14/06/2026
📸 From the Archives | Kilimanjaro, 2005 🏔️🌍
After driving all the way from Botswana to Tanzania, our little crew finally arrived at the reason for the journey. Mount Kilimanjaro.
At 5,895 metres, the world's highest freestanding mountain and Africa's highest peak, Kilimanjaro had fascinated me since I was a child.
My dad was born and raised in Kenya, and one of my favourite family photos was of his very English uncle, complete with pith helmet and rifle, with a leopard draped over a tree and Kilimanjaro standing majestically in the background.
I've always thought it was one of the most iconic images imaginable. It's hard to describe just how surreal Kilimanjaro is.
There you are, on the Equator, elephants roaming the Serengeti, the heat of Africa all around you… and rising above it all is an ice-capped mountain with glaciers on top. It almost doesn't make sense.
I trained for nine months for the climb. The ascent took five days, with summit day beginning at midnight from Kibo Hut. For seven hours we climbed in darkness while the permafrost was at its firmest.
In hindsight, yes I suffered Altitude sickness. By the time I reached Gilman's Point, I remember thinking rather drunkenly that if I fell, I'd just fall back into bed at Kibo Hut a thousand metres below! 😄
But I kept putting one foot in front of the other.
*Poli, poli.* Slowly, slowly.
At 7:05am, with the sun rising over Africa, I stood on Uhuru Peak.
It remains the hardest thing I've ever done. And perhaps the most satisfying.
I realised that if I could do that… I could do anything.
And in many ways, that climb changed the course of my life.
Little did I know, the next chapter would bring me back to the Gold Coast… and eventually to meeting my husband and building the life we share today.
❤️🏔️
