Aaack!! You can imagine that to sound like a mix of an overly excited teenager with a mix of Homer Simpson with the panic of your costume zipper breaking after the three minute call. Two more weeks and I can tick continent 6/7 off the list.
I "think" I have everything in order. Think in quotations because there is always something that you forget and I am not yet in Africa. Things are looking up, though. I have my passport. Shortly after I uploaded my first story, the Royal Mail central distribution office called to let me know they tracked down my envelope. Two days later it was delivered to my house (and then sent to my local post office to await my signature). So what can I say about the whole visa process? The UK/ Tanzanian High Commission was very helpful and very quick to actually issue the visa. The visa was issued within 48 hours of my passport arriving at their office, and when I needed to get in touch to get the tracking number, they were very helpful on the phone. Pre-paid-postage-special-delivery-blah-de-blah from Royal Mail was the pain in the backside, so if you can avoid the nationalised postal service, then I would recommend it.
I've spent much of last and this weekend "reviewing". Last week I packed my bag to see that my sleeping bag takes up most of my large back-pack. I have taken many bloggers' comments to pack minimally with your clothes (stick to the kit lists), and am glad I have done a dry run. I have all of my wool and dry-fit and thermal running gear ready to go and my bag is at the appropriate weight. By summit day, I think my bag will be light because I will have all of my clothes on and will probably have eaten all of my snacks. One kit-related piece of advice I will attempt this weekend will be to try all of my clothes on at once. From what I can imagine, this will be a Joey moment from an episode of Friends. I will certainly take pictures.
Base layers (without sock system): windbreakers, thermals, running thermals, wool tights
Top layers: tank tops, t-shirt, longsleeve, thermal running under-armor, fleece, wool poncho, thermal Olympic wear.
Space saver: all rolled up.
I have noticed, however, that I don't have as much space for beach clothes and other-stuff. I was hoping that I would be able to get my holiday clothes in there, as well. I need to be mobile with my backpack + carry-on because I have no sherpas after the climb- and by sherpa I do mean sherpa and/ or husband to share (hog) a bag with on this trip. I have put aside all of this other stuff and need to see if it fits in my Ryanair approved cabin baggage. This bag I have not yet done a trial run with... I am going to have to be ruthless- if it doesn't fit (or I can't wear it on the way), it doesn't come.
What other ends have I tied up this week? Well, I have for the first time ordered drugs online intentionally and not the ones advertising "member enlargement" from my junk-mail folder. I don't know how I get these e-mails as I don't really take medicine and certainly have never ordered any off of the internet until now.
I decided to do this for the first time based on the price of the Malarone I was prescribed at the local chemists. The online prices were consistently 2/3rds the price of the actual shops. Top Tip: pharmacy2u or something similar to order your malaria tablets. I didn't ask the nurse at the clinic for altitude tablets, but from reading other "tips to summit" consistently Diamox is mentioned. This is where Dr. Fox comes to the rescue. An online consultation has given me a prescription and my drugs are "discretely packaged" and in the post. It will be interesting to see if my junk-mail folder will have even more spam from these endorsements or drop off now that I have jumped on the bandwagon.
I have also ascertained my insurance. Insurance quotes, like organised trek costs, malaria tablet costs, flight costs, sleeping bag costs... are massively wide. If you have won the Euromillions and could pay the upper end of every single item for this adventure, you could end up spending £6000 plus. Or if you are sensible and do your homework, you should come in well under half of that (I will post rough costs upon my return). In any case, quotes were from 35 - 135£ for quite similar levels of cover. I've gone with something mid-low range (second best- like the quality of furniture or tools I buy) based on level of cover (very adequate) and what I can afford. I have gone with Globelink International. The cover gets me home, covers hospital, emergency, loss of limb, loss of site and the three most important things: hijacking, mugging, and trekking to 6000m. Mom, don't freak at the two of three.
So, what's left to do?
-get drugs
-pack bags
-pick up money
-organise all paperwork in one place
-print itinerary
-go on holiday!
And in the meantime, a bit more reading... I still need to figure out the communication situation (telephone) and I am trying to accumulate a list of good (and bad) tour guides local to Moshi. I will try to post once more before I go. Until then...
No comments:
Post a Comment