Dear Friends

 

When I woke up on the first morning after our first night’s camping I got my first proper glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro and then that’s when it hit me ‘what on earth am I doing?’!

 

It had been a dream of mine to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for about 10 years. A friend at college went to climb it with her mother and I thought ‘I could do that’. But now I was standing at the base of the mountain, I really was thinking ‘you stupid girl!’

 

But the fears soon went as I enjoyed the climb.

 

We took a route called Rongai which starts at the north east side of the mountain. It is the second easiest route on the mountain, which is one of the reasons why we chose it, but also because it is a far quieter track.

 

We started the hike on Tuesday 11^th September. It really was a relief to finally start the hike. I had had the journey from hell trying to get to Tanzania. It all started a couple of weeks before when I was told that I could not leave the USA as I had a green card (work visa) application in process. Together with my lawyer I tried every avenue to work out how I could leave the country to go to Africa but everything was stacked against us.

 

However, just 12 hours before I was meant to leave I received a phone call from my lawyer explaining that the whole of my green card application had been lost and therefore I could leave. It was a mad dash to get everything ready but I finally boarded the flight the next morning, set for the UK.

 

I arrived in the UK on the morning of Sunday 9^th, Dad picked me up and frantically drove back to Brockenhurst, I packed more of my things and then we frantically drove back to Heathrow. At 8pm that evening I boarded a flight for Amsterdam.

 

This was it, or at least I thought. I am finally going to Africa to fulfil my dream of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. But, oh no, I should have realised by now that it was not going to be that easy! I landed in Amsterdam and went to get a hotel only to find out that all my bank cards would not work in any of the ATM’s in Amsterdam! Great! This led me to my first experience of sleeping on top of my bags in a foreign airport. Oh the joy!

 

After numerous attempts to use my card the following morning at the bureau de change, my card was finally accepted and I managed to get some money to pursue my journey. I eventually got on the flight to Kilimanjaro and slept the whole of the 8 hour flight! Bear in mind, until the flight I had had only 8 hours sleep in 60 hours – I was exhausted.

 

Again, I made the fatal mistake of thinking that I was finally on my way! Surely nothing else could go wrong?! I landed at the Kilimanjaro International Airport that evening at about 9pm and waited for the tour company to pick me up. But no that would have been easy! Because of all my problems with the green card I was actually on a different flight to my co hikers; they had arrived the night before. I had told the tour company that I would be on the following days flight and my friends had told me that they would ensure that there would be somebody to pick me up. However, there would have appeared to be some bad communication somewhere along the line.

 

For those of you who have been to Africa you will know exactly what I am talking about, for those of you haven’t here is what happens. Obviously looking very western you get hounded constantly with people trying to sell you things, take you places, and give you advice. So whilst I was waiting for the tour company I was literally being hounded by every single taxi driver/seller in the airport. People are lying to you saying that they work for the company that you are waiting for and they should take you to the hotel. Having spent time in South Africa before I was kind of used to this, and also a very kind taxi driver helped me and told me not to trust anyone there. However, I was very lucky; there were a few gentlemen there who helped me. I had been waiting over an hour now and the airport had closed. These gentlemen stayed with me until my ride arrived; they told me it was not safe for me to be there on my own. I am very grateful to all of them.

 

I finally arrived at the hotel at midnight giving me just 6 hours sleep before we headed off on the hike. It was such a huge relief to be there though, and see my friends, at one point in time I really thought I was not going to make it! Although I had felt like I had already had my adventure, the really adventure was to start the next day!

 

The next morning was mostly spent in our tour bus driving to the start of the Rongai route. We finally reach the entrance gate and started our hike at about 3pm. The first days hike was just a simple walk to our first camp. It was only 3 hours long. It really was fascinating though. Along the first bit of our hike there were still many small homes with children. These children really did find us fascinating. For them to see disabled people was one thing, but to see people like us climbing Mt Kilimanjaro was just strange! We soon found out that disabled people in Tanzania are not treated equally at all, they are a far lower class citizen than anyone else. They are unable to get jobs and most of them end up begging on the streets.

 

We got to our camp at about 6pm, had dinner and went to bed. Our porters would hike ahead of us, and by the time we arrived at camp every night the tents would already be set up for us. The other girls had problems sleeping in the tents, I on the other hand had no difficulty at all, I was so tired from my nightmare journey trying to get to Tanzania that I slept like a baby (a peaceful one, not a crying one!).

 

Over the next 3 days we hiked to the base of the mountain. We were very lucky with the weather; it was not too hot or too cold. It was not a technical climb, there were some difficult areas, but nothing that we could not manage. All of our disabilities held up well, and although we hiked slowly because we went a steady pace none of us ever fell behind.

