After yesterday’s summit we all slept extremely well last night. And the rain disappeared too. The camp was still damp and muddy but at least there was no rain.
Strangely I woke up with one of the worst headaches of the week – a piercing pain at the front of my head. Two paracetamols and some breakfast cleared it. I rarely get headaches and have taken more paracetamol this week than 2015 combined!
The porters and guides held a special ceremony this morning to thank us for our tips. We’ve had team of 84 support staff with a single primary aim – getting us to the summit yesterday. The ceremony was 30 minutes of singing, dancing and smiling. It was lovely. Continue reading Kilimanjaro Diary: And down again→
At the top of Kilimanjaro and I’m crying with emotion
We’ve done it. We’ve all done it. All 18 of us and the doctor reached the Stella Point summit at 7:14am today. And it was one of the hardest walks I’ve ever done.
After dinner last night we went straight to bed wearing our summit clothes. This meant we would only have 4 hours sleep maximum and of course it was wonderful, quality rest, rudely interrupted at 11pm.
The incredible view from our tent at Kilimanjaro Base Camp
Today was only a short walk. Despite short distance we are at such a high attitude that everything is an effort.
Once we arrived at camp we were all tired and had some time to relax. This set off a moderate headache, which I sorted with some Paracetamol.
We are now staying at the Base Camp which is a cool name alone. This site is amazingly beautiful and I’ve taken some photos from my camp bed of a third Kilimanjaro summit. Continue reading Kilimanjaro Diary: Walking to Base Camp→
After my diary entry yesterday, Jeremy W took a turn for the worse and the doc has given him a full medicine cabinet- something like 9 tablets in total. It was difficult to see such a close friend in trouble like that – but he improved overnight.
It was cold last night. I went to sleep at 9 and woke up at 6 am. Other people didn’t have such a good night’s sleep and found today tough. I only had one sub-freezing loo break in the night and that was enough.
Aron packed his stuff away first, so I had the whole tent to put my stuff away. The outside of my sleeping bag was very cold – the inside was lovely and cosy. The tent was covered in frost. Continue reading Kilimanjaro Diary: A day of two temperatures→
We almost missed the plane. That is a slight exaggeration – but we were the last boarding, at the back of the queue. We had a couple of beers in the airport bar and received a WhatsApp notification from one of the team taking a selfie in a business class seat. We checked the time and realised we were late. Continue reading Kilimanjaro Diary: Frozen Chopped Liver→