Tuesday 6 August 2013

Day 5 - Trekking day 2

Did not make it back to sleep unfortunately but this has allowed me to work on my blog for Elbrus which for some reasons iPhone is taking exception to and keeps deleting.
We breakfast at about 06:30 and get various visits from the villagers and other locals who want to see the foreigners eating. Unfortunately this does not include all the new porters who start meandering in from about 08:30 so we don't manage to leave until about 9.
We now have 5 guides and 15 porters and a series of other people who are following us and probably hoping for some money at some point. It is not always easy to work out who is who as we now have a lot of people who aren't carrying very much. Still it starts to feel like a real expedition when you have such a large entourage.

The going remains really tricky. It is very hot and steamy with very steep ascents and descents and everything is slippery.  There are some fun bits in there as well: a bridge has been washed out so we have to build a new one before we can cross the river; there have been quite a few landslides since anyone came this way so on a number of occasions a new path has to be found and some mini bridges built to prevent immediate erosion of the new soil; there are a number of tricky areas where we are using vines, branches and roots to keep us sliding down significant drops.

 


However, all this fun eats into our speed and soon it becomes clear that we will struggle to make it to camp before dark and any more challenges will mean that we won't. As such we end up halting at 14:30 which is a real shame on what was mean to be a long day as we are now adding to the distance that needs to be covered which is in any case the longest and hardest of the trek to the mountain. We have to stop early as there are very few clearings in the jungle and this is the last one until the planned camp site for the night.

Our campsite

Campsite being used

Some of our porters

More porters and their tent


We spend the afternoon chatting and rehydrating and trying to dry out our wet gear for tomorrow - which is pretty difficult given the amount of moisture in the air.

We have another good dinner and then bed at about 7. Having not slept much for some time I sleep through to 06:30 am without too much trouble.

Food
Pancake and peanut butter and pineapple jam sandwiches
Various biscuits and bars
Spicy chicken, beans and rice 

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