Hello!

When reading this blog, please start at the bottom (Day 1) and work your way up.

Just go to the right of this screen, and click the 'September' link and then Day1.

Thanks for visiting my blog! :)

Childreach International

I didn't climb Kilimanjaro for fun. I did this challenge to raise money for charity - Childreach International.

Childreach International is a fantastic charity which works in 7 different third world countries. Their aim is to help children grow to their full potential. If you want to find out more, visit www.childreach.org.uk

All in all, I raised £2,500 for them. It wasn't easy. In fact, raising this much money was in a way almost as hard as the climb! But I managed it through various events and mainly thanks to the support of my family and friends! 

Much love to everyone who sponsored me, your money went to a great cause! 

& this is the end of my blog.

If you have taken the time out to read the whole thing, then thank you! I hope you enjoyed it.

Much love,

Charlotte 

x 

A quick note on the guides and porters

The Guides

I have to have a section here especially for the guides because they were amazing and inspirational. A quick shout out to our guides:
Nelson
Pasco
Samson
Dennis

We wouldn't have been able to complete this trek without them. We probably wouldn't have even finished day one. They motivated us when we needed a push, they supported us when we were down. They cared about us and always ensured we were okay. Saying that they were kind would be an understatement. I find it hard to put into words how I feel about these men, they were just so wonderful. Pasco and Samson were my secret favourites, I spent most of the climb walking and talking with them, finding out so much about their lives. I couldn't get my head around the fact they don't even have a computer at home. But they have Facebook (who doesn't!)... they had to go to the internet cafe though. Both of their dreams were to go to England. Pasco supported Arsenal and he followed their matches even on the mountain! His dream was to go to England and watch an Arsenal match at the Old Trafford. Samson wanted to go to London. I desperately wanted to buy them tickets and help their dreams come true... if I win the lottery I definitely will. I wanted to help them accomplish their dreams as they were helping me accomplish mine. It's ironic to think that my dream was to climb Kilimanjaro, yet they do that all the time (over 300 times) and their dream was to see England, and I see England all the time.
Samson was my guardian angel on the night of the walk to the summit. For 6 hours it was just me and him, walking painfully slow up that mountain. He was constantly supportive, telling me how well I was doing and giving me a friendly hug when I needed it. He could have been so impatient with me when I kept having to sit down every 5/10 minutes. But he just sat down with me until I was ready to walk again.
The guides were always smiling and happy, they were just really, really great men.

The porters

These men carried not only our main bags for us, but our tents, our food, everything we needed apart from our day packs. They'd put up our tents and cook our food. They'd clean our dishes and fill up our water bottles. These guys were incredible. They carried ton loads of baggage on their heads or the back of their shoulders and would get to where we were going 3 hours before we even arrived. They walked so fast and didn't need walking poles. This doesn't mean they found it easy though. Yes, easier than we found it. But as our guides explained to us (they were porters before becoming guides) it's very very difficult and tiring, and can cause back problems. I did feel guilty seeing these men carry all my stuff and do all the hard work for me. But on the other hand, that's their job. They may not have a job otherwise. 10,000 people work on Kilimanjaro. If it wasn't for tourists wanting to climb it, then 10,000 people could be jobless.

Nonetheless, it's a very difficult job for little pay. That's why it's so important to tip them as much as you can.

Day 5 05/09/2012

Day 5

And so the final ascent begins.

We all went to bed at around 9pm. The plan was to be in bed by 8pm latest but we arrived to our camp late and therefore had dinner late. It took me around an hour to fall asleep, nerves of what was soon ahead were keeping me awake. It felt like I had only just drifted into sleep when I heard the voices of our guides: "WAKE UP! WAKE UP!". It was 12am. With only two hours sleep, I quickly dressed and had gross porridge before the last climb. It was going to be well below freezing today, so I had to dress well. I wore two pairs of socks, two thermals -- bottom and top, trousers -- two fleeces, a windproof/waterproof jacket, a cosy hat, and two pairs of gloves (which soon became three half way on our journey as my hands were still freezing).

