Jan 21 - almost

Yes, almost.  Everyone is here, even the crazy Texans who arrived around 1am last night and went off on a safari today before heading up Kilimanjaro tomorrow. 

At the moment my head cold / flu is in full swing and my nose is running like a faucet. Great.  Hopefully that starts to die down tomorrow or this is going to be very miserable.

Stuff is organized here in our room; duffle, day pack, some odds and ends strewn around; pills everywhere.  Vitamins, malaria, altitude ... not counting cold remedy without which I couldn't move, anti diarrhea just in case, antibiotic just in case,  Yikes.

Oh well. 

We had our briefing today mid afternoon and the head guide Hosea and Wilbert co-owner went through day by day what to expect.  There are two days that we trek for 6 hours and a couple that we are only out there for 1.5 hours; one that we stay put.  On average, the 5-6 day hikers are less than 50% successful in attaining the summit.  On average, the 9 day hike is over 90%.  We shall see.  It's all about acclimatizing to the altitude.    We shall see.

Upward !