So, yesterday was yet another achievement for my preps for the #HamzaToTheSummit hike of Mt. Rwenzori. I have to tell you guys, that this hiking thing is 70% a mind game.
The day before yesterday, I couldn’t believe that I would complete the 33KM hike with a 10kg backpack on me. I shared this picture across my social media accounts asking you guys could wish me luck. Luckily, you did.
Still, deep inside me, I knew it was going to a challenging hike. I remember sharing a picture of my backpack in our hiking group asking if anyone was going to join in. And yes, the group fitness lead, David, joined in with a 10kg backpack as well.
I wish you’ve seen the video clip I shared on social media where I talked about the guest hiker who went through with us for 33KM. She was with the Dad, David.
Read: Why I want to hike Mt Rwenzori this November 2020!
Anyway, back to the story, I still couldn’t believe that I was taking on the 33km with heavy a heavy backpack. This was my first time to do so. The previous hike, which was following through the same trek, I went with a 7kg backpack for the first time and, to be honest, it didn’t feel that heavy.
But now, after adding several booklets and my sleeping bag into the backpack, it was now 10kg and it got really heavy. When I tried caryying it on my back, it crossed my mind that were high chances that I wouldn’t make it through the trek.
You see, most of the blogs I’ve read about hiking with a backpack of similar weight advise that you do a 10KM-15KM hike that takes about two hours. However, I went extreme. It’s dangerous and I risked injuring my back given that I hadn’t been doing this previously. Regardless of all this, I went for it anyways.
I set off at 6:00am to go meet the team at our agreed meeting place. Guess what, when i reached, everyone was there. About 15 of us showed up with the guest hiker who was only nine years and hiking for the first time. The eldest, whom we profoundly called the “mama” of the group was 60 years yet so eagerly looking forward to hiking and summiting Rwenzori. I’ll write more about her in one of the coming blogs.
A selfie moment for me before we set off for the hike.
We set off and during the first two hours, I felt the backpack heavy for me and it was hurting my shoulders. To make matters worse, the hiking route was going past my home area. We passed by the access route to my place and went like 20 meters away. As we passed the route to my place, i felt an urge to dash off there and drop off some baggage so that i could be left with something like 7/8kgs.
And since I was among those at the lead, I could still take this opportunity to reduce the weight and move on.
However, I had to be honest with myself. I remembered that when I was setting off, I asked a hiking buddy if I could share part of my backpack content with her in case it got heavy. She had gracefully agreed to help. She even asked if I had added some contents that I could simply drop off en route in case the situation got from worse to worst for me. I told her that I had added some interesting booklets and a sleeping bag, just to make up the target weight and not for sleeping. Lols.
Read: Hiking the 7 Hills that Makeup Kampala
As we trekked further, my knee pains resurrected and the bottom part of my right foot hurt terribly. The more I moved, the more pain I felt. It became unbearable, forcing me to apply a diclofenac spray and a bandage to the knee.
The pain kinda reduced, and I was able to get on track and move even further. Thanks to my hikemates who helped by advising and waiting for me as I applied these quick fixes.
On our 30 minute break at the water point, it was nice to see everyone come through as we had refreshments and chit chatted whilst waiting for those still bit at the back. This was after 18km.
Refreshed, we attacked once more. Remember, I now had 3 ‘burdens’; the 10kg backpack, the knee pains and pain at the bottom of my right foot. TheSe were all reasons to give up and jump on a boda-boda back home like some hikers do, but deep inside me, I was like, “Sonny, you have got this. Finish what you started.”
Onwards we hiked, to places deep down like Kiwango-Nabusugwe-Papati-Natonko-Kiwologoma-Bulindo-Mulawa-Kira-Kyaliwajjala then back to Naalya. Sorry, I miss some of the names simply because that’s another job for the mind, yet I had to concentrate on the trek. Lol.. It’s a stupid reason.
In a nutshell, like I’ve told you before, the last 5-7kms of a hike are the hardest or most challenging. Thank God this time round the weather was on our side. That can’t beat the fact that I had done 33Km with a burden of 10kg on me.
I finally got myself through the hike. I got to the finishing point with Harriet Apio, the 60yrs old hiker. She was still energetic and going. We had very interesting conversations on our way to the finish at Naalya Motel.
I was so glad to learn from her about how the blog posts have encouraged others to join the hike and how great it is that I share these rants.
Finally, I’m coming to realise that we all have that ability to go beyond what we think we can. The hiking thing is indeed purely a mindset game. Hopefully, I’ll keep the spirit high, the focus and look forward to attacking the Margeritas 30 days from today. I just can’t wait. I can’t wait to see my hikemates make it.
What have I left out? What questions do you have regarding this blog or my preps for hiking Mt. Rwenzori? Let me know in the comments. I hope you enjoyed this long read.
#HamzaToTheSummit #ReuseablePads
