Trekking to the Top Africa - Mount Kilimanjaro, 5895m

11pm
The alarm went off, but not unexpectedly. We had already been preparing for this all day. The moment has finally come.

11.30pm
Our porter/waiter Ashery brought hot tea and biscuits to our tents. Even unzipping the tent a little was cold enough! I had 4 layers including my windproof jacket, plus another fleece if I needed it later. Annoyingly I lost one of my outer ski gloves somewhere between my flat in East Dulwich and Heathrow. The inner liner gloves will have to do...

12.10am
And we were off. This was it! Our main guide Barnabas led the way (to set the pace). We formed a single file behind him, with his assistant Frank at the back. 'Pole-pole' (slow-slow).

1:15am
We weren't doing too badly actually. The pace was manageable and we had already overtaken 2-3 medium-large groups. The bottle of hot water I had put in the inside pocket of my jacket was still fairly warm - winner.

2:00am
The headache has started. My nose was getting cold too. But I couldn't cover it up with the balaclava without my glasses steaming up. That's fine, this was nothing compared to the climb.

3:20am
My balaclava was getting damp and cold (from the breaths, and snot). I had both my walking sticks but could only carry them with one hand, so I could keep the other warm inside my pocket. The frequency of swapping hands was getting higher now; both hands just can't seem to warm up at all.

The head was hurting more and more...

4:05am
Left. Right. Left. Right. One. Two. One Two. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Not long now, only another 2 hours to go.... Just man up.

??am (still nowhere near the summit)
Did Barnabas just turn around to smile and wave at me? No. He's just walking along, with his hands in his pockets. Shit, I'm getting hallucinations.

I want to sleep. Just let me close my eyes for a few seconds. No no, bad idea, you need to look at where you're going. Left. Right. Left. Right.

5:10am (ish)
I could hear a few people higher up celebrating. Are we near?

Moments later we came to a sign post. We were only 5,600m high. Why the fuck were those people celebrating? I felt like death. Breathing was massively difficult. My head was throbbing very hard. When will this end?

Just got to keep going...almost there...

5:45am
The sky was lighting up, from the pitch black to a deep purple, then to navy blue and even lighter shades near the horizon. The horizon itself was turning red. 

Sunrise was coming; we needed to walk faster.

6:00am
The final stretch. The last 100m of a marathon. The home run. A fountain of strength came out of nowhere, and Hoto and I started walking briskly towards the top, where a sign post was crowded around with those who arrived before us, and soon to be crowded around by more, many more.

Simon and Martin were somewhere behind us...

6:05am
The sun was also racing us now. The horizon changed from crimson to orange to golden. Our fountain of energy started to wane and we dropped the pace, but we were still getting closer with every step and every breath.

Then it happened.

It was a very strange moment. Hoi Ying was walking in front, Barnabas slightly behind me. I started with a smile. Then I giggled to myself, then laughed, uncontrollably. Hoi Ying turned around. We were both standing in front of the sign. 

We made it, I said, still laughing. We did it, I repeated. As I was laughing out loud uncontrollably, tears also started to well up in my eyes. Uncontrollably. Hoi Ying was the same, tears started dropping from hers too. What was happening? Was this real? Have we just climbed to the top of Africa? 

Neither of us could believe it. 

We hugged and embraced, and Barnabas joined in too.

It was elation.

I never knew I had the capacity to laugh and cry at the same time. That was the first time ever in my life.