Mount Fuji!

We did it! We climbed Mount Fuji! It was definitely the hardest physical activity I have done, but it was an incredible experience. We were smiling the whole way, joking around, making friends and enjoying the view of the clouds... It was amazing.

Not only did we climb Mount Fuji, but we started from the very bottom: Sengen Jinja (which is the ancient pilgrimage route). 95% of climbers start from the FIFTH STATION, so we really did a much bigger walk than most people. This picture proves it: the starting point!

I'm so glad we started from the bottom. I felt such a sense of achievement; we climbed from the ground to being higher than the clouds. For the many people who take the bus to the fifth station and walk from there, you are already so high that you are in the clouds anyway. 

The first section of the walk was a lot more green and full of nature. But soon the clouds start to take over!

From about the 6th station to the 8th station, there is a never-ending winding path, steep and rocky. We were obviously starting to get tired, after walking for about 7 hours, but the incredible image of the clouds pushed us through.

There is also a lot of more serious climbing; pushing yourself up over big rocks.

We started our climb at 7:30am from Sengen Jinja. At about 6:30pm, we arrived at our lodge for the night. We stayed at a mountain hut in order to climb the final stage at night and watch the sunrise. Needless to say, we were exhausted upon reaching the hut. And, we probably slept for about 2 hours... The mountain hut is like one big bed: strangers are lying next to you and there is no privacy. It was so loud! People snoring everywhere... And I started to get quite bad altitude sickness. 

But it was no problem for us tough cookies! We awoke at 2am, and resumed our climb...

We got to watch the sunrise on Jonathan's birthday from the top of Mount Fuji. A real incredible moment.

And then we had to climb down the bloody thing!!! That was another big task: the downward route was so steep and was made up of slippy stones. We were practically sliding the way down.