Day 46: Sapitwa Peak!!!

21st August:

It was freezing last night. And I repeat: I was wearing a vest, a long sleeved top, another top, a big black wooden jumper, a thick hoody, my sarong as a scarf, in an inner sleeping bag inside a normal sleeping bag. Cold.

For breakfast we cooked baby food porridge, which was more like a sweet hot drink cause we cooked it over the fire- we obviously couldn't follow the microwave instructions!

Left Chisepo hut at 7am.

We started the climb with a really really tough couple of hours, scrambling up steep sheer rock slabs on hands and feet, with little to no breaks- our legs were dead when we got to the top of that section!
 Steeper than it looks!

 - Well deserved 2 minute break!

After a short 2 minute break to eat apple we were off again, but this time we were heaving ourselves up onto big boulders and squeezing between gaps in the rock face.

The cut on my hand opened up again, which was irritating because your hands were the only way you could either scramble up rock slabs or heave yourself up onto the boulders, lunging over big gaps and long drops. There was lots of pulling each other up and "one two three huh!" going on!
 
 

The nearer the summit we got the more rock climbing than hiking it was.

For lunch we ate one piece of bread and butter cause we didn't bring our second loaf, and one apple.

  (I got a bit stuck!)

 THAT'S IT!  SO CLOSE

The last hour before we got to Saptiwa we were singing Queen songs like "Don't Stop Me Now" and when we made it to the top "We Are The Champions"

  The last bit!!!

After another three hours of nearly non-stop intense climbing ... WE MADE IT!!!



This guy died in 2009 trying to climb it!



Sapitwa Peak: 3002 metres high, the third highest mountain in Africa, with the translation of Sapitwa = unreachable

The last section of climbing proved that definition worthy... It took us nearly 20 minutes to clear about 5 metres, simply because we weren't tall enough to actually reach the boulder we had to get onto to get to the top. It was a pretty hairy leap of faith but we all made it.

We were pretty chuffed when we got to the top, although exhausted and hungry!
We had a banana and some biscuits but were still so hungry! Very excited for our pasta this afternoon :D

We sat the peak resting our legs and taking in the view for just under an hour. It was so quiet! I could just hear my own breath and nothing else. Occasionally the wind got a bit gusty, but most of the time there was just piercing silence!

  

 


At one point I saw the clouds rising up towards us and then they went a few metres above us and mixed with other clouds. Pretty cool to be so close to them!

 

I went over to tell Nadia and Rosa only to find they were both fast asleep!!! Ahahaha!!! Witness and I found it hilarious and I definitely got a few videos ;)

We left the peak at 11:30 and got back at 2:00! Much quicker than the way up! We descended the section that took us 2 hours to climb up, in 1 hour!
But then the rest of the descend took us ages cause we were jumping down huge boulders and bum-shuffling down steep slabs of rock and it was very difficult not to slip or lose control.
I had quite a few close-calls but I'm still alive and writing this so its all good :)

The way down was tough on the knees and toes though, but much much less tiring than the way up. We saw an animal that looked like a mix between a badger and a rabbit, which was quite exciting as it was the first living thing we'd seen up here apart from the crows.

 (It's that black thing in the middle of the pic)

When we got back we were cheered by the caretaker, our porter and the other guides who were all sitting round their fire. We started cooking our pasta immediately, and jeez it was so good to have some food in our bellies!


We went to sit out on a big boulder again, watching the sunset for the last time up on the mountain.

 

We cooked the leftover rice from last night before we went to bed and put on every single item of clothing we had- no kidding. We started the fire inside the hut (which took ages to get going cause it kept going out as it was too cold). Eventually we had a big fire going and we warmed our toes for the last time before snuggling into our sleeping bags, nice and toasty, with enough wood to keep us going for a few more hours.