Day 3: Hitting the highest altitude

When I travelled by bicycle across Africa, I reached a magical place in the highlands of Ethiopia that was 3111m above sea level. It marked the highest altitude I had ever reached, its quite a profound experience going higher than you have ever been.

Second Cave Camp, mountain hidden by the clouds

My delight quickly turned to panic. Because I was traveling so fast, working so hard and not monitoring what my body was doing I quickly stated to feel sick as I got off my bicycle trying to appreciate the views. I had a headache that was pounding in my ears and I felt as if I was going to see my breakfast again. The feeling was terrible and at the time I had no idea it had to do with altitude.

Fast forward two years and Im waking up in the rain on the slopes of the highest mountain in Africa. The heavenly peaks cast shadows on our camp which lay at 2800m above sea level. Its cold and today I need to wander out into that daunting altitude having no idea what to expect. All around me the views just stole away my fear as God showed off his trees and rocks and cliffs. The birds just wouldn't stop chirping and in the green trees I could hear the monkeys playing.

Our first breakfast in the tent was awesome. Nico whipped up some oats and fruits, filled our water bottles and sent us back to our tent to pack and prepare for the day. Michael headed out in front of us, followed by my dad, then me and then Deo. We walked so slowly it was so frustrating but so important!

I spent my day being still, appreciating the views as I walked. Not much disturbed us up there. I wandered about this ancient place and all the people that had hiked out in front of us for many years. I said a couple prayers for the great men and women that had lost their lives on these peaks. I had a sudden realization of just how small I was on this planet we call home. Thinking of the mountain and the seas, the stars and the galaxies, the eternities of space created by a God so big we couldn't even begin to fathom...
And the beginning of it, and the end of it...It started from, nothing. The thought always played fiddle on my thoughts strung across my mind. God was the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, it must have driven scientists crazy trying to figure out how all this started from nothing? For an absolute nothingness, my mind is to small to comprehend.
I felt so grateful God had created me and given me a gift to walk on this earth and enjoy his creation and I sure was going to make the most of.

Afternoon acclimatization walk

We rested up high above the clouds and creeped towards camp on day two. 3000...3100...32000, as the air got less and less, we got higher and higher. Each day was a record for myself and my dad, heights we had never reached since then...it was a symbolic feeling.

The camps was a lot busier than night one. It was called Cave 2 and was at 3450m above sea level about. It was very misty by afternoon and we couldn't really sea the mountain peak in all its glory until afternoon. We hiked up steep rocky hills to get onto a plateau and as we did, the clouds majestically rolled away, like a table cloth being pulled away from over food to reveal a massive feast. Every white slope and rock up there shone in the afternoon sun, feeling as if it was so close, almost in reaching distance. It would be another 3 days before we would be anywhere close to it and that again reminded me how big it was.