the rainy season, which eventually proved to be a blessing as we were practically the only group on the trail. 

Toilet

The most important lesson that I'd learnt today (and a lesson that I will hold dearly for future expeditions, especially in colder climate) was that we took way too much time during breaks. There wasn't a sense of urgency in getting things done fast, and we also struggled with our rain gear as we were not familiar with it and had not practiced with them previously. Swee Chiow said that we could get away with these "mistakes" or lack of urgency down in the rain forest area where it was warmer, but we could ill-afford taking such long breaks when the temperature gets colder. We took a total of about 6.5hours today, way past the 4-5 hours that he'd expected from us. 

Seemed so close, but so far away

The day ended when we reached Machame Camp, where we caught the magnificent view of the snow capped mountain, which came at an appropriate time, reminding us our of our objective. Settling down for the first night, there were lots of things that we were uncertain about, like the routine of cleaning up, packing and repacking for the following night (absolutely essential as a time saver), etc. Dinner was in a larger tent when we sat around a long table, and we were greeted with snacks of popcorn, and hot drinks could be made with the tins of milk powder, Milo, coffee powder and tea bags. The first night of eating dinner was definitely a challenge, eating by the dim candlelight meant that we couldn't quite see what we were eating. Subsequently, we learned to bring our headlamps along.

Overall, it was a great day for me and I felt cautiously optimistic, none of the crazy aches that I'd felt after Day 1 of Kinabalu. Then again, while Kinabalu was just nothing but steps all the up to the camp, I'd hardly seen any steps on the first day of the trek. I gotta say that the pace that we'd been on had been very comfortable, and that might've played a big role in feeling fresh at the end of almost 6.5 hours. I was also thankful that our long training treks of 8 hours and the back to back treks (we did a long trek that started in the afternoon and ended well past midnight, and did another 5 hours trek the next day after resting for 8 hours), which was designed to get our body used to the demands of a 7 day trek. And for the number freaks amongst you, here's the data from my Polar heart rate monitor on the first day:

Time started: 12.30pm (East Africa time)
Total calories burnt: 3951
Max heart rate: 154
Average heart rate: 126


As you can see, it was really quite an easy day with an average heart rate of 126. Coming next, it's the trek to Shira Camp, another full day of trekking.

Click for the larger image to have an idea of our route

Kilimanjaro Expedition 2012: Flying is such a pain

After 4 months of preparations, the big day had finally arrived. After a nightmare of a time trying to pack all the gear for the 7-days on the trail, I hauled the equipment off to the airport. As excited I was about the trip, I wasn't that excited about being away from my family, and to make matters worse, it's a 2am flight via Qatar Airways. Don't ask me why, but I hate flights that are in the middle of the night. Maybe it's because I have to wait for my flight at a time when I'm supposed to be sleeping. The flight was completely full, with most of the passengers traveling from Bali.

The flight was largely uneventful, with an excellent in-flight entertainment system (loads of movies, music, TV programmes, games, etc), which isn't surprising considering that it's Skytrax's 2011 Airline of the Year, and a 5 star airline. However, I felt that the stewardesses could be more friendly, even when you are polite to them and speak to them with them with a smile, it's still a pretty dour expression on their faces. The food was unremarkable although there was a good spread and the appetizers were pretty nice. Caught the movie "War Horse" (LOVED it!), caught a bit of sleep, and 7.5 hours later, we arrived in Doha at dawn.

Looking out onto the tarmac

I was interested in seeing Doha since it was one of the world's richest nation, and like its fellow Persian Gulf states, it's launched many multi-billion construction projects and showcase events, and most recently, winning the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In order for us to get to the terminal, we had to hop onto a bus to take us there, and there were a total of 3 different alighting points, namely for transit passengers, arrival, and premium cla$$ passengers (Oops! They actually have limousines to pick them up. Only the plebeians in economy class had to take the bus). It's not an ideal situation but apparently when the new Doha International Airport is up, things will be easier. From what I could see, there were no aerobridges that connected the planes to the terminals, thus allowing for passengers to get directly into the terminal. For all its gleaming new structures, Doha is very much like Singapore: all hardware but no heart. Travelers were greeted by stony faced staff, who can sometimes border on being rude. And I also noticed a large number of migrant workers working at the airport. I read recently that Singapore celebrated its close relationship with Qatar, that Singapore had been sharing its economic model with Qatar. I hope that Qatar hasn't picked up the Third World service standard that Singapore has. 
 

