Almost There ......

An eventful first day of my Mount Fuji adventure. I got up at 0515 and caught an earlier train than planned so that I was able to enjoy a breakfast in Lotteria at Shin Osaka Station.

My friend Nicolas and his mother, Suzanne, arrived at about 0715 and we sat on the coach together for a while until I was told to get off and sit on a different coach. Nicolas had booked his and his mother's place on the tour separately from me and he had quoted the tour's reference number which I had given him. Somehow, the travel agent had passed on the wrong number to Sunshine Tours so not only would we be travelling on different coaches, we would be climbing in separate tour groups as well. 

I have to say that the Sunshine Tours agents on my coach and on Nicolas' coach were fantastic. As soon as the coach pulled out of Shin Osaka Station, my tour guide, Ryuri-san, got straight onto his mobile phone to make the first of at least twenty phone calls to get everything sorted out so that I could be together with Nicolas and his mum. When we stopped to pick up more passengers at Kyoto Station, Nicolas and his mum came and sat beside me on my coach.

Everything else ran smoothly until we got to the foot of Mount Fuji. When the coach started to climb the hill it began to have trouble with the air intake valve. We seemed to be moving at about twenty kilometers per hour. After about ten minutes of this the driver pulled into a siding. He very much doubted that the coach would be able to make it up the hill to the first base station. So, we all got off the coach and waited for about an hour for a replacement coach to arrive. 

At the base station, everything was incredibly rushed because of our late arrival. We had to collect our rental gear and pack our luggage into the rucksacks we had rented and eat our evening meal in about half an hour before making the first ascent to Base Station 7. Poor Suzanne was so rushed she didn't have time to eat her meal.

Our guide up to Base Station 7, Namaste-san (not his real name), was very nice. Ryuri-san also came up to Base Station 7 with us. On the way up, Namaste-san advised me to remove my rented fleece jacket because I would get too hot. As I stopped to remove and pack it, I panicked a bit because the rest of the group carried on up. Ryuri-san stayed behind with me to help me with my jacket. Then, when he saw me walking fast to catch up with the rest of the group he told me to slow down. He obviously knew that Namaste-san was leading the group at a slow pace and would take frequent pauses to make sure the group was together, to catch breath and take fluids. So I slowed down and, sure enough, we were soon back with rest of the group. Slow and sure was very good advice. It is very much a tortoise and hare scenario climbing Mount Fuji. You may feel like you are walking at an agonisingly slow pace, but you will probably reach your goal far quicker than somebody who rushes and then has to stop for long and frequent recuperation breaks.

On the way up to Base Station 7, we passed several people coming down Mount Fuji, in the pitch black by now, without headlights. Crazy. But I got very angry when we passed a father and his three young children, aged between about five and eight years old probably, all sitting on the ground and clearly exhausted, none of them with headlights. Luckily, Namaste-san had a spare headlight in his bag. He gave it to the father with clear instructions to return at the first base station stating his name. Man, I hope that irresponsible father's wife gave him hell if and when he got home.

We arrived at Base Station 7, 3010 meters up Mount Fuji, just after 9 pm. By now Suzanne had already decided that she was feeling too ill to complete the ascent to the summit, so Nicolas and I made a new plan. I would wait at Base Station 7 tomorrow morning while he took his mother back down to Base Station 3 where she would stay. Nicolas would then return to Base Station 7 and we would ascend to the summit together. Ryuri-san was very helpful again making the necessary arrangements to change our accommodation plans for us. Then, at about 10 pm, we settled down to make the most of sleeping on the floor with about twenty other people side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with barely room to move.

The photo shows our group making its way to Base Station 3 (I think) just as the sun was starting to go down.