Up at 5am to leave at 5.30am, stop at homestay café en rounte to start the climb for breakfast, where the ex Army captain and wife Orkid ran paragliding over the mountain, where another couple are staying – apparenetly from Dorset, although we don’t meet them.
Head on to Mt K and check in and get guide (Dimmy) and head to Timophon gate to start the walk. First 1km is ok, 2nd and 3rd aren’t too bad and make quite good time (about 2 hrs) until the start of the 4th km. After that it gets very steep, lots of big steps and uphill sections. Get overtaken on numerous occasions, and after a strong start, poor old supoerfit Dimmy is forced to slow down, with frequent breaks to allow us to recover. Toilets are ramshackle squats. Louises drinking tube comes in handy, as do all the food and energy drinks we bought with us.
Saw some Pitcher plants on the way up, plus some good views when the clouds cleared. Lou is still ill, so was hard going, coughing, blowing nose, and struggling for breath on way up. Arrived at Laban Rata at 3.15pm – 6 hours after starting. Very cold – no heating until 8pm. Had tea – noodles and cheese (butter) sandwich, plus mini swiss roll. Then huddled together in bed (fully clothed) to try and keep warm until the heating turning on at 8pm.
At 8pm, no sign of heater coming on. 8.30pm, got maintenance man to take a look (he looked about 15) – get it working after 40mins and we go to bed. Heater pings off after 20 mins and the room gets very cold. Lou goes to investigate and coincidentally, it comes back on. We try to sleep which we fail to do, spending 5 hours waiting for 2am to arrive.
Head on to Mt K and check in and get guide (Dimmy) and head to Timophon gate to start the walk. First 1km is ok, 2nd and 3rd aren’t too bad and make quite good time (about 2 hrs) until the start of the 4th km. After that it gets very steep, lots of big steps and uphill sections. Get overtaken on numerous occasions, and after a strong start, poor old supoerfit Dimmy is forced to slow down, with frequent breaks to allow us to recover. Toilets are ramshackle squats. Louises drinking tube comes in handy, as do all the food and energy drinks we bought with us.
Saw some Pitcher plants on the way up, plus some good views when the clouds cleared. Lou is still ill, so was hard going, coughing, blowing nose, and struggling for breath on way up. Arrived at Laban Rata at 3.15pm – 6 hours after starting. Very cold – no heating until 8pm. Had tea – noodles and cheese (butter) sandwich, plus mini swiss roll. Then huddled together in bed (fully clothed) to try and keep warm until the heating turning on at 8pm.
At 8pm, no sign of heater coming on. 8.30pm, got maintenance man to take a look (he looked about 15) – get it working after 40mins and we go to bed. Heater pings off after 20 mins and the room gets very cold. Lou goes to investigate and coincidentally, it comes back on. We try to sleep which we fail to do, spending 5 hours waiting for 2am to arrive.
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