To be brutally frank, I wasn't impressed with the Doha airport during my 2 hour transit. I had to use the toilet and I found the floors wet and even dirty, and I was mortified to find a HUGE glob of thick yellow phlegm on the toilet seat, part of which had flowed into the toilet bowl, and yet, due to its amazing viscosity, the two globs were still connected! Major gross out at 5am. I decided to walk around the terminal and it was the usual cafes and duty free shops. I took some pictures and proceeded to the glass panels to peer out on the tarmac as the sun began to break. I must express admiration for the Qataris with their battle to build over the desert. Anyway, before I could take anymore pictures, a security guard practically grabbed me by my arm and told me gruffly that I wasn't allowed to take pictures within the airport. I was perplexed because taking pictures in airports is something that almost all holidaymakers do. It wasn't as if I was taking pictures of some restricted area, like the immigration. Nevertheless, being a stranger in a strange land, I had no intention of being detained, so I put my iPhone away.

I had more opportunities to observe Qatar from the air after we took off for the Doha - Dar Es Salaam leg of the flight (yes, we had to bus out to the tarmac again), and while the city centre and waterfront developments were impressive, the outskirts of the city was very much brown in colour, which I presumed to be caused by the desert dust. This leg of the journey took us over the Gulf Peninsula, and over the Horn of Africa. Looking out of the window, it was mostly red dusty landscape, with long tracks cutting across the large stretches of land. I got a bit excited when the flight information display showed that we were flying over "Nazret". Silly me got it mixed up with "Nazareth", the childhood home of Jesus in Israel. Thing was, I was flying over Ethiopia. Apparently after World War 2, the then Emperor of Ethiopia renamed the city after the Biblical Nazareth. Since 2000, the city reverted to the name of "Adama", but "Nazret" is still widely used.

As we made the approach over Dar Es Salaam, I could see the beautiful islands off mainland Tanzania, which I later found out to be the old trading port of Zanzibar and the island of Pemba. I later found out from my mountain guide that many Western climbers would fly out there to relax after climbing Kilimanjaro. Looking at the beautiful clear azure water, it's definitely a place I'd want to visit with Kat for some scuba diving. 

Disembarking from the plane, it struck us that we'd finally arrived in Africa, and continent so far away, and one that we'd never thought that we'd have a chance to visit. Moving from the international terminal to the domestic, we were greeted by a scrimmage of travel agents trying to sell us domestic tickets. The next 6 hours waiting for the Precision Air flight (Precision Air is a subsidiary of Kenya Airways) would be a restless one. The terminal was really small with just one cafe, and one bookshop. While the students sat at the cafe sipping from glass bottles of Coke (by the way, no one understood when I said I want a bottle of "Coke". I have to say "Coca Cola"), I sat at the hard plastic seat of the terminal and pondered what laid ahead, and realised that exactly a week later, I would find out if I'd summited Kilimanjaro. That made me even more restless. I'd also noticed that there were a fair number of Chinese at the airport, and remembered Tanzania's long ties with China, and that China has been making in-roads with Africa's construction, manufacturing, and exploitation of natural resources. There were also quite a number of Westerners there too, and I found out that a number of them worked for the United Nations (Arusha, Tanzania, hosts a number of United Nations' offices), although I must confess that after watching movies such as "Blood Diamond" and "Lord of War", they looked like smugglers. My bad! 

Finally, it was time to leave! Boarding the little 70-seater ATR 72, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the interior of the plane looked much better than I thought it might, although the service is pretty gruff. The last time I'd flown in an prop plane was 20 years ago when I flew from Sydney to Newcastle (Australia), and that was a roller coaster ride. Remembering that experience, I was rather apprehensive about the flight, but it turned out much better than I'd expected. I had another chance to check out the city of Dar Es Salaam and I could see how densely populated the city centre was, and it was also sad to see factories spewing yellow fumes that lingered above the city sky. As we approached Kilimanjaro, Swee Chiow (our guide) pointed out a distant sighting of Kilimanjaro, and everyone got so excited.