 

On the afternoon of the 4^th day we reached the base of the steep hard section of the mountain; a camp called ‘Kibo huts’ which is at 15430 feet above sea level. You could noticeably feel the difference in altitude here. When we were resting it was not a problem but when we were hiking you could feel the lack of oxygen.

 

At this point in our hike the really hard work started. It was Friday afternoon, and we had already hiked 6 hours that day. We arrived at the camp and got a couple of hours sleep before dinner. We ate dinner and retired back to our tents until we were woken up with porridge at 10pm. This was it; this was the time to reach the very top of Mt Kilimanjaro.

 

We were split into 2 groups, a faster one and a slower one. I was pretty much in the middle of the pack, in terms of speed so decided to leave with the slower group so I did not have to push myself. We left in pitch black darkness at 11pm to start the final climb.

 

This section was so hard on so many levels. The first was that we were hiking overnight. Because of this we were all very tired. It was also very very cold. The hiking kept us all warm, but because of the altitude every body would take frequent stops to control their breathing and hence would get cold again. All of our drinking water froze so it was also hard to stay hydrated.

 

The other hard part was the terrain, not only was it very steep, far steeper than anything we had already climbed, we were climbing on scree. It really did feel like every step you took you slipped back two! This for all of us was very hard on our artificial legs.

 

In order to hike along the scree you traverse across the mountain, which after a while really became soul destroying. It really felt like we were not gaining any height at all. It turns out that is why you hike at night, people who hike in the daytime rarely make the top because psychologically you never feel like you are reaching the top.

 

For me, by far the hardest part of the hike was dealing with my diabetes. I have been diabetic now for nearly 20 years and I have never felt it to be a problem. I have always felt bigger than my diabetes. But that night, I really felt that my diabetes was far bigger and more powerful than me. I had so much food with me, in case of hypoglycaemic episodes (hypos), but I never expected to have as many hypos as I did. The problem was that once I had my first hypo I never really came out of it. I would take my emergency sugar, and some long acting food, but because we had to keep hiking (it was too cold to stop for too long) I never properly came out of the hypo and therefore would hypo again. It really started to scare me, there are no evacuation procedures on the mountain, and I started to panic that if I ran out of food that was it.

 

With tiredness, the cold and the fear of my diabetes I really wanted to turn back. I had had enough, I was scared. But the guide with me (Ian) was awesome (not that I thought that at the time). He pushed me and pushed me. Whilst hiking this actually worried me more as I began to think that he did not understand the seriousness of my diabetes and therefore unknowingly was putting me in more danger. However, as I later found out this was not the case. I owe Ian everything for getting me to the top, if it was not for him, I really would have turned back.

 

I finally reached Gillman’s Point at 7.30am on Saturday 15^th September having watched a most beautiful sunrise on the way. Gillman’s Point is at 5685 metres, 18650 feet above sea level. Although this is not the highest point of Mt Kilimanjaro; the highest point is Uhuru Peak (5896 metres, 19340 feet); I had made it to the edge of the crater and in my eyes the top of the mountain. As much as I wanted to go on, realistically it was not going to happen.

 

 

I sat at the top for a couple of hours waiting for my friends who had continued to Uhuru Peak to come back. It was beautiful up there, something I will never ever forget. I was on top of the world. The view, above the cloud line was fantastic. We get views like that when we are skiing but this was far more fulfilling, to think that I had climbed to that summit, despite all my difficulties, I had made it, me, the one legged diabetic!

 

So that was it, we had all finally got to top. The rest of my friends did make Uhuru Peak, we had all made the top despite our disabilities. We started to head down, and although we were all still thriving off the fact that we had all completed the hardest thing any of us had ever done, it was almost sad to be heading down!

 

It’s funny, when you are planning the trip all you really think about is getting to the top and somehow fail to think about getting down! You don’t really think about it, its going downhill, that will be easy! Oh how wrong we were! You forget how much impact your body takes walking downhill and especially on scree. But needless to say we made it back to the Kibo Huts where our tents were still set up. We managed to rest for an hour or so, have a quick bite to eat and then we were off again; no rest for the wicked!

 

We had to hike another 4 hours before we stopped that night. We were all exhausted and sore and by this time it was raining so we were wet just to add insult to injury. We got to camp at about 9pm that night; 20 hours hiking in 24 hours; I have never been so pleased to see my tent before in my life!

 

After an amazing night’s sleep, we got up and began our last day of hiking. This was through a most beautiful rain forest on the south east side of the mountain. We didn’t see much wildlife apart from some cheeky monkeys.

