737 Leg 5 Carstensz Pyramid - Day 91

Yesterday (Sat 12th, it’s the morning of Sun 13th now) was another really long, tough day, over 8 hours. We had one of the guides leave us and turn back as he is unwell with Malaria. We are on open meadows now and we had to cross 5 rivers yesterday, which was tough going. Some you could walk over rocks and stones or negotiate a route, others we had to take off boots and gear and wade through. At midday one of our porters went on strike, notched up a fire and renegotiated his rates before carrying on! Our Indonesian head guide manages the guys really well and the issue was resolved pretty quickly but that was quite bizarre!

The weather has not been too bad at all but the problem of wet clothes is still pretty savage. The problem is we are climbing and trekking for such long days we are in camp when there is little sun so we don’t have enough time to dry our gear. After yesterday’s walk my stuff was absolutely buzzing and soaking wet so I decided to try and dry my boots by the campfire except I have melted a hole in them! So that’s one down jacket, one pair of gloves and now my boots I have burned in recent months! I have now been banned from getting too near the fire!! I have plugged the hole with glue and duct tape so today will be interesting to see if they remain waterproof, seriously I am miffed, can’t believe I have a hole in my boots!

We trekked to 3705m yesterday. Another hard 8/9 hour day today, setting off shortly and then tomorrow we should be at base camp. We could potentially summit the day after.