Kilimanjaro

I made it. I summited Kilimanjaro at 7:30 am on February 24th, 2009. The highest peek - Uhuru, the one i reached, is 5985 meters above sea level, and is the highest point in Africa. There are so many stories that I could tell of my climb -so many amazing things and so many hardships - that I do not know where to start.

It is without doubt the hardest mental and physical thing I have ever done. I cannot begin to express the amount of exhaustion the human body is able to feel. When climbing, you walk at about half speed of that at which you would walk down the sidewalk. 'polepole' is what they say here... Swahili for slow. Yet, you are exhausted. There are 4 completely different ecosystems that one experiences in climbing. You start in a rainforest, followed by a desert, followed by a moon scape, followed by a glacier. I anticipate many of you to see the pictures upon my return home. Each day, you wake at 7, eat breakfast, pack, leave camp at around 8, and climb till about 3, at which point you most likely nap until dinner, eat, and then go to bed again until the morning. On the summit day, you do all of this beforehand, yet instead of waking at 7, you wake at midnight and begin climbing. At sunrise (630 am) you are scheduled to reach Gilmour's Point, 5685 meters above sea level. Then from there you climb to Uhuru, the top of the mountain, which I, along with Dingo, reached at 7:30 Am.
It is at Uhuru that I experience the biggest release of energy I have ever thought possible. The adrenaline was gone - I broke down and fell into tears, this was captured in a video some of you may see later. The hardest part though, was the descent. There is no adrenaline, and there is all the altitude sickness. You are sick; your head is splitting, and you are absolutely exhausted. My guide had to keep kicking me to wake me up, as i fell asleep about 6 or 7 times on the way down from the summit... which can be very dangerous.
Yet now, I have made it. I am at the hotel, safe, free of any symptoms. I feel nothing but pride.
I climbed with two other tourists. They were both Australian, and thank god for them... without their company i doubt i would have made it. I will tell you their story, I hope that if either of them reads it in the future, they will not feel as if I'm exploiting what they have done for entertainment, but simply that I am telling a tale of love and courage that I believe everyone should hear.

One of the Aussie's, we'll call him Kangaroo, is a 52 year old father of three, one daughter and two sons. His one son recently passed away at the age of 25. It was this son who had planned to climb Kilimanjaro shortly before his death. Kangaroo, courageously decided that to honour his son's name, he would climb the mountain for him. The other Aussie, let's call him Dingo, was the son's best friend. He heard of Kangaroo's intention to climb a couple weeks before its start date, decided to accompany him. Witnessing their commitment to this climb was something amazing. In the end, Dingo was successful in reaching the top, and gave one of the most heartfelt tributes I have ever witnessed. Kangaroo made it to William's Point, which is 5000 meters above sea level. An amazing accomplishment that anyone would be proud of. They surely carried out the son's legacy with their brave efforts. It was a quest I was not a part of, but I cannot describe with words the honour I feel to have witnessed such courage.