Up and back down again
Man, I don't know what was more amazing..... the view from the top, the fact that we made it to the top, or the pain in my legs now!!
Climbing the mountain was excellent. Really proud of myself and feel like I have really accomplished something rather than just lie on a beach.
Going up was not too bad on the first day. It was 6 km of steep hill through the rainforest and lots of steps. It was made worse by the hot weather and the fact that I was lugging our luggage on my back as we climbed. The walking sticks the guide suggested we buy proved really useful for dragging me up the rocks.
We rested overnight close to the top of the mountain in some chalets there, having dinner and witnessing a beautiful sunset. We then got a couple of hours sleep in a cockroach infested dormitory before dragging ourselves outta bed at 1:30am (yes AM!) to continue our climb at 2:30am to the summit. This took a further 3 and a half hours and we got to the top just in time to see the sunrise..... which was a bit of a let down since there was much cloud and we couldn't see the sun, still the colours were awesome. I would've got more photos but my hands were going numb from the cold and Ellen was shivering really badly as she started to feel really cold. The lack of food didn't help either as neither of us had had breakfast yet. Not wanting to get hypothermia we started to head down.
Going down wasn't too bad for me, but Ellen hated it. It was amazing to see the cliff faces and mountain paths next to sharp falls that we had climbed up in the dark only a few hours before. We rested in the chalets again for an hour or so (having breakfast finally!) , Ellen was protesting that she didn't feel like any more walking and wanted to get either a taxi or a helicopter. Given that neither option was really on, we found our mountian guide and started the descent down to the base.
What we weren't prepared for was the distance we still had to go. After making it to the top, there was little incentive to get to the bottom and tiredness set in quickly. We had done 6km to the chalets in the first day, then 2.7 km to the top at 2am, another 2.7km back to the chalets on an empty stomach and now we still had 6km back to the bottom!
We set off pretty quickly and thinking that we were bombing it down, it slowly dawned that we weren't and this was really disheartening. Our legs got heavier and heavier (as did my rucksack!) the walking stick was by now essential to keep me from falling down!
Four hours later we made it to the bottom, just in time as the monsoon rain suddenly descended and visability fell to zero.
A few days later my legs are still aching. I have been hobbling around for the last 3 days like some kind of new born foal, unable to go up nor down steps with any kind of grace. I am proud to say that I have climbed a mountain though and the highest one in SE Asia at that... don't bet on me looking to do any others though, once is definately enough!
Climbing the mountain was excellent. Really proud of myself and feel like I have really accomplished something rather than just lie on a beach.
Going up was not too bad on the first day. It was 6 km of steep hill through the rainforest and lots of steps. It was made worse by the hot weather and the fact that I was lugging our luggage on my back as we climbed. The walking sticks the guide suggested we buy proved really useful for dragging me up the rocks.
We rested overnight close to the top of the mountain in some chalets there, having dinner and witnessing a beautiful sunset. We then got a couple of hours sleep in a cockroach infested dormitory before dragging ourselves outta bed at 1:30am (yes AM!) to continue our climb at 2:30am to the summit. This took a further 3 and a half hours and we got to the top just in time to see the sunrise..... which was a bit of a let down since there was much cloud and we couldn't see the sun, still the colours were awesome. I would've got more photos but my hands were going numb from the cold and Ellen was shivering really badly as she started to feel really cold. The lack of food didn't help either as neither of us had had breakfast yet. Not wanting to get hypothermia we started to head down.
Going down wasn't too bad for me, but Ellen hated it. It was amazing to see the cliff faces and mountain paths next to sharp falls that we had climbed up in the dark only a few hours before. We rested in the chalets again for an hour or so (having breakfast finally!) , Ellen was protesting that she didn't feel like any more walking and wanted to get either a taxi or a helicopter. Given that neither option was really on, we found our mountian guide and started the descent down to the base.
What we weren't prepared for was the distance we still had to go. After making it to the top, there was little incentive to get to the bottom and tiredness set in quickly. We had done 6km to the chalets in the first day, then 2.7 km to the top at 2am, another 2.7km back to the chalets on an empty stomach and now we still had 6km back to the bottom!
We set off pretty quickly and thinking that we were bombing it down, it slowly dawned that we weren't and this was really disheartening. Our legs got heavier and heavier (as did my rucksack!) the walking stick was by now essential to keep me from falling down!
Four hours later we made it to the bottom, just in time as the monsoon rain suddenly descended and visability fell to zero.
A few days later my legs are still aching. I have been hobbling around for the last 3 days like some kind of new born foal, unable to go up nor down steps with any kind of grace. I am proud to say that I have climbed a mountain though and the highest one in SE Asia at that... don't bet on me looking to do any others though, once is definately enough!
posted by Kee at 11:27
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home