I am sitting looking at a star map and wondering what I will see from the top of the mountain. Once we break the tree cover and giving the thinner atmosphere and lack of light pollution it should be pretty amazing. After the star maps in the journal I was sent for the hike there is of course a Swahili phrase chart and a bird checklist.
I have so much to do now and so little time; believe it or not I do not have all of the gear that I need. In fact I am not all that close to having everything; I need some summer and rain gear. I have yet to test my contour camera nor do I have all the tech I need. Amazing! However, I tend to put things off till the last minute. Like the workout I was supposed to start ten minutes ago has conveniently been put off so I could do this blog post.
I think I will bring my binoculars but I am beginning to get conscious of the weight I will be carrying in my pack. While there is a porter for the 30lb bag there are certain things that I want in my day pack. I bet I am the only one that goes through this, I would hazard a guess that everyone else going is 100% prepared by now.
I did receive an email from the Safari group doing the Kilimanjaro Trek and they told me that I needed to stop all of the hard exercise and concentrate on stretching and light aerobic exercise from next Tuesday on – I wonder if they understand that exercise is addictive and it will be hard to just quit. I should note I would hate a stupid exercise related injury before doing the trip and I will not miss the two hour on two hour off workouts. Tuesday I will finish with a full five hour, full pack workout, and from then I suppose I will relax till we ascend the mountain.
The night sky is something I look forward to as well. I just checked out this photo: http://doriantsaiphotography.smugmug.com/Adventure/Kilimanjaro/18321130_BhTD8X/1409710282_5Nv85R9#!i=1409710282&k=5Nv85R9 not bad, not bad at all. I hope to capture some great photos. We shall see how my skill is and if my 7D is up to the task. There is a great chart on the web of the evening sky for July on the Royal astronomical Society of New Zealand’s Web Site (http://www.rasnz.org.nz/Stars/EveningSky/Jul12Sky.html ), I will need to print this out and take it with me.
I have hiked up and down many mountains but I have never done this much preparation. I hate preparing for stuff like this, I always feel it is some sort of Jinx, I am more of a just do it person. Well, having said that I suppose I should knock on wood. Wait, I am not at all superstitious and this delay is over, time to format and post this so I can work out.
Cheers,
Rob
About the chart:
A star map of the south polar projection found for the celestial globe of Su Song (1020-1101), a Chinese scientist and mechanical engineer of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). This diagram of a star chart was first published in the year 1092 in Su’s book known as the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao (Wade-Giles: Hsin I Hsiang Fa Yao).