Heathrow Terminal 4

So this trip first came about back in August 2016 when my friend Rik messaged me whilst he was in Malawi managing a lodge. I first met Rik at uni but we have only recently become good friends through our mutual love for travelling and hate towards our finance careers. After catching up about his life in Malawi he mentioned that he really wanted to tick another thing off his long bucket list by climbing Kilimanjaro before turning 30 in February. I’m always up for an adventure but I must admit Africa is pretty low down on my list of places to visit as there are so many other places I want to see first. So I asked Rik to keep me posted and I would think about it. Kilimanjaro was mentioned again a few times in our conversations over the next few months but nothing had been booked and I was still being indecisive about where I wanted to travel before I headed to Canada indefinitely in May.

It’s now December and Rik and a couple of his friends have booked their trip. I was still undecided and annoying myself with my own indecisiveness. But in the end I thought sod it, count me in! I have enjoyed travelling solo for a long time and even though you make some amazing friends along the way it would be nice to go on a trip with someone I know and share the experience. So the idea was to climb Kilimanjaro on a G Adventures tour and then celebrate Rik turning into an old man in Zanzibar. Rik said if I was going to go all that way I may as well spend a few weeks in Malawi to see how he’s been living the last few months so again I thought, why not? I didn’t have anything better to do.

I didn’t want to read too much into trip as I always prefer to have no expectations and be surprised. But in my head I thought it was fairly easy as all sorts of people have made it to the top (come on Chris Moyles made it). However someone I served in the pub had climbed the mountain many years ago and we spoke for hours about his experience. The main things I took away was, being super fit doesn’t help, walk slowly, altitude is a bitch and most importantly you have to be strong mentally. At the time I had no idea what he meant and I was now nervous as this didn’t sound like a stroll in the park.

So now I found myself sitting in Heathrow not knowing what I was getting myself into or whether I had the ability to make it to the top.

On a positive note, Kenyan Airways must of known I was a big gin fan, check out the photo, that's all gin and no mixer! It definitely helped with my nerves.

As the plane was decending into Kilimanjaro airport, my nose was sticking out of the window to get a glimpse of what I was about to climb. The problem was I didn't know which was the mountain I was going to climb. Every time I saw a mountain another one would appear which would be bigger. I felt so under prepared about this trip.Read more