The mystical challenge!!!!!

I was up rather early , managed to take a few nice shots of the beautiful sky, did my devotion n dozed off again. We were woken up by the sound of chirping birds and some water flowing near our cabin, Misha and i were in high spirits..  we made noise, showered and run to the restaurant for breakfast.
It was a beautifully cold morning i told my self i was not going to let anything cramp my day. (Most of the morning details have been ommitted)

I wonder what my dear friend was pondering over after breakfast but our  guides arrived just in time to distract her thought pattern and introduced themselves to us. With us were Mubiwabo Philemon,Manowa Johnson, Kirimbwa Fred(chief guides )and Isebakama William  who introduced a new member of staff Margaret Biira that was to climb with us . We then started trying on crampons. Unfortunately, the guides then broke it to me that i had the wrong shoes. That was a big set back because finding another pair of shoes at that moment was seemingly becoming a challenge…we tried hiring boots but they were stinking, welll….eventually i got boots…however…all the crampons were too small to fit on the shoes and the only harness left was too tight on me.

At this point i just broke down and cried. I cant explain why or what was going on in my little head at that particular moment but i ran to the bathroom, shed a few tears, mummered a short prayer and went back to the team, who were very supportive, everyone trying to help me get the right equipment. Well just know, i eventually got fitting crampons and a cool harness , we then weighed our luggage,took a few pictures, Jackie hugged me and said a prayer, she did the same for the others on the team and out we went.

We walked from the RMS shelter to the UWA park gate for briefing, signing in. Philemon explained the routes we would us and on the map, it surely seemed like asimple task ahead of us.

Some climbing sticks were provided and the real mystical challenge began. Along the way we met the three horned chameleon and stopped to take pictures.

It indeed seemed like an easy task because i remember asking Joy why Jacob was saying the climb was hard. Little did i know !!!! Hehehehe. We moved past kyoho and mahoma rivers ,stopped at mubuku river and refilled our water bottles, stopped again and had our lunch,we met some people along the trail heading down to base camp where we had been a few hours back. The journey was good…day one was easy …we got to Nyabitabe camp, showered ice cold water immediately, sat around a table and sipped on tea.

As we took our tea and listened to some music, Hans william from Germany came to join us and shared his climbing story. He had made it to the peak with his brother despite their age(85).I sat there thinking ‘we are soooo young…surely our journey will be easier….”we were encouraged and inspired….and because our energy had just been renewed by these two senior citizen’s story, we got up and danced the early part of the night away.Dinner was served and later as we all went to our little beds and sleeping bags i prayed that the next day would be better and easier……….(i was also the Rwenzorilings pastor for the climb…hehehe) but was my prayer answered?????