The Mountains, Day 4 ‹ Claire Dunnington, Writer

Last mountains, I promise. New topographies coming next post.

The final day of hiking was also eight hours, and while eight-hour Day 3 was my favorite, Day 4 almost ended me. I’m not totally sure what happened–I want to say that I had altitude sickness, but we were only ever as high as 2500 meters, which isn’t really enough to do it. I already had a head cold when we got to the mountains, though, and that + the higher altitude + exertion every day did something to me.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a vague, all-over nausea, which got worse when I tried to eat breakfast, and didn’t exactly get better as I hiked up another mountain. So there are fewer pictures (and fewer captions; you can pretty universally apply a Claire thought-bubble of “Please don’t throw up” or “Just take two more steps” to every picture), but click through for the Mountains: conclusion:

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The colors were worth it.

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More trails suitable for sure-footed goats

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I stopped here, put my head on my knees, and had a little nap in the sun.

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The plateau where we ate lunch. I tried to lie down in the shade but the animals were being hilarious and I didn't want to miss the show.

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GOATS

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I don't know what got into Jacqueline that day. She kept trying to run away or kick Mohammed.

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On the way down the mountain, I finally started to feel something approaching normal.

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This village was...not our final destination, but at least we were closer.

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Hanging from all of the scrubby mountain trees were huge pods made of what looked like cotton wool...Ibrahim told me that they were caterpillar nests. Here's one that for some reason (I suspect an angry bird) had fallen from its tree and split open.