At just below 6,000m, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. It is the highest free-standing mountain in the world, and the second highest volcano in the world. The first attempt at the summit was made by a missionary to the area, who was deserted by his guides, and left to die near the top. It was successfully conquered in 1898, by another missionary – Hans Myer.

Many climbers of the mountain, no matter how fit they are, experience altitude sickness and have to turn back. A climber who conquered Everest was defeated on his attempt at Kili. On our trip, a US marine had to be carried down on a stretcher. During the ascent, on the first day, we passed an ambulance carrying people down the mountain. On the second, we passed someone in his forties on a stretcher. Kili has claimed many lives, at an average of 3–4 per year. This included 3 people at the turn of the millennium (when over 5,000 people summitted), and 7 at once when climbing another peak of Kili, when the rope broke.

So it is a devastating and defiant mountain, shrouded in mystery and a strange allure.

1 June 2002 – And so it was, that we awoke at 5:00am, to catch the bus that would take us from Nairobi, past the Tanzanian border, to Moshi. It was a seven-hour trip that took us past the smaller mountain, Little Meru and then onto Kili. From a distance the ice-capped peak looks incredibly surreal, as it juts out in the middle of an expanse of arid landscape.