This is Mount Mwenzi, its the second highest peak on the national park at 5195m, it used to be a glacier but global warming has melted nearly all of it, and the ground is so soft now its too dangerous to climb. It was a cool mountain to be walking along side, most of the time we were walking inbetween the 2 mountain peaks along the saddle.




this is us with kilimanjaro in the background, we didnt follow the path you can see we went the other way around the hills. we hiked up the corner nearest to us and at the top of that section is Gilman's Point, then we walked along the rim of the crater at the top (left in photo) to the snowy part where the summit is, bloody hell it was hard! At the the bottom of the final ascent is Hibo Huts, thats where Gav felt really ill, we tried everything but nothing was easing the pressure in his head. At 11.30pm I started my climb up as Gav started his climb down, he wanted to stay but they forced him to go down. I was the first to begin the climb up and the 2nd last to get back down - I took it very slowly or pole-pole as the locals say but hey, I made it! It took me 7 hours to get to Gilmans Point, just as the sun was beginning to break the horizon; the hardest part was the last hour leading up to it, literally climbing over rocks to get there. I was exhausted and thought I was going to get a rest but literally the second I sat down my guide Chombo told me we had to go to the summit before the sun came up and made it too dangerous. So i managed to bite through one of my frozen energy bars (mars - fancy that, being forced to eat chocolate!!) and carried on up. the sun was rising behind me so i was constantly looking back and couldn't resist taking this little beauty.

The walk up to the summit was really tiring, more so because of the time and lack of sleep, it was no longer really steep but it was freezing with a bit of a snow storm going on, the wind was just burning my face. I almost didn't make it but my guides wouldn't give up, I met Elisa one of the girls from our tour, she didn't make it to the top, she got to stellas point - half way between Gilmans and the summit - she decided she had gone far enough which is fair enough. Chombo and Lucas kept me going, kept lying to me about how many more hills i had to go up and then i saw the sign point. It was such a relief to get to the top purely because it meant i could go back and go to bed!! I did feel really proud and did smile a bit, but i was so exhausted i couldn't really enjoy it. the scenery was amazing, being surrounded by glaciers and seeing the view beyond the mountain, the sun had risen by this time but it was still absolutely freezing. The summit is at 5895m, its the highest mountain in the world you can climb without the aid of oxygen, and the highest mountain in the african continent. the other photo is of one of the glaciers i could see from the top. on the way back down, tired from walking i slid down some of the hills on my bum, so my faster and a lot more fun!! Lucas only let me do it a few time, I guess the 100ft drops to the left into the crater were a bit dangerous!!