After you arrive at the gate for your route up Kilimanjaro, you eat your eggs and wait for a few hours while you Guide checks you in with the Rangers and your army of Porters have everything checked.

For every member of your climbing party, there are four Porters.  So, five Stockdales, plus ‘this guy’, ‘this guy’s’ wife, two of ‘this guy’s’ kids, ‘this guy’s’ brother and our Guide makes eleven climbers.  ( We considered making ten louder, but we went for eleven. )

So, fifty-five of us set about our merry way up the mountain for Christmas 2019.

This is how merry you look when you start.

These are the rules you are supposed to look at.

This is how you look at the first gate.

This is how you look in the jungle.

This is how you look at your first break.

This is how you look at Camp 1.

This is how you look a bit later when it starts raining.

This is how you look when you are trying to dry things out during the eleventeen minutes of sunshine you get each day.

This is how you look when you eat.

And, the next day you wake up and start again in Part 3, which starts at Camp 1, but still goes to eleven.