Day 5 - December 15, 2013

No rain to wake up and leave to - yeah! The route was up and down, however, did not realize it was like rock climbing! Thank goodness it didn't rain through the most difficult bit. Jesse (one of the army guys wives) had 'a moment'. Her husband stood there and told her not to be so selfish because she was holding us up. Whoa…..So I shooed everyone away and got her to breath and talk. She was not used to difficult hikes, never mind the rain, the camping, being wet and the rather limited food selection. It felt nice to help, however, the last 2 hours of hiking were HELL. I wondered what I was thinking doing this. Should have listened to instincts at original meeting and hiked a 7 day route with 2 Norwegian girls who were very nice. These Army people are self centered, unkind, rude egomaniacs. They are SO not any fun… like trying to talk or sing to make things bearable! I am trying not to say a word but they treat the porters poorly but talk about their stupid dogs (pitbulls and other such distasteful breds) sleeping with them blah blah blah. Shameful and I am sick of them. I am sick of the relentless bone soaking rain. J'naime pas!

An hour after we are succumbed to our tents in the rain, the sun came out. Everyone RAN outside and started laying things out to dry them. Talk about happy. It lasted 30 min. Thank goodness for popcorn ritual at 4pm, such a godsend. Mary and Tom (lovely couple - my age, go figure) didn't want to come over in the rain so I fixed up a couple of bowls and delivered it. Mary had mentioned how much she was looking forward to it earlier. She was SO grateful, I feel hope again because so far, this had been the worst camping trip EVER - the weather and some of the company. I miss Reg and my kids. I miss doing this with Cheryl, at least we try to have fun. I know I will get to the top, then off this Godforsaken, poopy mountain! 20 minutes later, the sun came out again for another 30-40 minutes. Our stuff actually had a chance to dry. What a mood changer - for the first time we could actually see a view, Moshi and the whole valley, it was spectacular. My spirits were lifted again, maybe I can do this afterall, it's been a long haul. Before dinner, I was reading in the tent with it open to air out. All of a sudden, I had something crawling on me, sprang up to see a field mouse cowering in the corner. Of course I screamed, asked for help because it was scampering around in and out of all our stuff and I couldn't get it. Finally Mary came over just as I got a hold of its tail and threw it out (gloves on of course). Of course the Army dips***s wouldn't help me, narcissistic buggars! After dinner, there was a triple rainbow outside, just beautiful. 3 more sleeps.