I made it to the top of Mnt Kilimanjaro!

It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I made it. I can now say I've climbed the tallest freestanding mountain in the World! There were lots of up's and down's along the way (no pun intended), but sharing the experience with such a great bunch of people and being able to see the magical scenary of Tanzania made it all worth while.



Thursday / Friday (22nd/23rd) September - The arrival

Our group nervously congregated at Heathrow to fly via Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania. On arrival at the hotel we had a briefing and found out what adventures lay ahead. Today we encountered our first bit of local wildlife - lizards in our room. It's safe to say the Mosquito net was well tucked in that night.  We had dinner together and the group gradually started to relax and get to know eachother - a great bunch of people. Roll on tomorrow!


Saturday 24th September - Killer ants, rain and toilet breaks



And so it begins... the group at the
start of the trek.



Today was tougher than I expected. We signed in at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, got our packed lunches and 3litres of water and set off through the rainforest. As we walked higher and higher, the walk got harder and harder. I lost my breath very quickly and found it difficult to continue to hold a conversation (a first for me). We stopped for lunch at the side of the footpath, and Kat and I managed to tread on an Ant hill... We both got attacked by ants running up our trouser legs, furiously biting us - and one even got in my underpants! Horrible! Luckily for the ants it was only the start of the trek, and not a week after my last shower. When we continued walking, the heaven's opened and we all got soaked through. We were able to (mostly) dry ourselves off at the campsite, and sat down for tea, popcorn and then dinner - no movie though. I'm v.impressed with the loos - they're actual basic toilet systems rather than holes in the ground, luxury. Standing outside the tent at night and staring up at the stars is beautiful by the way, highly recommended.

Sunday 25th September - Big rocks and a beefy treat!




I'm in the green hat clambering down!

It's great being woken up with a cheerful 'Hello!' in the morning by the porters, and the promise of a cup of tea. Today was even harder than yesterday. It was just up, up, up. It was a mixture of walking up hills, stepping up rocks and clambering up big rocks! I was really out of breath all day and really struggled. I was, however, really looked after by my fellow trekkers. There's still quite a bit of greenery around at this height, so landscape seems quite varied.  I eventually made it to camp, and was surprised to be greeted with a beef stroganoff! My favourite dish ever - thought my mum had written to the porters to ask them to cook it! We had an early night to prepare for the next day. So far, feeling OK.






I'm in the pink strolling through the snow

Monday 26th September - Up to the lava tower and down through the snow

Woke up this morning feeling really sick and couldn't hold down breakfast. The doctor gave me some anti-sickness pills, which seemed to work. Today was more of an acclimatisation day, we would walk up to the Lava Tower, but then back down to camp to get more oxygen for sleep. I managed to walk OK in the morning despite feeling rough, and managed to eat a bit of lunch at Lava Tower. After lunch we went downhill through the snow back to camp. I was feeling seriously tired by the time I got back to camp, but my lovely porter Peter met me at the campsite, took my hand and lead me back to the tent where I had a 1hr nap... just the little bit of TLC I needed! On the way to dinner I managed to do a very theatrical trip over a tent peg... doh! No serious injury incurred except for slight scar on my pride! Found it difficult to eat dinner tonight, and concerned I won't sleep so well as it's getting very cold at night.

Tuesday 27 September (AM) - Heading to the top

Ben giving the porters a treat on the wall

We starting today scaling the Barraco Wall. This is a big rock wall which leads up to the rest of the path. Most of it was clambering up rocks, and some parts were very scary - at one stage you had to put a foot on one rock and stretch your other leg up to a rock above your head.. with a porter heaving you up from above. At another point you're told to 'kiss' a rock because you have to literally hug it to squeeze around it. I just tried not to think too much about what I was doing, and just got on with it! We had lunch at the top (I couldn't eat as usual), and then spent the rest of the day walking to the next camp which didn't seem too tough. Everyone's now feeling v. apprehensive, as we now only have a few hours sleep before the summit climb.



Michelin woman - sat on the summit all layered up with
down jacket underneath my waterproof.

Tuesday 27th (PM) - Summit night
Woke up at 11pm to start the summit walk in the middle of the night. We were fed tea and biscuits, and then turned our headtorches on to start the walk. Ahead of us was a 5hr steep walk in the dark. Everyone was v. quiet, just concentrating on getting their footing right. As the night went on and we got to a higher altitude, people starting to become more weak and more ill. Trekkers were throwing up and crying. It took everything I had to get to the top. I was singing to myself, counting up, and thinking about all the encouragement people had given me. Through the night the porters were singing to us and giving us lots of encouragement. We were all freezing cold, but finally at around 6am the sun came up over the horizon, which gave me a fresh perspective on making it to the top. The last 100 meters was very painful and seemed to take forever to complete. Finally, at around 7am I reached the summit, and hugged my fellow trekkers. I was exhausted and freezing cold.


Wednesday 28th - Heading back down

We descended in small groups, and by this time I had a terrible stomach ache. Nye and George helped us down all the loose shingle leading us back to camp. This took 3hours, but felt like forever and I was so exhausted that I kept slipping over. When we finally arrived back at camp, Kat and I went straight to sleep for a couple of hours, but then we had to get up again to continue down to the next campsite. At Millenium camp I gave myself a footbath in a 'washy washy' bowl an we all had dinner. I slept so well that night I even dribbled on my pillow!

Thursday 29th - Last day

Saying goodbye to my lovely porter, Peter.

Woke up at 6am by the sound of Greg's music, and everyone looked fresh-faced and happy to have made it through the previous days. After our porters sang us the Kilimanjaro song (and I shed a few tears), we set off on our final descent back through the jungle. We were moving very quickly, which made my knees ache. Around 5 hours later we arrived at a small village, where were enjoyed bottles of Coke and a delicious lunch by a chef called Anthony. We then piled on the minibus and cranked up the music as we set off back to the hotel. Annoyingly our shower was broken at the hotel, so we had to wait in our smelly clothes for it to be fixed. Finally, all lovely and clean, we all met up again for a celebration dinner with a random drunk entertainer who sang 'When the saint come marching in" with all our names crowbarred into the song, very bazaar! We escaped to the poolside and continued the celebrations there.  It was then time to say goodbye, as a small group of us set off for a Safari the next morning.

Me with Mnt Meru rising above the clouds behind.

What a trek - it was very hard but very rewarding and I learnt a lot about my capabilities and have hopefully made some friends for life. I also loved Tanzania and intend to return some day.

So, what's next? I can't afford to do anything like this again for a while, but meanwhile I intend to run 5miles home from work everyday to keep my fitness up and to keep proving to myself that I can do more than I think I can.

Hakuna Matata!