Government Social Research
Mary Hickman writes:
I have recently returned from a two-week holiday in Tanzania. The first week was spent being driven around watching exotic wildlife at close quarters during the day and relaxing in the evening in luxury hotels. However, all was to change at the end of week one.
We met our fellow-trekkers in the bar of our very pleasant hotel in Arusha. The group of twelve came from a variety of backgrounds and included a steel erector from Manchester, two software engineers from Newcastle and an accountant from York. We were all there to climb Killimanjaro, the worlds highest volcano and free-standing mountain, at 5895 metres. Over drinks in the bar it emerged that no one had undertaken anything of this kind before.
The trek itself took six days. Our group of 12 had 28 porters, 3 guides and 2 cooks. The territory we were walking through started as Montana forest, which gradually changed into a more barren and rocky landscape as we climbed higher. The first four days were not too difficult and we were very well fed. The final assault began at midnight on the 5th day. I can remember lots of head-torches snaking up the mountain and climbing very slowly in the footsteps of our guide, Emmanuel. I don’t think I was thinking of anything and even when Emmanuel said we were only 200 metres from the first goal, the edge of the crater, it still seemed hours before we reached it. It is then another hour of fairly easy walking to the summit, with the volcano crater on one side and a spectacular glacier on the other. The sun was just rising as we did the final climb and the views were spectacular.
The walk down took over four hours and was like skiing down scree. After
resting for an hour and eating lunch, we had another four hours to go, which
felt like walking down stairs. My knees were like jelly and it seemed to
go on forever. We all slept for 11 hours that night before the gentle walk
back to the gate and a certificate to hang on the wall.