Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro

Do you all know the feeling when you have completed a life changing experience? Well this is where I am going to tell you about my experiences when I climbed Kilimanjaro in Africa with World Challenge.

This experience was a very hard, tough, exciting and rewarding experience for me and my group. To start with the air got thinner and thinner with every step I took. It took me a week to climb to the top of Kilimanjaro. All you could smell was dust and dirt nothing else. I had to wear a  snood the whole way up because there was so many clouds of dust where people had passed through and if you inhaled that dust you would most likely choke. I climbed through every season as I was stumbling up that massive mountain.  Once I had got half way up you could see nothing but cloud coverage. The air getting thinner still.

Half way up the headache kicked in but I kept pushing. I thought to myself I need to do this, don’t give up now you’ve got so far. I kept pushing and reassuring myself and my group. Half way up we stayed the night in the most uncomfortable beds. In the middle of the night my friend felt the altitude sickness and threw up . The stench was revolting. I physically couldn’t sleep after that. The next day we had to eat our disgusting porridge to get our energy up but trust me it was worth it. Did you know that ginger tea can make you feel better if you had a headache or stomach ache? Well now you know.

That morning we had to start trekking up towards the next hut that we needed to stay in. Another quarter of Kilimanjaro had to be mastered. My head was throbbing continuously all the way up to the next hut. I kept drinking my ginger tea and pushing myself and others further up the gigantic monstrous mountain. I didn’t care about my headache I just knew I had to keep going to do my family and friends proud that were thinking of me back in Britain. The guides were very friendly and they built my teams confidence up. When we were half way between the two huts we hit the desert area on Kilimanjaro. It was empty all you could see was sand for miles and miles leading towards the steep climb towards the peak of Kilimanjaro. I looked straight ahead with the suns reflection on the sand blinding me every time I looked down. I studied the peak of Kilimanjaro and thought to myself, I thought getting this far was hard because I could see the path leading up to the peak. The path was ten times steeper than what we had previously encountered.

When I saw the steepness of Kilimanjaro I suddenly lost all confidence in myself. However, the guides filled me back up with confidence they were saying “you can do it” “keep going” “don’t give up”. That’s when I knew I could do it I pushed onwards and before I knew it I was at the final hut. I collapsed on to my bunk bed and fell asleep as I knew we had an early start the next morning because we needed to make the peak for the sunrise. The next morning we woke up at 2 am  and started our final struggle to the peak. My head felt like it was going to explode. But I ignored that and kept going with the feel of loose sand slipping from underneath my boots with every step I took. Half way up on the final struggle six of my team had to go back down because the altitude was getting to them so badly, but I would not let that happen to me. I pushed through the pain and the agony. That’s when I made it to the top. I was shattered but I was also over the moon because I had done it, I had pushed myself to the limits and I achieved something that not many 15 year old students have achieved and it has changed my life ever since.

I climbed Kilimanjaro when I was 15 back in 2013. I am now 18 and I will never forget the day I made it up the tallest free standing mountain in the world.

Thank you for reading my blog today. As always I would love to hear your life experiences please comment below.