 At 1am we set off. I vividly remember the horrible mood I was in as we set off. Maybe it was because I was panicking,  worried of the unknown that lay ahead, maybe it was because I was extremely tired -- whatever the reason, I was in an awful mood and needed to snap out of it if I wanted to get to the summit.

It was pitch black; the only light we had was from our individual head torches and the moon. I remember half hour before setting off my head torch snap broke. Panic fell over me. It was crucial to have a head torch and it was just typical for mine to break. Top tip - buy a good head torch, not one from the pound shop. Luckily, Samson fixed it for me and all was fine. Thank. God.

It was stone cold freezing, ice all around us. And the top of my legs ached, a lot. Every step I took was incredibly uncomfortable. Imagine doing a hardcore legwork out at the gym and then having to climb a steep hill the next day. That was how I felt. And I had to walk this steep hill for many hours.

As we started, I could see the outline of the summit, and what looked like tiny stars, but which were in fact the lights from other people's head torches, ascending up the mountain, far far away. I asked my guide, "is that the route we're taking?". "Yep." And in that moment, the thought crossed my mind that I wasn't going to be able to do this, I wasn't going to get to the top. These lights were SO FAR AWAY! How was I ever going to get to the summit, when I was so tired and my legs were in agony?!

But then another voice pushed the previous one out of my head, and said "there is NO WAY you're giving up!! The only way you will give up is if you nearly die and HAVE to get sent down! You've come too far, you're not turning around now". And that voice was my motivation for the next long nine hours of walking to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Our group got split into two groups, the faster one and the slower group. I was in the faster group, but as we trooped on I started to feel a bit sick and stopped to take a Rennie tablet. By then, the faster group had gone off without me and I was left with my guide, Samson. We soon saw Jessie and Emma coming up with our other guide, Pasco, and we walked with them. But Jessie and Emma were feeling really sh*t. They were crying and kept having to stop to be sick. I sat on a rock, waiting for them to find the energy to carry on. Sitting down felt good. I considered sitting on that rock for ten, fifteen minutes to build up some energy (i.e. fall asleep) but I knew if I sat down for too long waiting for the girls then I'd become too relaxed and I wouldn't be able to get up. So I ate some of my energy bar called 'Kendal mint cake', which is basically sugar that gives you energy. This was the first time I'd ever had the stuff and I was sceptical that anything apart from sleeping could give me energy. Samson and I had a piece, and then I said to him that I wanted to carry on without the girls.

For the next 6 hours, it was just me and my guide. He was truly amazing and I really don't think I would have done it without him; he pushed me and motivated me to keep on walking. The mint cake actually (and thankfully) worked a treat and I had energy within minutes -- Samson noted that I had a lot more energy and it made him feel better too, so I would highly recommend buying this if you're doing this challenge. I really don't know if I could have got to the top without eating that mint cake; I don't know where I would have found the energy.

Making our way up to the summit was slow, painful and exhausting. In those nine hours, I had a lot of time to think. A lot of the time, I was thinking about getting back down to camp and going to sleep. But I also thought about my dad. If he could still do so much physically demanding tasks whilst battling cancer, then I could get to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. He was a huge inspiration for me taking on this challenge and I just knew he would be looking down on me, cheering me on.


I also remember counting time in my head. I would count how many minutes had passed and once I thought it had been twenty minutes I'd have a sit down for two minutes, before starting the routine again. Most of the time Samson and I walked without saying a word, our thoughts filling the silence. In a blog I had read previously, a man said he didn't know what he would have done without his iPod. But I found listening to music didn't help, even though I listen to music all the time, and at the gym I find it really motivational. But, strangely, at this point I just found it a nuisance. I enjoyed listening to the silence, the wind, the true voice of nature. When else will you ever really hear silence? In this day and age, we are surrounded by noise. Even when in bed, TV and music off, there's always that background noise of traffic or planes. So I embraced this moment, being separated from the world as we know it. And it was beautiful.


