Yes, yes, I know I have been totally useless in letting you all know how I went on with my climb. Much apologies for not blogging – it’s unbelieveable how busy I have been since I got back…and that was nearly a month ago! So here goes:

On the September 3rd, myself and 7 of my work colleagues climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. At 19,340 feet (5,895m), Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the largest freestanding mountain in the world.

When we arrived in Moshi, Tanzania, it was really cloudy as it was the start of the Tanzanian wet season, and so it wasn’t until the third day of the climb we actually got to see the mountain at all!

It took 5 day hike to reach the summit, and 2 days for the descent. And it was prbably one of the hardest things I have done, both physically and mentally.

Headaches and nausea from the altitude sickness were a daily companion which had to be pushed aside as we walked across a wide range of environments from rainforests, to alpine deserts to the glacier capped summit. But it was an amazing experience that we will all remember, even if we didn’t have the hundreds of photos we took along the way!

I’ll always remember the final day of climbing, when we reached the top of the ‘Roof of Africa’, there were many times when we just wanted to stop and turn back – I even feel alseep at lunch because I didn’t want to be there!, but we pushed on and all 8 of us successfully reached the top.

All of this was in aid of Amani Children’s Home, a children’s home in Tanzania that looks after and schools street children. For almost a year know I have been helping organize and taking part in a number of fundraising events to raise money for the wonderful charity.

On Monday, 15 October, we totalled up all of the monies we had raised over this past year and the grand total was nearly £12, 000 of which I helped raise just over £1,300! I am really, really happy with this as my target was £1,000 .

All of us beat our targets and had a trip to remember! Please feel free to ask me any questions about my trip and I hope I can be of help. And now it’s back to work for me