Kilimanjaro Peaks

Kilimanjaro Peaks
By Gordon Rattray

Three days previous, in the pink glow of morning, with well-gloved hands, muffed ears, a bright red nose and a silly grin of achievement, I had touched the wooden sign that marks the summit.

Now, the mighty ice-covered cone of Mount Kilimanjaro, jutting alone through the clouds took on an entirely different perspective as I gazed down, nose pressed to the Perspex (Plexiglas), cocooned in the cabin on my homeward flight. "I've been there," I thought, with warm satisfaction, and I leant back and reclined my seat. I ordered a whisky and watched as the cloud broke, revealing the lower slopes of Africa's highest mountain rolling into the warm, flat, game-filled plains of Kenya's Tsavo National Park.

At almost 6,000 meters (19,000 feet), Kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding peak in the world. It is an extinct volcano and has more than its share of lore and legend. The Chagga people who inhabit its fertile foothills recount legendary stories of early expeditions to the mountaintop to harvest the silver they could see glinting in the sunlight, but it mysteriously turned to water on the return journey. . . . And they tell tales of climbers returning without fingers and toes, nicely justifying my pre-trip, last- minute rushed purchases of thermal gloves and socks! But it’s climbable, and you don’t need to be a scraggly-bearded, leather-faced, crampon-bound rope expert. The Guerba pre-departure information states that “…any normally fit, healthy person should be able to make the ascent.” I must fit that description, because I’d made it to the top – albeit briefly – with the hood on my balaclava doing a poor job of hiding the grin that had forced it’s way onto my face.