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.

The Circle of Life in South Georgia and Antarctica - Penguins, Seals and Others

Warning: this post contains explicit content some readers may find disturbing.

Looking back at the expedition now, one thing that surprises me is how the most extraordinary things were so simple and ordinary in the wilderness.

Life and death should be extraordinary events in our city lives. I mean, how many of you witness death, even for animals, on a regular basis? I certainly haven't seen a dying or dead animal (except for that time when I hit a badger, or at least I think it was a badger, at 70mph). Yet, when we saw injured, dying or dead animals in Antarctica, it was just so natural, so matter of course.

Each of the animals in this post had their own stories. They may not be the same stories as what I am telling here. Nevertheless, they each deserve a few words, and a moment of our appreciation. Appreciation for the gift of life, and all the opportunities and responsibilities that come with it.

Nature can sometimes be very real and in your face. We came across this gentoo on our first day in South Georgia. It was quite clear that he would not heal from the wound without any help. And there was no help we could give, other than possibly killing it to put it out of its misery. It was only a matter of hours, perhaps a day, before he became too weak to defend against infection, or the giant petrel that was perched waiting only metres away.

Our expedition in Feb/Mar 2013 coincided with South Georgia's cull of all reindeer on the island. Originally an invasive species introduced by the Norwegians over 100 years ago, their recent explosion in numbers caused by a decline in the human population and hunting on the island. This has in turned caused a number of problems to the local flora and fauna. Ironically the high profile cull was carried out by professionals hired from Norway.

We came across reindeer carcasses almost every day. This one had most of its meat stripped out, organs removed, leaving behind the skeleton, a pool of blood, and a bullet hole.

Sometimes the reindeer is just left, to the delight of scavenger skuas.

 

Derelict whaling stations scatter across South Georgia. Most of them are closed to the public due to risk of asbestos. The only one that was open to us was in Gryvitken. These vats were used to boil the whale blubber to extract whale oil, once the giant whales were carved up...

A photo found in the Gryvitken museum depicting the process of skinning and carving a whale using a range of tools once it was taken back to the station.

There were lots of fascinating history in the museum. In order to make the process of hunting whales more efficient, whaling ships harpooned a floater and a tracking device into the whale so they could keep it afloat and track it later while they move on to make another kill, and so on, until the end of the day when they return to tow them all back to base.

A set of whale bones found at Port Lockroy in the Antarctica Peninsula.

Two gentoo chicks seeking warmth from their mother. It was with almost certainty that the smaller one will not survive. Winter is looming and it just isn't big enough to survive the cold, nor is it able to compete with the older sibling for meals from the parents.

Dead penguin = good meal for scavenger skuas

Just to end on a slightly happier note, this is how they make little penguins.