Like Riding a Horse

I have fallen off, but I am back on the horse.  It was not, but should have been, one of my 2010 new years resolutions to blog more! I really lost my steam there at the end of last year. I think I was just too busy having fun and enjoying myself, which is a good thing!  I have racked up quite a few blogworthy things over the past couple of months that I was on hiatus,  including : Girls Christmas Market trip to Vienna/Bratislava, Cole's visit to London for Thanksgiving, my trip home to Texas for Christmas, NYE in New York, me deciding to move yet AGAIN and my new flat in Camden, and most recently mydecision to make the return back to the iPhone (it arrives tomorrow!).  I will do my best to cover these in future posts over the next couple of months, but lets be honest, if you are really interested in any of these things then it is probably best that you give me a call and we can chat about any or all of the above topics!

This post however, is dedicated to my pending trip (5 more days!) to Tanzania!  The focus of the post will center around how I did absolutely ZERO to prepare for climbing the tallest peak in Africa standing at a mere 19,000 ft!  It will also touch on how I thought I would have very little to buy as I pretty much bought out the REI last year when I went to Africa.  Oh how wrong I was.  In addition to everything that I purchased last year (please see here http://cheeriosandmilk.blogspot.com/2008/10/granola-its-not-just-for-breakfast.html) I am now also the owner of hiking boots, trekking poles, a very fancy Opsrey daypack, a puffy jacket, about 6 pairs of hiking socks, sporty sunglasses (i'd look like a fool hiking up the mountain in my fendi's!), about 3 layers of gloves, one of those nifty wool hats that covers your ears and has dangly strings that look like braids, a pair of Keen's, a steel water bottle and personal water filtration system, a heavy duty head lamp for our middle of the night summit attempt, one pricey set of heavy duty base layers (aka fancy long johns), several tops made of breathable, wicking material, and a years supply of moleskin for all the blisters that I am sure to acquire! I am also now protected from hepatitis A for the next 20 years after getting my booster and I am a certifiably protected from Yellow Fever...and I have the certificate to prove it (that must be carried with my passport at all times).  Speaking of my passport, I don't have physical custody of it at the moment, which is slightly terrifying to me!  I dropped it off at the Tanzanian Embassy this morning along with my Visa application.  I paid extra for the express application so that it would be ready by Wednesday rather than Friday. 

Now comes the scary part. Packing! The company who we are doing our trip through, Exodus, sent me this kitbag in the mail that I am meant to pack everything for the mountain portion of the trip in.  We have to pack in these bags and they are not allowed to exceed 12 kg, that is roughly 26 pounds!!!!  I think my purse weighs more than that! How the heck and I supposed to fit everything that I just listed in a duffel bag and make it weigh less than 26 lbs?

Oh yeah, didn't I say something about training for the mountain.  Yeah, well, I didn't. At all. So that is pretty much all there is to say about that. There is one day where we will be hiking for 15 hours. I am pretending like this isn't happening, that is how I am getting through this with a smile. I'll be back on February 1st. Wish me luck :)