As dark gradually -- yet rather quickly -- became light, and the sun was peaking its way up in the sky to say hello to a new day, Samson and I sat on a rock and marvelled at the sun rising above the clouds. For Samson, who has climbed to the top of Kili more than 150 times, this was nothing new yet still beautiful. For me, who has never really seen, or taken the time to notice a sunrise, this was truly fascinating, magical. I tried to capture it on camera, as you can see below. But the camera does the sunrise little justice. It's something you have to witness yourself to appreciate its beauty. It's something I would happily watch a thousand times over. It was a beauty of mother nature and here I was, watching it on top of Africa's tallest mountain. Something I would urge anyone to experience. For those short seconds, I forgot about the hard and agonising walk that I'd just done and that was still ahead of me.
It didn't take long for the sunrise to be over and for reality to come back. I still had about 4 hours of walking ahead of me before getting to the top.

Eventually, after a tough, tiring walk, we were near Stella Point. By this point it was literally a struggle to put one foot in front of the other.

I can barely muster a smile haha!

I could see Stella Point, and even though it looked so close, it took about an hour to get there. As soon as I got to this point, I just fell to the floor in exhaustion.

I had to get up. We hadn't made it to the top yet. By this point I had met three others in my group, Jimmy, Gemma and Mala. Mala couldn't carry on after Stella Point because she was near enough delusional; she kept collapsing and her eyes were all over the place, it was really hard seeing her like that. In a way, I was jealous that she got to go back down and I still had another hour of walking ahead of me. But I trooped on.

Even taking photos took a massive amount of effort.

 And at last, I made it!!! The final hour of walking wasn't too hard, it wasn't steep, but I was so tired that I thought I'd fall asleep at any moment, and my guide had to literally hold my hand and drag me up there at one point. As I saw the sign getting closer and closer, I saw that the 'faster' group were still there! I felt euphoric. Not only had I made it, but I could enjoy this amazing experience with my team. It was a shame that we weren't all there together, but I thought that the faster group would be well on their way back down by that point so I was just so happy to see them.

Me and my favourite guide, Samson.

I literally had no energy by the time I got to the top. Before I set off on this mountain, I imagined that when I got to the top I'd be crying and all sorts cos I was so happy. This was not the case. All I could think of was "bed, bed, sleep, bed, home, sleep"

I arrived at the summit at 9:15 am after 8 hours and 15 minutes of walking. That sounds so long, but it didn't feel like that long. Which sounds weird as you'd think it would have felt like forever. I don't really understand it myself...

The whole way up, my motivation came from my mind and from my guide.

 The view was wonderful, but I was so exhausted I found it hard to take it in. In this picture you can see a massive glacier, which went down for at least a few hundred metres.

This was my last photo I took before my camera died. As we started our descent down we crossed the group who were behind us. I was ecstatic to see they had also made it.

On the way down we pretty much skied down as the terrain was like snow but instead of snow it was tiny tiny rocks. So I was just sliding down, getting thousands of tiny rocks in my boots. By this point the last thing I wanted to do was use more energy. I just wanted to sleep. There was one point when I was waiting for other people and I fell asleep standing up on my walking poles. And every time we sat down for a break I fell asleep straight away, even though I was sat up right, cold, on a mountain. I have never been so completely and utterly exhausted. After two hours of sliding down the mountain we made it to camp. I got straight into my tent and fell asleep for two hours before dinner.

And that was it. I had done it. I had made my way to the top of the tallest mountain in Africa!

Day 6 consisted of more descending, which was long and hard on the knees but fun because you knew soon you would be back at the hotel, having a shower and finally being able to properly relax!

 

Reached 5895 A.M.S.L

Thank you for reading :-)

Day 4 04/09/2012

Day 4

I woke up to find my headache still hadn't disappeared but after taking some good ol' Ibuprofen within half and hour it had gone. On this day we had to climb a wall called Barranco wall. This was almost proper rock climbing without the ropes. We had to use our hands and feet and pull ourselves up this wall. I found it to be so much fun even though there were some scary bits at times. But our amazing guides wouldn't let us get hurt.

 And as we reached the top of Barranco wall... This is what we saw. It was an incredible sight. We stayed here for about half hour to take photos and marvel in its glory. The summit seemed so close now!

