All I remember thinking was two things – ‘How do I stop myself?!’ and ‘Oh shit, this is it, I’m finally done for’.

Note: Originally posted on https://colossalkiliclimb.wordpress.com Nov 2010

For me, the second day of the trek (and fourth of the trip as a whole) was the most dramatic to date.  This was the day of the now infamous fall.  But more on that later…

As previously mentioned, we were woken at 6am.  We were on a strict timetable – up at 6, at breakfast at 6.30 with everything packed up and leaving camp at 7am.  This sounds manageable, as let’s face it no-one will be wasting time putting on make up or washing their hair.  However the reality was slightly different – the logistics of getting everything packed up in a tiny tent and get dressed with two of you in there is a lot trickier than you’d think.  We had to make sure that we had everything that we would possibly need for the day in our day bag, a tricky feat when we knew that the weather was incredibly unpredictable and it was likely to get very cold throughout the day, but we’d warm up when the sun was out and when we were walking. How to dress for all seasons?! You’d think as Brits we were used to this, but alas. We also had to roll up our sleeping bags and fully pack our rucksacks so that the porters could just grab them and go.

Because of this, on our first day everyone ran slightly late.  The guides expected this though, so the impact was minimal.  We trudged to the mess tent for breakfast, bleary-eyed and unco-ordinated.  I find it difficult to eat that soon after waking up anyway, and tiredness always amplifies this in me.  I knew we had to force food down us though.  We got to the tent and were served ‘porridge’ which we were told is amazing for fuelling the body.  Only it wasn’t like any porridge we’d ever had before – brown, bitter and strongly resembling baby food. We all put a healthy dollop of honey in to make it more palatable and it wasn’t until the last morning that we learnt that this special ‘porridge’ was in fact made of bird seed!  After forcing a bowlful down, we were brought trays with sausages and eggs and bread… phew! There was also bananas to feast on – what a way to start a morning!

We stumbled out of the mess tent, filled up with as much water as we could (3 litres really does weigh a lot when you’re carrying it around by the way) and got in a circle for our warm up.  Lee and Mark ran warm up this morning to provide a bit of variety and afterwards we hauled our day bags on and were off!

We’d be told that today would be narrow, steep and there would be points where there would be sheer rocks to climb up.  As someone with a strong fear of heights, they are not words I want to hear.  It was narrow, and it was steep, but it wasn’t as bad as I was imagining. No, that would come later.  So we trekked on and on, discussing feminism, look-a-likeys and errr… X Factor.  In fact we kept circling back to X Factor (not feminism), read into that what you will…

Lunch was served in our mess tents on this day as it was too cold to sit outside. We all squidged in and perched precariously on our little camp chairs and were welcomed with some more soup.  I can’t remember the exact flavour, but it was again delicious. We then had some bread and cheese and veg – and we all loaded up on this.  I was (and still am) shocked by the amount and variety of fresh fruit and veg available to us at all times.  It really was incredible! We sat there, stuffed, and preparing to get moving when another course appeared!  A massive pan full of pasta and sauce came in – so we bravely soldiered on and ate a bowl of pasta as well…

After eating all this, we rolled out of our tents and set off again.  The trees were really thinning by this point, and the landscape was turning more and more lunar.  This area we had just passed through was called the ‘cloud forest’ which is where lots of unusual bushes grow.  Above this point, vegetation becomes thinner.  Vegetation had been so common so far because the cloud often clustered at this altitude – allowing plenty of moisture for the thirsty plants.

The afternoon proceeded being fairly uneventful.  This isn’t to say it was easy – it was far from that! It was still tough, to push on walking and walking and walking with no end in sight.

Then disaster struck.

The landscape had become increasingly rocky and at parts we had to tread carefully.  There was a section where we had to step across a ledge and hold onto the wall quite carefully.  There were effectively 2 ‘stepping stones’ sticking out from the rock which made natural footholds for us.  Marion went ahead and I watched her go carefully.  I followed up, however when I went to make the step, I jokingly said ‘I’m not sure my legs are long enough’.  I then somehow managed to trip over my own feet and before I knew it I was falling sideways and tumbling down the mountain.

All I remember thinking was two things – ‘How do I stop myself?!’ and ‘Oh shit, this is it, I’m finally done for’.  Somehow, I did manage to stop myself though.  I bounced down to one ledge and, although tried to grab something to stop me there, carried on bouncing to the next level.  Luckily I somehow managed to throw myself to the left, where there was a rock that would stop me.  If I’d fallen to the right, I quite simply would have kept going and there was no way I would have survived that fall without serious or fatal injuries. I also managed to twist myself round so that I landed on my backpack and not my head / back / neck.

I came to a stop, and despite throbbing in my legs, I realised that I could move all my limbs. WAIT – I could move all my limbs – I hadn’t broken anything! I was shouted at to stay where I was and one of the guides rushed to my side instantly.  Luckily I’d been walking with Hannah the Doctor who also rushed down to see me and check me out.  Seeing that hopefully nothing serious was wrong, they got me back up to just past the point where I fell and sat me down.  I was given painkillers straight away to take the edge off the pain and the guides took my bag.  I sat for a couple of minutes, but seeing that I still had a rocky bit to climb up (sadly, the only way was up) I decided to just push through the next bit.  I was guided up, slowly and was very relieved to finally come over the top onto a flat part, where the rest of the group were resting.  Apparently I came over looking a lovely shade of grey, and that’s the point where the shock hit.  I burst into tears and was led, shaking, to have a seat whilst I calmed myself down.  A quick assessment of my legs showed some grazing and clear points where angry bruises were going to appear, but nothing major.  I felt such a sense of relief – something could have gone seriously wrong, and somehow I’d ended up with just some bruising and swelling.  I couldn’t believe how lucky I was.

The show must go on, however, so we set off again.  I took back my bag as I wanted easy access to water and we set off.  I was still a little shaky so set off quite slowly but the group quickly took my mind off it.  We weren’t that far from camp and the rest of the afternoon passed quite uneventfully.  We arrived at our second camp and the contrast between that and the first camp was drastic.  There were no trees, it was rocky and lunar and the cloud was enveloping the camp.

Sadly, we’d missed the porters welcoming everyone into camp with a song and a dance, but luckily we’d get the chance to see that later in the week.  We came into camp, tired and a little emotional and once again went through the ritual of attempting to stay vaguely clean.

I think this was the point where I really began to bond with and appreciate the others in the group.  Everyone stopped me to ask how I was and showed genuine concern about my health and my safety, it was very touching. I was given arnica to try and reduce the bruising and tried to relax and forget about the day behind me.  We had a briefing and dinner again, wrapped up a lot more this evening as the temperature really had dropped.

Another early start in the morning and we had the promise of a glimpse of the summit of Kili for the first time – our target was in sight.

CatDog xx