I went to Tanzania to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in the world at 5895m. What I came away with was an African experience I will never forget.

The ascent itself is not technical with only a small amount of scrambling involved. The main challenge is dealing with the unknown quantity of altitude sickness. I had read articles and sought advice and it would seem that no-one can tell if or how bad it may strike. The main advice I managed to gleen was to walk slow and drink plenty of fluids (4-5 litres per day).

Whilst reaching the summit was my main goal, I was fascinated by the 5 climatic zones which we traveled through starting from the lower farming slopes. We moved on to rain forest, heath and moorland, alpine desert and lastly artic conditions among summit glaciers. Some have described this as walking from equator to pole in 4 days.

There were a number of routes to choose from but we opted for the Machame route, the only route where nights on the mountain were spent in tents rather than huts. In addition to the walkers in our group the supporting party was made up of a leader, assistant leader, cook and a number of porters to carry all the equipment, food and luggage up the mountain.

Initially the thought of the porters carrying everything, while we only carried a day sack made me feel uneasy. It wasn’t long before I realized that mixing and living with the hard working porters was all part of the Kilimanjaro culture, and only added to the experience. I watched these amazing people carrying huge loads on their heads and shoulders, with poor footwear, often too large; they were so friendly and always had a smile on their faces. Whilst compared to the western world their wages were poor, in comparison to other workers in Tanzania they were well paid. In addition there was also a career structure with the porters able to work their way up to cook, assistant leader and eventually leader.

I wouldn’t normally talk about food on my holiday but to be eating chicken and chips on day 4 at 5000m, with all the supplies being carried up the mountain by porters was impressive.

By Janet Wilson (below)

Building on the experiences gained with the club in the Alps and other mountaineering activities, I decided to go one higher and attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world. It was an excellent experience.

The route started in a rain forest filled with huge tree ferns and echoing with the sound of monkeys. Then we climbed higher, going up through heath land and eventually across boulder fields. The summit day started at 11pm and proved to be my toughest day ever. Walking at this altitude was incredibly slow and really tiring.

One of our party had to quit after a few hours which was a real shame but the rest of us made it to the summit just after sunrise at 7am. The snow on top is rapidly melting due to climate change, but there are still some very spectacular, huge glaciers. The summit was freezing cold and due to the altitude we couldn’t stay long, but it was definitely worth the effort. I’ll never forget the moment when I saw the summit appear ahead of me.