After planning for four months and with loads of gear in our duffle bags, we were massively relieved that find that our bags have arrived together with us after the 3 flights. At almost 900m above sea level, the evening air was crisp, something that we had not expected of Africa. We were met by the local travel agent and after an hour's bus ride, we arrived at the Impala Hotel. After traveling for 24 hours, we were exhausted and just wanted to grab dinner and go to sleep. As expected, I was jet lagged and woke up several times through the night, including once at 2am (East Africa Time, GMT+3) when it was time to wake up for me at 7am in Singapore. 

The following day was for us to just take it easy and recover from the jet lag, do a spot of sight seeing around town, some peer teaching for the students, and last minute packing for the 7-days ahead. For when we wake up tomorrow, it'd mark the start of the expedition proper. And the butterflies are starting to flutter in the belly.

Please feel free to leave any comment or questions on my blog!

The Mt Meru market.. stuff for tourists. As it was the low season, the stall owners were VERY persistent

The Arusha Clock Tower, popularly supposed to be situated at the midpoint between Cairo and Cape Town

Packing For Kilimanjaro

I was kind of hoping to get the packing for the Kilimanjaro trip today but the amount of gear to pack meant that I needed to get a bigger bag because my existing duffle bag just couldn't fit everything in! The fact that we'll be on the trail for 7 days, moving from tropical climate to that of artic, means that I have a lot to pack.

Here's a snap shot of what I'm packing:
1. 6 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of liners
2. Gloves (2 pairs of liners, 1 pair of fleece and 1 pair of windproof)
3. Balaclava
4. Polar Buff
5. Buff
6. 3 sets of base layers
7. Down jacket
8. Fleece jacket and pants
9. Outer shell jacket and pants
10. Backpack (45 litres)
11. 1 pair of trekking poles
12. 1 long sleeve and 1 short sleeved drifit tees
13. Brimmed hat
14. Sunglasses (protection from the glacier glare makes it necessary protection)
15. 1 3litre Camelbak drinking bladder
16. 1 1litre Nalgene bottle with insulating parka
17. 1 1litre thermos 
18. 1 sleeping bag (it's rated -19 degrees, so you can imagine how big it is) and 1 sleeping pad
19. 1 headlamp
Plus toiletries and trail food.

What's trail food? Well, it's snacks that can be eaten while walking to give us energy (we'll be burning calories like mad), such as nuts, dried fruits (I love raisins, I've been trying small boxes of those during training and it keeps me going for half a day), muesli bars, etc. Apart from nutrition, food can also be a source of comfort when you're on your feet for an average of 7 hours a day (it's 15 hours on the last day), battling the weather and also the thin air. For me, I've gone for the perennial favourite for many of us: bak kwa or Chinese jerky. Ordinarily, I'd avoid it because of its sweetness and saltiness, but the calorie rich slices keeps us going both physically and mentally. 

Here's a snapshot of some of my packing for the expedition alone. Packing for the post-trip programs is easy enough because you can afford to get away with stuff you might forget.

Goodbye Encyclopedia Britannica

Picture from britannica.com.au

The digital age has claimed another victim. First, it was the closure of several big bookshops in Singapore (Borders being one of them), now, it's the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica. After almost 250 years of publication, Britannica has announced that it will cease producing the print edition. 

Does anyone remember the beautifully bound repository of knowledge and information? In the old days, whenever you needed a definitive answer on any subject, you'd say "I'll look it up in the Encyclopedia!". And when you call someone a "walking Encyclopedia", it means that that person is full of knowledge. These days, it's "I'll Wiki it!". And yes, where do you think the "-pedia" in "Wikipedia" comes from? While the content of Wikipedia is contributed by anybody, Encyclopedia's content is maintained and updated by 100 full-time editors and more than 4,400 expert contributors.

While I was reading the newspapers about the demise of the print edition, I was shocked to read that the entire set of Encyclopedia sells for a princely sum of USD1400! That made me appreciate my dad for making the purchase of a set 30 years ago, and I'm sure that it must've cost him a small fortune. Considering that my dad has always been a very thrifty person, it shows how much he values knowledge, sparing no expense in ensuring that we're well read. He even bought me the children's edition, which was also beautifully bound. I remembered spending hours poring over the pages, fascinated by the facts that I never knew, about faraway places and facts from a time so long ago. 

