The ascent

The first shot is two of our three porters as we are leaving the rainforest and going up the Savannah. The porters carry 15 kilos of our stuff and then whatever else they have. They are unbelievable. Look in the rest of the photos for their foot wear. They all either wear flip flops or jelly shoes. Yes, that’s right, I wrote jelly shoes. These are not the jelly shoes of my youth- the plastic, scalloped edges digging into your skin the moment your feet sweat, causing unbearable blisters. These jelly shoes have a buckle and are actually more popular with men than women. We had to go up an extremely steep incline for several hours. As you can see the grass has been burnt. They do that in order for the Guinness Race that they have every year. Yes, there are gluttons for punishment that actually run up and down this 14,000 foot active volcano, usually in about 4 hours. The shots of me show how rough the terrain was and you can faintly see the village of Bueau off in the distance, beyond the clouds. It is the dry season so the grass is brown and there is a constant haze in the air.