During the day I had managed to drink plenty of water, yet come bedtime (around 8pm), the water drinking stopped. Within hours of stopping the fluid intake, the headache would begin. Around midnight, I had to take a pain-relief tablet as it was so bad.
Mike writes...
according to our itinerary we had a less stressful acclimatisation day
ahead of us and approaching the whole point of this journey, I felt
the worst was over. The phrase 'what the mind doesn't know, the heart
doesn't grieve' comes to mind. Our aim was to get to Top Hut 4790m
from where we would launch our final ascent to Point Lenana, on the top of
Mount Kenya. We left our camp and immediately ascended a steep incline
to a col.
All of our party were showing signs of difficulties with altitude. Ranging from swollen faces, sickness, headaches and shortage of breath. If we felt that today would be easier we were sadly mistaken.... with tiredness still in our legs from the previous day I just had to focus on reaching Top Hut with as much energy as I could muster. I began to wonder why I was putting myself through this and I couldn't find the answer to this question. It seemed that every step I took required more energy than the previous step, the thinness of the air made my breathing erratic and laboured.
We finally arrived a Top
Hut, the best hut by far, although the toilet was some 25m away from the
bunk house.
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) John giving a porter a hand |
) Warm sunshine |
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) Altitude can affect you in many strange ways |
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Days summary:
Ascended: 605m
Descended: 97m
Trekking time: 3 Hours 44min
