Well Jae and I have been up a mountain: my first as far as I can recollect. We can do it – and what a fabulous day!
We are on our first Exodus holiday – Walking the Amalfi Coast – based in a village up from the coast called Bomerano. There are sixteen people in the group ranging in age from about early thirties to seventies and they are a lovely bunch of people. Most of them are fairly serious walkers and unlike us, have done many such walking holidays before. We all chatted to each other all day, and I have got to know everyone’s name.
One of the guys has actually been up Kili. I was rather alarmed to hear he had to spend his first night in a hut rather than a tent because there were cats about. It was a couple of hours after I had spoken to him when I started to think more about this and asked him what sort of cats they were. He said they were leopards!!! I didn’t realise that was a possibility.
My alarm was compounded by someone else who was talking about climbing another mountain in Africa who said she stayed in huts which were overrun by rats. In my book, that’s just as scary as a leopard. She said they stole her socks to make hammocks for their babies. I await hearing about what other wildlife I run the risk of encountering.
The mountain we climbed today – Monte Tre Calli – is apparently higher than Snowdon, which is pretty impressive – although we did start from well above sea level. It was a gorgeously sunny day and the mountain had masses of bright purple crocuses with yellow centres growing alongside our path. When we got to the top we had our packed lunch looking out over fabulous views. The village of Positano was nestled underneath us, looking out over the azure sea. I remember my first glimpse of that village forty three years ago, when the bus Stew and I were on stopped for five minutes for people to take photos. I had spent lots of holidays in Scotland looking out over the North Sea, which was often grey and forbidding looking. The colour of the Mediterranean here is amazing and I was so struck by the light brightness of it both then and now.
I am so pleased to be seeing it again in such happy and exciting circumstances. A week of walking up and down the mountains here should surely stand us in good stead for Kili – though the wildlife we encountered today consisted of dogs, cows and mules – not leopards or rats.
After the walk we stopped in the village for a drink sitting outside a bar. Although we only ordered drinks, they brought us all sorts of other things. Portions of pizza appeared, plates of salad, and yummy hot chestnuts. They also plied us with some exotic liqueurs, one of which was made with carob and chillies. It had quite a bite! They then presented each woman in the group with a sprig of mimosa. I suspect we might drop in there again on some other days this week.
I think this training for climbing Kili is a pretty good idea!