 

Again we made the mistake of thinking this was going to be an easy day. But oh no that was not the case! All of us found coping with our disabilities far harder on the downhill due to the physical impact on our bodies. My leg had not been a problem hiking up, and it was really starting to hurt by now walking downhill. We hiked for over 8 hours that day and by the end of it we were so pleased to see the finishing gate! At 6pm on Sunday 12^th September we finally completed our mission!

 

At the finishing gate we had many of the wardens congratulating us. It appeared that we had made quite a stir within the National Park. Although disabled people had climbed the mountain before, not so many at one time. So many people were amazed that we had all made the top, different groups along the way had heard about us and kept congratulating us; both at the top and during the hike on the way down. It was a lovely feeling!

 

At the finishing gate we all signed the book to confirm that we had completed the climb so that we could receive our certificates. Looking at other people’s signatures in the book it became apparent how few people make the top, but we had all succeeded. Our mission to raise the awareness of the abilities of disabled people had been very successful!

 

I have never been so happy to have a beer as I was that night. Not that any of us really had the energy to raise our glasses. We were all so happy to be at the hotel after completing the hardest thing any of us had ever done.                                 

We had a couple of days rest at our hotel; we had planned to see a little more of Tanzania such as the wildlife but none of us had the energy!

 

 

On the Wednesday we flew to Mwanza which is on the north border of Tanzania and lies on Lake Victoria. We had been asked to go here by a Finnish Governmental organisation who are promoting sports in Tanzania, especially sports for the disabled.

 

Over the few days that we had there we were asked to talk to a number of disabled people and to talk to physical education students at the main teaching college in the city.

 

These were both interesting on so many levels. On the first day had a ‘question and answer’ session with a number of disabled people. They really couldn’t believe that we had just climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, but the thing that they found the most fascinating was our rights as disabled people. As previously noted, in Tanzania, disabled people are treated as lower class citizens and have no real prospects of either a job or marriage which is so important in their culture. For them to see all of us, with our disabilities, being successful in what we have chosen to do really gave them a glimmer of hope. But it was hard, it really felt like almost a false hope. They really expected us to change the whole of Tanzania just like that! They asked us to meet with the President of the country, and to change his views. They were relying on us to do something, but to do something that, in reality, could not be done that easily or as quickly as they had hoped.

 

This was a similar situation at the teachers college. Here we spoke to about 100 physical education students who were training to be teachers. Again they found us unbelievable, disabled people doing sport! But they wanted us to change Tanzania; to change everyone’s views on disabilities, and to help them learn how to teach disabled people. Disabled people in Tanzania generally don’t even get the chance to have an education so realistically these students will not be teaching disabled children. However, we wanted to educate them to understand that disabled people can do anything with this help of equipment and adaptations.

 

We demonstrated and explained to them that this is the case and they seemed to thrive on this information. And as much as they wanted help, realistically I am not sure how much help we really did give. Yes, we have changed these students’ views, but they do not have the means to change anything, the college can’t even afford up to date books in their library let alone give proper education about disabled sports. The other problem is that, even if they did have the means to change things, disabled people cannot get their own equipment to help them. They have to buy artificial limbs, crutches and wheelchairs.

 

After our awesome trip to the top of Kilimanjaro this was a smack in the face back to reality. But it really left us all wanting to do more and help in anyway we can. We are in discussions at the moment with how we can do this, we want to collect people’s used crutches, books etc and send them to Tanzania, however, logistically we are still trying to work this out.

The whole trip was amazing, one that none of us will ever forget. We have learnt so much about ourselves and our physical limits, as well as how we can help disabled people in Tanzania and fulfil our mission to promote disabled people in sport.

We flew back to Kilimanjaro, had another day of rest before we left for our respective homes. Unfortunately just 4 hours before my flight I was mugged and had my handbag stolen. Obviously I was very shaken up about this, and really quite angry at the time, but it was a lesson to all of us. People in Tanzania are led to this kind of crime purely out of desperation, not greed.

Thank you so much to everyone that kindly donated money to this mission and helped this dream come true. I have had so many generous donations and I am eternally grateful. The US Paralympic Committee are matching every bit of money that we raise, and with this so far we have raised over $20,000 but the money is still coming in thick and fast.

 

If you would like to see photos of the trip they are on the internet at:

www.picasaweb.google.co.uk/Disabilitieswithoutborders/

and to read about the other girls experience you can read them on the blog at:

www.disabilitieswithoutborders.blogspot.com
 

Thank you once again everyone, I have been amazed at the amount of support I have received from family and friends from all over the world.

 

Best wishes

Liz