 Here is a picture of me and my American friends I made on the climb. We crossed paths everyday and always had a little chat, mainly about the differences between the English language in England and in America. They were a lovely bunch! They were cheaters because they were on Diamox - medication to prevent altitude sickness - yet some of them were still badly affected!

The morning was great, and I thought the rest of the day would follow suit. But you know how they say "when things seem too good to be true, they probably are" ? Well that saying wasn't made up for no reason. The rest of the day was difficult and not really enjoyable in the slightest. After we left the place where you could see the summit we started to descend downhill, and as you can see in this picture, it was very steep. Not only was it steep, it was wet and slippery. At one point I fell over and somehow fell on my pole and bent it. Brilliant. Going downhill is really hard, I prefer going uphill by far!

And as soon as we finished going downhill, we had to go uphill, which was as steep as it was going down. At lunch they gave us chicken, chips and colesaw. We were all very excited by this, it was the best meal we had and I think this is because they knew that it was a pretty hard day. After lunch we started our walk to base camp. The walk was long and steep, and nobody was talking. Every one was pretty tired, and the majority of us put our headphones in. My brother made me a playlist full of motivational songs which helped. I was planning to listen to my iPod for day 5, the final walk to the summit (for motivation) so I didn't really want to use my iPod that much beforehand. But in the end it turned out that I didn't use it at all on the final day...

After about another 4 hours of walking we were near base camp. We had to walk up this very steep part to get there and my legs started to really ache... I hoped they'd feel fine for when we started our final ascent. Sadly this was not the case...

Barafu camp.

Height: 4550A.M.S.L

Day 3 03/09/2012

Day 3

I woke up in a good mood but freezing cold. Our camp was on a wide, open area with nothing to stop the wind in its full force.

Even though it was a very cold morning, spirits were high. We had breakfast, the usual apple porridge, which I found disgusting but had to wolf it down, because if you didn't eat you'd regret it later! On a few days we could also have a small amount of omelette with one hot dog sausage -- oh how we felt lucky on those days! Every morning we also had cold toast (the bread is different in Africa, sweet tasting like it's made with sugar) with a choice of peanut butter, marmalade, or butter. Problem for me was that one of the girls on our team was viciously allergic to nuts so we couldn't use the peanut butter, I don't like marmalade and the butter was rock hard and very hard to spread.

 After a couple of stretches, we commenced our 8 hour walk.

 Physically, on our way to lava tower, I was feeling fine; the altitude was not really affecting me. Of course breathing was harder but differences in breathing were apparent from day 1 (I'd really notice it at night, when I was laying down going to sleep, I could feel my heart beating really fast and each breath took a bit of effort.) As many people are aware, the biggest challenge for people walking up Mount Kilimanjaro is altitude sickness; suffering from this is the main reason people can't make it to the top. A few of our team did feel like shit (to put in bluntly) because of this. I was lucky in that it had little affect on me (is this because I've been skiing previously? I'm not sure). There are tablets available from the doctors that help with altitude sickness but I personally think that's cheating, no?

On day 3, we were going from 3900m to 4600m and then back down to 3900m. This was to acclimatize our bodies. The terrain wasn't very steep, near enough flat, so it was easy on the legs. Even though it was freezing before we set off, once we had started walking we got quite hot, and I regretted putting so many layers on. At one point I was just in my thermal top and trousers. But every time we stopped for a break it would once again turn very cold.

As we were getting higher and higher, I started getting hopeful that the altitude wouldn't affect me at all. Some people had already been sick, others had headaches. I was feeling fine. That was until we got to about 4200m, when we stopped for lunch. I started to get a slight headache and was feeling tired. I could have happily fallen asleep on my chair as we waited for lunch.

 But we had to head on.

In this picture you can see the summit. We saw the summit on our walk every day, and although it started getting closer and closer, it still felt a million miles away. Even though I was on Kilimanjaro, walking to the summit, I still found it hard to believe that in a few days I would be stood on the top of this monstrous mountain. I wondered whether it would it actually ever happen? Or would I give up before I get to the top?

