Well, we made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro on Tuesday 13th June 2000, following 7 days shuffling around the Kilimanjaro National Park, gradually increasing our altitude. Out of our Spice Adventure Club group of 29 people, 28 made it to the top, where we languished in a howling gale, sand-blasted with grit with a wind-chill temperature of minus 30 degrees Centigrade. Everyone agreed that it was the hardest physical thing they’d ever done.

Africa was not as hot as we’d expected. It was warm while the sun was out, but temperatures plummeted at 6pm when it got dark. Generally we would all be in bed by 8pm, rising just before the sun at 6.30am. There was generally a rush to do our ablutions and laundry between 4pm and 6pm before the sun went down. Any water left outside the tent overnight froze solid. On the summit day we left at just after midnight and reached the crater at 6am, just as dawn was breaking.

Gane & Marshall, the Tour Operator, did us proud with loads of food, stirling porterage and camps established for us at the end of each day. I had to make do without my luggage until day 4, as did 2 others, because KLM mislaid our bags. One poor chap didn’t get his bag until the last day. I also lost my luggage on the way back, and still await its rediscovery. The group that followed us lost 18 of their 19 bags on arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport.

It wasn’t really a holiday, lots of hard slog amongst spectacular scenery, and no alcohol until we got back to base camp for the last couple of days (where we soon made up for the previous lack of indulgence, and found another need for the Neurofen). We also saw some big game on the last day (an elephant and some distant monkeys) which made a change from the variety of shit and tracks which was all we saw on our expedition. Only bird and insect life was evident in the national park. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any mosquitoes yet.