We were woken up at 11pm to get ready and have a snack of tea and biscuits before starting out to the summit, Uhuru Peak, 5895m above sea level.
The puddle of water and spit left from brushing my teeth cracked under my feet when I walked over to the tent for tea. This was it! We all sat quietly and cold over our mugs of tea, all layered up in every stitch of clothing we could bring up with us. Baba explained what he expected of us. Every time he called out “Team Babalas” we were to answer with “Jack Daniels”, followed by “Johnny Walker” and then “Keep Walking!” His reasoning for this is that the cold causes people to fall asleep on their feet and in the dark he can’t keep an eye on all of us.
We set out with the guidance of fellow climbers’ headlamps flickering a winding trail up to the summit. For six hours in the darkness we just kept our heads down, headlamp shining on the boots walking in front of you.
Thomas our assistant guide was behind us all the way calling our names and asking how we were. Every now and then we would hear the call of “Team Babalas!” from Baba. “Jack Daniels!” “Johnny Walker!” “Keep Walking!” we would reply, firstly with gusto, but the higher we climbed the more subtle and muffled our war cry sounded. Breathing was becoming harder and the cold dried out your mouth quickly.
By 5am the horizon started to faintly light up with an orange glow. The cold was almost unbearable and the freezing wind cut deep into our layers of clothing. Vince and Caroline’s water bottles were starting to freeze and my fingers were starting to go numb in the gloves I was wearing.
Baba stopped us for a break of chocolate and to drink more water. The sun, still below the horizon, started to light up our surroundings. We could now make out the shape of the huge glacier we were following on our left.
Even with the beauty of Kilimanjaro unfolding around us in the dawning day, we were cold and tired and at Stella Point I felt my eyelids drop for a second. “Guys!” Baba started, breathing between his words. “Its not long now. Only fifteen minutes, then we there.” Nothing could have been more encouraging than those softly spoken words.
The team was back and just pushed harder as the sky lit up. The silhouette of the sign on the peak came into view. Marc was the first to start running and we all followed suite.
Suddenly it wasn’t cold, we weren’t tired and “pole pole” was out of the question.
We were on the highest point in Africa! On the summit of the highest free standing mountain in the world!
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