Trek.... (better late than never...)

Terima kasih means thank you in Indonesian. I can't thank the boys who took us trekking enough. Aman, our guide, and 2 porters whose names I don't know, have been amazing. The food has been excellent, especially considering they carry it all on their shoulders. We trek down a hill, carrying our own stuff (maybe 4kgs) and arrive at a little shelter, our camp chairs are set and the kettle is on the boil for tea. And for tea brewed over a fire they built with wet sticks, it is amazing tea! The meals are massive, and so tasty, and we got to share breakfast with monkeys one day! 
Now, it all sounds pretty peachy so far. It's not all roses up here! I am filthy, and smelly, and every muscle I own is aching! I have been scared to the point of crying twice, and I have a bruise on my bum where slipped halfway up a volcano summit. I didn't make it to the top - I took shelter behind a rock on a path about 1m wide and shivered while Wendy did make it to the top and said it was the hardest thing she has ever done - this from a woman who ran a Marathon... 
Now we're off the mountain and I've had 3 showers I can look back at it and say it was amazing. I still can't walk down a step without looking 90 though.
On day one we started a gradual uphill walk in the blazing sun and the most horrible humidity you can imagine. After a lunch stop of rice, stir fried veggies, cucumber (every meal had cucumber!) prawn crackers, dragon fruit and pineapple, we started to actually face some hills. Then it started raining. Then Aman told us it was going to get steep... what he meant to say was, for the next 2 hours you will be scrabbling almost directly up a hill not too far off vertical, in a downpour. It stopped raining just as we reached camp, which our porters had set up before we arrived, and Wendy and I crashed out. Day 2 started at 2am. Woken to tea and toast, we then started the even harder trek up to the summit, 3700m above sea level, where we had been the morning before. It was like walking up the steepest sand dune you've ever seen, but with a vertical drop either side of the 1m wide path, for over 3 hours. Coming down only took 1.5 hours... We then had 2nd breakfast and started the descent to the lake and hot springs. By the time we were halfway down I felt like Bambi. I had no control over my own legs! We then discovered what Aman meant when he said flat. Not that there would be no hills, but that the path was smooth - no rocks or roots to trip over or use as steps... got to the "flat" and it started raining again... this was the first time Aman disappeared on us. It turned out he was hurrying ahead to make sure that camp was ready for us!
Lunch by the lake was the end of hiking for day 2, but both of those days had been 8+ hours of seriously hard work, and more than a few scared tears. The hot springs weren't quite as healing as we'd have liked, but were a great chance to wash off 2 days of muck and stink... Kinda. It's a bit hard to get really clean in a sulphur pool. A little more rain for good measure and time for another exhausted sleep. Day three started in a very relaxed fashion; a spot of fishing for the boys and a wander around the lake for us. Then the uphill. We only hiked for about 4 hours, but most of it was spent heading almost vertical again. This time there were rocks to climb, which made it easier and less scary, but also day 3 of some serious leg pain. And we stretched every chance we got. There was nothing we could do but live with the ache and keep going. The camp site for night 3 only has space for 2 groups, so after lunch young boy, the 16 yr old porter, packed up a bit less gear and practically ran down the next 45 mins of hill (the easiest part of the whole thing) and nabbed the best campsite! Our tent was on a raised platform, under a tin roof, next to the cooking shelter, with a view over the jungle where rare black monkeys live. It was amazing. To top it all off we had hot chips, again cooked over a fire, and a camp fire. It was a lovely night with all 5 of us sitting around the fire telling stories. 
Early (8pm) to bed, early (5:30am) to rise, and our last day began smelling awful and feeling like we couldn't move. Down hill all the way, for not much over 3 hours. But with all the aches it may as well have been 8. We made it back to John's Hotel by a little after 10, and I have never been so excited to have a freezing cold shower.
Overall it was an amazing experience, worth the pain that I am still (48 hours and 2 massages later) suffering. I wouldn't do it again, and I wish I had packed warmer clothes and more clean socks. I would absolutely recommend it to others, but with a massive warning. It is one of the hardest things you'll ever do. You'll be cold, wet, sore and exhausted for nearly the whole thing. You'll sweat buckets and then freeze half to death in the space of an hour. Mr John's trekking is absolutely the company you should use, I can not fault them or the equipment they had. 
Now if I could just get up out of my chair to get the password for the wifi...