Whilst Kate & Keith head off on the second leg of their African adventure (a three day safari through Tanzania) I’ll be back here posting delayed updates from the mountain. Check out Kate’s little summary of the brutal summit night below. (We’ll be posting a daily selection of pictures from the trek over the next few days with accompanying blurbs!)
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Climbing Kilimanjaro has been hands down the hardest thing I have ever done and I know that Keith felt the same. The last day and a half felt insurmountably difficult. We woke at 5am on the Wednesday and walked for approximately twelve hours straight (including a section of rock climbing) stopping to eat finally around 5pm. After dinner we were advised to sleep since we would be roused at 11pm for the nine hour climb through the night to the summit. We head out after only four hours sleep in temperatures below freezing with only head torches to light the way. As we walk, the lights from the climbers up ahead highlight false summit after false summit. The first rays of daylight bring the reality that the top is still a very long way off. Breathing is hard. We do as the guides say ‘pole pole’ (slowly slowly) but it is excruciating. We see people being taken back down with Altitude Sickness. ITS HIDEOUS.
Finally we find ourselves at Stella Point about 8am – but that’s not the top! Uruhu is another hours walk! Keith determinedly sets off for the last stretch, I follow after him, albeit reluctantly… Keith summits first but I make it too only around 5 minutes behind him.
Everyone said if we reached the top it would be a seriously emotional moment and that we’d cry – oddly, neither of us did. I think we were simply too exhausted to feel anything other than relief that we were finally THERE. In the back of our minds was the niggling awareness that to get back to our camp and refuel we still had another five hours of walking ahead! We made it though and will update properly after a good rest. I’ve just had my first shower in a WEEK, it wasn’t even hot and the water pressure was questionable but it was frankly AMAZING! 😁
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#kilimanjaro #climbforcharity #trekking #mountainclimbing #teamkgg #charity #fundraising
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