Plant life was little to non existent by now, just the small shrub here and there. The landscape was wide and spread as far as the eye could see. It felt like I was walking on another planet, not something that had been placed on this Earth. It was a surreal and fascinating.

Eventually, after around 4/5 hours of walking, we reached Lava Tower, and we were at 4600m. I had a slight headache. I decided it would be fun to climb Lava Tower, but as I got a few metres up, my fear of open heights kicked in. I realised how easy it would be to slip and fall and so slowly descended down. As I got to the base I wiped my nose, only to realise I was having a small nose bleed, which wasn't too great, as it meant that I was getting affected by the altitude. It was nothing major though and went away quickly. 

As we started our walk down, my headache got worse. Not having taken anything for it was a mistake. Walking down sounds like it'd be easier than walking up but it really isn't. And with each step I took as I was going down, my head pounded, because you're putting the force of your whole body on each foot. Sometimes it was like you were sort of going down steep steps. I started getting tired and annoyed and just wanted to be back at camp. It was windy and my feet hurt because my toes were sliding to the front of my boot. As soon as we got back to camp, for some reason of which I still do not know to this day (I blame it on the altitude), I just burst in to tears. I was crying and I didn't have an exact reason, but I just felt down, tired, my head hurt and I missed my mum (I hadn't spoken to her for the whole time I was in Tanzania). After dinner, we looked at the night sky. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. But I found it very hard to really appreciate it as I was still feeling rubbish, and cold, and just wanted to go to sleep straight away.

Barranco camp.

Height: 3950A.S.M.L

Day 2 02/09/2012

 Day 2

I woke up today in a completely different mood from the one I fell asleep with. This rather surprised me because that night I dreamt of going home, and so even though I woke up feeling a bit home sick, I also had a positive attitude and couldn't wait to get up and begin day two! God only knows where this came from seeing as I was all doom and gloom the night before. I suppose I came to realise that I was in a magical place, I was doing something amazing for charity and I might as well enjoy it -- and enjoy it I did.

It helped that the sun was shining and it was hot before we even began trekking uphill. The sun never fails to put me in a good mood. Today, we only wore shirts and shorts. Some of the guys even took their tops off at one point, although not the best idea because, being closer to the sun, it's much easier to burn.

 Today's walk was, for me, a lot more exciting than the day before. I actually felt like I was on a mountain, as opposed to yesterday, which was pretty much walking up a steep hill through a jungle.
The path on day 2 was relatively steep and very rocky, so you had to think about where to put your feet so you don't trip. As we got higher, and the air got thinner, the plants got smaller and you could see the magnificent view. As you can see in this picture, by 3200m we were above cloud level which was truly breathtaking. I've only ever been above clouds when I'm in a plane... But there I was looking over miles of fluffy whiteness whilst outside breathing in the fresh air. I could have sat there and looked out at the rest of the world for hours.

 We stopped for lunch at around 3500m and you could really tell that the plant life was gradually fading out. It was mainly just bare land. Even though it was a warm day, it's surprising how cold it gets when you're not walking! We stopped for lunch and a toilet break. I remember walking up to this small and square wooden hut, a little walk away from where everyone was eating. The door was flapping open and shut viciously because of the wind. Unlike other long drop huts, you could see where the 'long drop' ended, the hut was on stands and you could see underneath it... Grim. It's amazing what you put up with when you have no choice. Surprisingly, nobody really complained about having to use the toilets... just the smell. I suppose it's better than doing your business in the open where anyone can see.

 We walked for 6 and a half hours today, which was the last of the short days (until the walk down the mountain). It was my best day on Mount Kilimanjaro and spirits were high. The camp we arrived to had the best toilets a mountain hiker could ask for... There was proper building (built out of BRICKS!) and inside there were tiles on the floor and a sit down toilet... it was Kilimanjaro's equivalent to a 5* hotel restroom.

My mood was still high as I went to bed, and I was eager to start day 3 and see what adventures that would take us on...

Shira camp.

Height: 3840A.M.S.L