Returned from my travels
Arrived back quite tired from a busy few days followed by a long day of travelling by sea and road from Scotland to Wiltshire. We normally take two days for the journey but time was short this year, so we had to do without our usual overnight stay in Cheshire. I ambled back to Wales the following day and am now trying to catch up with all the jobs that were awaiting my return. The weather was freakishly warm (and very wet) in Scotland, but has now changed to crisp and cold. We’ve had the first frosts of the winter, and some sheltered low-lying areas by the river remained frozen throughout today. I went shopping in Hereford yesterday, where I heard a lot of people moaning about the cold - it's November, we've had summer temperatures until two days ago, and the days are bright and sunny with no wind. There's just no pleasing some people. Personally, I'm happy whenever there's no rain or cold wind during the winter. And no mud, of course.
I mostly managed to keep up with my Kilimanjaro training whilst in Scotland, thanks to the hillock behind the house where I stay. It's only half a level mile from the sea and is 250 feet high according to the map. It's a lot steeper than my regular farm walk, but the circuit from house to base of hillock, climb to summit and return via circular route took about an hour. I managed it twice during the week, as well as a couple of less strenuous walks whenever I had the time to spare. By a strange coincidence, my Scottish assistant and her husband climbed Kilimanjaro last February. I vaguely knew they'd been on holiday to Africa, but hadn't seen her during my ill-fated September visit thanks to being bedridden during most of my free time (she only works with me during the November trips), so I had no idea I knew someone with recent first-hand experience of the climb. Both she and her husband made it to the highest point, though Husband suffered quite badly from the altitude despite being very fit. They're both about my age and Assistant has dodgy knees and hips. She told me it's a tough climb but I should be able to do it OK as long as the altitude doesn't get me. Further coincidence is that they went up by the Rongai route, which is the one I had more or less decided to take - it's relatively easy, remote and the least busy way up, starting from the Kenyan side of the mountain. I am now armed with a lot of useful information and one 4 season sleeping bag, guaranteed warm to -13 degrees C which she insisted on lending to me for the trip. It's a most helpful gesture; the sleeping bag would have been my most expensive purchase and unlikely to be used again as I don't intend to do much camping in sub-zero temperatures in the future.
I mostly managed to keep up with my Kilimanjaro training whilst in Scotland, thanks to the hillock behind the house where I stay. It's only half a level mile from the sea and is 250 feet high according to the map. It's a lot steeper than my regular farm walk, but the circuit from house to base of hillock, climb to summit and return via circular route took about an hour. I managed it twice during the week, as well as a couple of less strenuous walks whenever I had the time to spare. By a strange coincidence, my Scottish assistant and her husband climbed Kilimanjaro last February. I vaguely knew they'd been on holiday to Africa, but hadn't seen her during my ill-fated September visit thanks to being bedridden during most of my free time (she only works with me during the November trips), so I had no idea I knew someone with recent first-hand experience of the climb. Both she and her husband made it to the highest point, though Husband suffered quite badly from the altitude despite being very fit. They're both about my age and Assistant has dodgy knees and hips. She told me it's a tough climb but I should be able to do it OK as long as the altitude doesn't get me. Further coincidence is that they went up by the Rongai route, which is the one I had more or less decided to take - it's relatively easy, remote and the least busy way up, starting from the Kenyan side of the mountain. I am now armed with a lot of useful information and one 4 season sleeping bag, guaranteed warm to -13 degrees C which she insisted on lending to me for the trip. It's a most helpful gesture; the sleeping bag would have been my most expensive purchase and unlikely to be used again as I don't intend to do much camping in sub-zero temperatures in the future.