It is with a tinge of sadness, seeing the passing of another era, a memory of my childhood going down the path of the dodo. I must confess that I've been reading magazines digitally ever since I got my iPad, because it's convenient and it also saves space (the clutter caused by the piles and piles of magazine is a nightmare). Wikipedia is also a large part of my life right now, being so convenient especially with smart phones nowadays, as compared to running to the book shelves to get them. Such is life nowadays, the convenience of having the information at your fingertips, and instantly. However, so many of the stuff from my growing up years, are now nothing more than fond memories, and as my memory deteriorates, these memories get hazier and more confused. The Encyclopedia Britannica wasn't just a set of knowledge, it was one of the greatest gifts my father gave me.

Pre-Kilimanjaro jitters

Well, it started off as "4 months to go before the big trip", and in a blink of an eye, it's exactly a week before I'm due to fly off to Tanzania to scale Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro. It's a school trip, meaning I'll be bringing along 16 students, together with my colleague. 

I've heard about Mt Kilimanjaro since my older colleagues in the Physical Education department from eons ago climbed it way back in 1995. It seemed like a magical mysterious place so faraway, a place that I could only dream of. Suddenly, I'm a week away from starting my own summit attempt. To be brutally honest, I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried or anxious about it. 

My summit on Mt Kinabalu (Sabah) in October 2011 was an eye-opener for me. Everyone I know told me that summitting would be a non-conclusion, that even old folks and kids could make it to the top. My experience couldn't have been further from that. It was storming heavily by the time we were near the top, and due to the exposure, a large group of students had to turn back. Even at the altitude of 4095m, the lower oxygen level made breathing very laboured. My group made it and even then, I strongly felt that they could've been better kitted. Seeing a Malaysian staff of IBM on their company trip shivering uncontrollably and on the verge of hypothermia (he was dressed in a pair of track pants, long sleeved cotton tee, and sheltered by a poncho the thinness of a supermarket plastic bag), was the epitome of how lightly so many people viewed the task. Although you don't have to be massively fit to summit it (You do have to be of reasonably fit and strong in order to enjoy the trip. Think of it as a day-long workout on the stairclimber), the other important factor is having the correct gear. Mountain weather is TOTALLY unpredictable, and you'd be an idiot to complain that you don't want to carry all that exposure protection for nothing if the weather was fine. Trust me, if the rain drives down and the windchill kicks in, you'd be thankful. Oh, and travelling with a guide/travel company with TECHNICAL EXPERTISE is so important as well. 

Mt Kilimanjaro is a 5895m tall mountain with 3 volcano cones, with the temperature up at the top being minus 15-20 degrees celsius. Talk about the odds being stacked against a bunch of sea level dwelling folks from the tropical island nation of Singapore, where the highest point is only 163m high. Heck, the starting point of our trek in Tanzania is already 1830m high. Thankfully, the school had kindly bought its own supply of necessary exposure protection equipment such as down jacket, fleeces, etc, and we'll be travelling with an expert guide. We've been training a lot since the team got assembled, and training has been ramped up in the weeks leading up to the departure, comprising of stair climbing and long treks of 8-9 hours, just to get us used to being on our feet for long hours. BUT, all the training was done at sea level where the percentage of oxygen in the ambient air is 21%, but the percentage drops to as much as 50% at the summit.

So, do I think I'm ready? Apart from missing the creature comforts and the company of my best friend/wife, I must say that the prospect of being hit by altitude sickness and also the biting cold is what probably scares me the most. And of course, the crazy 12-15 hours of trekking on the summit day, where we would spend up to 7 hours making the summit attempt, then another up to 8 hours trekking all the way back down to the base camp at 3100m. And of course, it's the uncertainty of whether my body is gonna be able to hold up the rigours of working hard for 7-8 hours each day, for 7 days back to back. The one thing I know I can rely on is my mind, which has gotten me through a lot of physically challenging tasks. Well, here's hoping that my next post will be a successful trip report! 

In the meantime, here are some nice illustrated maps of Kilimanjaro, taken from http://kilimanjaro.malinikaushik.com:

Click on the picture to see the larger version!

The maps shows nicely our journey for the 7 days

The amazing spread of vegetation reflecting the different climates on the mountain