I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported me
in my Kilimanjaro adventure. As you may or may not know I did make it
to the summit, not only that but I decided to punish myself further by
walking around the crater further to the highest point in Africa and the
highest point on a free standing mountain in the world!
The first 3 ½ days were really very manageable and our group was in
strong spirits marching up the mountain, making jokes about the ‘team
shovel’ (lack of toilets…I’ll leave it to your imagination!) and
excitedly talking about our big adventure.
We were walking through forest and cultivation first and the path was
fairly gentle. At the start of the route we had to dodge begging
children and my friend made the mistake of getting out some food in
front of them. I'm not sure I could bring myself to pry some dry
biscuits from the hands of a crying, orphaned 5 yr old who was dressed
in rags- but he’s a growing guy so I wont judge him!! However at camp 3
some of the group were vomiting and no one had much of an appetite, I
was still fine at this point howeve, as I concentrated on breathing
deeply.
Nights were the hardest as, obviously, because it was a mountain, our
tents were pitched on slopes and you spent the night trying to
caterpillar yourself back up to the top of your sleeping mat…. the image
of a beached whale springs to mind. Also I found I was concentrating
so hard on breathing that I couldn’t go to sleep as if I stopped I kept
getting headaches, like someone had bludgeoned my head with a rounders
bat. Being woken up by a cheery voice saying “Washy, washy” after very
few hours sleep does wear thin very quickly! As does having to pack up
all your damp dirty clothes in your bag and roll up your sleeping mat
and bag every morning. This was probably what I hated most about the
trip as the higher you got the longer it took, even looking for your hat
in your bag took 20 minutes as you got out of breath with every
movement. What was amazing was even turning over at night woke you up,
as your heart started beating in your mouth, you got out of breath and
felt like you were about to have a heart attack all due to the lack of
oxygen.
Although I was lucky enough not to suffer from nausea, sickness and
hallucinations from the altitude, many of our group were and I found it
really disturbing to see such strong, stubborn members of the group so
weakened, to the point that they couldn’t walk or even see they were
just being dragged up the mountain by our guides. In fact at one point I
burst into tears saying, “There’s nothing wrong with me, I’m just sad
because everyone’s getting sick” (pretty pathetic and very embarrassing!
The altitude did make me into an emotional wreck; it was all just so
overwhelming)
Getting to the top was the single hardest thing I have done in my life
and the summit day (day 5) was the longest of my life. It started at
11pm on day four after 4 hrs sleep, a cup of tea and a biscuit. We
walked in the dark for 8 hours all you could see were thousands of
headlights that snaked up the mountain until they joined the stars-an
amazing sight until you realise you don’t think you can actually make it
that far. Once at the top I burst into tears as a wave of relief and
pride overcame me. However, I wasn’t going to go all that way and stop
short of my ultimate goal, to make it to Uhuru peak, so I then walked
for a further 4 hours, which did nearly finally finish me off, as I was
then starting to get nauseas and headachy. We then walked back to the
camp, I say walked, it was 4 miles of loose screed, so it was more
slide-fall-slide-fall -not the most dignified of procedures. After that
(no it wasn’t over yet) we had to walk down to the next camp, which took
a further 3 hours. All in all we walked for just under 16 hours in one
day.
Thanks again to everyone who sponsored me, gave me advice, told me to
start training! and wished me well. I couldn’t have done it with out all
of your support and I will be eternally grateful.
Ellie Devey-Robson
