On seeing my article in the P&J an old college friend contacted me - laughed loudly and informed me I was too old to climb Kilimanjaro! However, since I was determined, he agreed to train with me!!
So, early on Sunday morning we headed to Lochnagar........OMG! I considered myself to be reasonably fit! However, I actually thought that my heart and lungs were going to explode at some points.
It didn't help that I I was trying to keep up with the human version of the Ever Ready bunny in the form of my friend Gina.
Gina, I am sure, is a reincarnated mountain goat - there is nothing of her so she is fast and light on her feet and in no time she had disappeared over the horizon.
There were two groups of young blokes on the hill too, and I pretty much managed to keep apace with them so I didn't feel too bad. Donald was a star on the way up, very encouraging. He also had lifesaving organic chocolate which he insisted I ate and which I will never leave the house without again.
Gina reappeared having been a bit lost and the three of us headed for the summit…in a blizzard!! I have never seen weather turn so quickly and, much to Gina’s disgust, Donald wouldn't turn back.
When we finally got there we were delighted. Donald had achieved his goal, he had dragged me up my first Munro. As Gina took photographic evidence of our accomplishment, the weather cleared…and then the real summit showed in the distance. It hadn't been visible in the "white out"! Aargh! Off we went for another 10 - 15 minutes and celebrated again. My companions couldn't believe that I actually managed to run up part of that last bit - but I so wanted it to be over I could have managed it on one leg!!
Who would ever have thought that coming down could be just as hard as going up? It started off as great fun as there was so much snow we could have snowboarded. Well, Gina could have. Donald was a bit concerned that we were lost and I kept disappearing thigh height in snow holes! About a quarter of the way down I twisted my knee and couldn't bear any weight - two and a half hours later we reached the car. I honestly thought that I was going to have my first helicopter ride without a survival suit. I was in agony Gina and Donald helped as much as they could but mostly I had to rely on walking poles to support my weight.
Although I ended up in A&E (again), it’s now Wednesday and I can more or less walk (more like less, than more actually). Soft tissue damage apparently, which had better be gone by Saturday as there is some other hill waiting to be conquered by me - I only hope I can find a small one!!
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