I did it!

I have successfully climbed Kili. See photo for proof. It has been an amazing week. With Kristina - a 38 year old Swedish woman and Meaghan - a 24 year old Australian. We also had a guide, an assistant guide (compulsory when hiking in the national park), a cook and 8 other porters, to carry all the food, tent, equipment, bulky luggage etc. We carried our own day packs. Before you say 'too easy' - let me tell you these people are professional climbers who do it day in day out and none of us could have managed to carry all our stuff. We had all climbed mountains before, but nothing like this.

Started out on Tuesday (Day 1) and climbed 1200m through rainforest, to Machame Camp. Wednesday (Day 2) was a hike up 800m to Shira, on the western side of the mountain - very wet afternoon. Thursday (Day 3) was a climb up to 4500m before dropping down to Barranco Camp, 3900m - a beautiful camp set in a valley (see breakfast at Barranco photo). Friday (Day 4) was difficult and long, starting with the 'breakfast wall', a near vertical climb, before a more steady, but knackering hike up to Barafu (4600m). At every stage we took it 'pole pole' (slowly) so that we would acclimatize properly. Then came Day 5. What can i say? Having survived the first 4 days relatively intact, day 5 actually started on day 4 - at 11pm - being woken up with hot tea and starting out climbing in the dark and freezing cold, at midnight. A five and a half hour trek at a snail's pace. I was behind Meaghan all the way, and she was practically sleep-walking at one point. She nearly gave up, but we gave her no choice - she had to keep going. Kristina lost a contact lens. Despite breathing difficulties and feeling cold, I had an amazing amount of strength. We got to Stella Point, 5795m (100m short of summit), ahead of schedule, despite difficulties. We were revived with one cup of sugary hot tea each, giving us all just enough energy to climb the last hour, through snow and ice, up to Uruhu Peak. The sun rose and all was beautiful above the clouds. A truly amazing sight. Suddenly i was running around, filming, with all the energy in the world, spurred on by the morning sunshine. We all reached the summit, aka 'The Roof Of Africa', at 6.40am on the Saturday. Connor and Luke successfully made it too, and i placed them on the sign - connor stayed there but Luke's flew off in a gust of wind, and went somewhere towards the crater in the middle of Kibo. Day 5 continued with a steady walk back down, then we made a detour for some bum-sliding in the snow - basically sliding down the mountain using our poles or hands (with gloves on) for steering. There is video evidence of this! That was fun, but we were so knackered we just wanted to get back to Barafu Camp. Then the headaches really begun for all of us. Remarkably after lying down for one hour, we all regained enough strength for another 4 hour hike down to Mweka Camp, decending 2700m in one day (from Summit to Mweka). Then it was one more night's sleep before another 4 hour stroll down to Mweka Gate and the finish line! I ran the last 200m, I was that happy about reaching the end!

I hope that gives you some idea of my week. It is hard to encapsulate all that I have felt and experienced this week. It's been epic. Everyone got on well, all our guides and porters did a sterling job, and Ahsante Tours were brilliant from start to finish. We ended up, last night, going to Glacier, a bar owned by Ahsante, to celebrate!

That's it, my last blog from Tanzania. Back home on Thursday. See you soon.

Phil.x