Apr 30 - another one down

April is over.  The countdown to heading north has begun.  Our current plan has us leaving on Friday the 13th.  Hmmm.

I've got lots to do but I don't have a list.  I need to start knocking some items off that unwritten list !

I was originally planning on going out on the bike but deferred until today, so I'll start May off with a ride instead of ending April.  I'll ride today and then probably Tuesday and that will be it until Saturday in GA. 

Cassie got a trip to the sand bar; Sandy came along for the ride.  It's really heating up here.  The water temperature was 83F.  The outside temperature right now, at 5am, is 76F. 

My foot was bothering me at Epcot; those orthotics aren't working.  The left arch is annoying, but I could live with that.  The right one seems to tilt my foot so that the little toes are mashed into the front of the shoe.  It's not that the shoes are too small; I have plenty of room in the toe box, but not after walking for a while.  Of course it didn't help that the ground / pavers & concrete, was hot at Epcot. 

Bottom line - the orthotics are now out of the shoes.  I'll try and get into the Dr. this coming week to talk about next steps, but we're leaving shortly so it will only be talk.

What else did I do ... hmmm ... there must have been something ... don't remember ... I'll remember as soon as I click on "Publish" ... !!

A minor item, but I re-setup the thermostats.  For some reason all three of them lost connection to Honeywell.  There had been an email from them about some changes so perhaps that was the cause.  Something like that is a pain because you have to be physically present to set these up.  They broadcast as a wifi device and you connect to them for setup.  I use my laptop to do that.  Once you go through the setup, they break your connection and connect to your router then to the Honeywell server.  This is the first time that they've lost the connection by themselves, vs because I installed a new router.   It took three or four times to get the one thermostat to connect properly and then the other two went through first try.  Total time spent was about 1/2 hour, so that doesn't account for my day !

These things had been disconnected for a few days and I decided that they weren't going to fix themselves !

I did pick up tuna for dinner, which was excellent.  Sandy had rice; I had eggplant; we both had peas.  

Sandy has been doing some reading on training for Kilimanjaro.  Oh yes, that's one thing that I did, printed off the contracts and waivers, initialed and signed those, scanned and emailed them to KiliWarriors.

The contract is a mere three pages long; the waiver is 7 pages.  What does that tell you ? It tell me that the physical risk is greater than the financial risk :).

The contract has some interesting reading, as it spells out the day by day.  I talked to Gerry at Kili a few days ago and was asking him whether we see a lot of other climbers; apparently not much after the first two days.  We'll be doing the western breach, which is a longer climb, horizontally, meaning a more gradual ascent, meaning more expensive since we're paying for porters etc. for more days.  Gradual is a good thing; more walking is not.  Somehow it will work out.

Here's the story --

 

Day #	Location	Activity
Jan. 20, 2017	Arrival at JRO Airport	Transit from airport to Mt. Meru Hotel.
Jan. 21, 2017	Arusha	Gear Check. Arusha Free Day.
Jan. 22, 2017	Rainforest Zone	We enter the western gate of the park at approximately 7,700 feet and climb to approximately 9,000 feet and camp overnight at Forest Camp in a tropical rainforest. This part of the trip will consist of a trek through lush rainforest.
Jan. 23, 2017	Heather Zone	We climb from 9,000 feet to approximately 11,520 feet and camp overnight at Shira 1 Camp in the Heather Zone. Trekkers will be travelling through the Heather and Moorland Zones, consisting of more lush vegetation.
Jan. 24, 2017	Moorland Zone	We climb from 11,520 feet to approximately 13,700 and camp overnight at Moir Camp in the Moorland Zone. The landscape will begin to change to smaller plants and trekkers will start to travel through a more desert-like landscape.
Jan. 25, 2017	Lava Tower	We climb from 13.700 feet to approximately 14,940 feet and camp overnight at Lava Tower Camp in the Moorland Zone. We eat lunch and relax for the rest of the day to properly acclimatize.
Jan. 26, 2017	Lava Tower	We remain at the same camp and properly acclimatize. Some may decide to climb Lava Tower for fantastic views and pictures with one of our guides.
Jan. 27, 2017	Arrow Glacier Camp	We climb from 14,940 feet to approximately 15,900 feet and camp overnight at Arrow Glaciers Camp in the Alpine Desert Zone. We only climb about 1,000 feet, but the terrain is steep, with a few scramble sections to get over the Great Barranco Wall. We retire to our tents after lunch, in order to prepare for our biggest day, climbing the Western Breach.
Jan. 28, 2017	Western Breach	We climb from 15,900 feet to 18,500 feet. We wake up just before sunrise and cross the Western Breach while the ground is still frozen and into the crater rim. We then walk past the Northern Ice Field and Furtwangler Glacier. We make our way to our tents, relax and have lunch. At this point you can relax in the lunch tent or your personal tent for the rest of the day. Or you can walk to the actual crater with one of our guides. We camp at Crater Camp.
Jan. 29, 2017	SUMMIT DAY	We climb from 18,500 feet to 19,365 feet. We wake up early, have breakfast and climb approximately 865 feet to Uhuru Peak, where we spend a few minutes taking pictures and savouring the accomplishment of climbing to the Roof of Africa. We then start making our way down via Stella Point, all the way down to Mweka Camp (approximately 10,000 feet) in a Tropical Rainforest Zone.
Jan. 30, 2017	Mweka Gate & Official Certificate	After breakfast, we continue to climb down to Mweka Gate, at 5,400 feet, where we sign the official register, have a cold drink, and get presented our official certificate by our Head Guide. We then head to our bus, where we leave for our hotel and a well-deserved shower. Overnight at Mt. Meru Hotel.
Jan. 31, 2017	Arusha	Transfer to JRO. Fly back home.

Onward !   I guess that I'll have to change my blog-finishing-phrase to "upward !".