Jam and Cheese

I have begun Stage 2 of my research.

That's right, I've been on YouTube.

The place is packed with amateur video footage of poor souls huffing and puffing their way to the top of Uhuru Peak, and while many of these "movies" are simply photo montages with cheesy music slapped all over the top, if you dig around there are some real gems:

There's a particularly interesting one that shows a man suffering from altitude sickness being dragged down the mountain by two porters, while another features a group of climbers reaching the summit that feels really eerie because no one says a word. I only hope that this is due to acute exhaustion and not the result of experiencing a profound anticlimax. There's also a really moving video where someone fails to reach the summit and has a good cry about it, but don't worry, if you need cheering up there's always Monty Python.

But my favourite has to be a series of videos by somebody calling himself Grundlefly. Not only did he climb the same route that we'll be taking (Lemosho), he also imparts lots of important information about the effects of the altitude, the toilet facilities, the best drugs to take and the food. Yes, the food. The biggest shock is that our packed lunches could consist of jam and cheese sandwiches. It's as if peanut butter and jelly got lost in translation somewhere. Jam and Cheese - just something else I've got to get my head around on this journey.

You can reach the other four installments in this series here (or follow the embedded video links). Sadly, Part 5 has been done over for copyright infringement so that part of the climb will have to remain a mystery to me until I get there.

Neil

Comments

[Darrell]

Hi Neil and Palma,

Thanks for the words of support above. Always nice to hear about appreciation of our efforts to promote travel and adventure stories. I hadn't realised that my Part 5 was blocked so I have fixed the offending issue (in fact I prefer the new soundtrack) and you can find the new video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnBJKph2lcI

This part is not to be missed as it was one of the most important chapters of the climb in terms of preparation and acclimatisation. Looks like I need to fix part 6 also ... in fact I'll probably increase the quality of all of them since I've started.

Good luck with your climb. You're going to love it and fingers crossed for good weather.

We've just completed another meister trek ... the Overland Track in Tasmania which was equally challenging (if not more so due to lack of porters!). You can see the results of this trek in a week or so at:

http://www.grundlefly.com/overland_track

Darrell

p.s. my wife, Gilly, is asking for recognition for her video taking endeavours since she put in half of the effort for the Kili video ... a wink and a nod will suffice :-)