In June of 2018 I had the chance to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. At 5895 metres and one of the Seven Summits, it’s the highest mountains in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world.

I’d never done anything like it before. In fact before training for this expedition, I hadn’t climb a mountain since I was a teenager twenty years before. It was the hardest physical thing I’ve done so far in my life but one of the most rewarding and life changing. 

We climbed the Machame Route over six days, and although generally the weather was good, nothing prepared us for the summit night… We left camp at around midnight and hiked in the dark through thick snow and -15C temperatures for the next few hours, finally making the summit at around 9am the next morning. 

It was without doubt one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. 

Check out the video here - VIDEO 

ITINERARY - A slight variation on the Machame Route

Day One - Machame Gate - Machame Camp (1800m - 2835m)

Day Two - Machame Camp - Shira Camp (2835m - 3750m)

Day Three - Shira camp - Lava Tower - Barranco Camp (3750m - 4600m - 3900m)

Day Four - Barranco Camp - Barafu Camp (3900m - 4673m)

Day Five - Barafu Camp - Uhuru Peak (Summit) -  Millennium Camp (4673m - 5895m - 3950m)

Day Six - Millennium Camp - Mweka Gate (3950m - 1640m)

To train for Kili I did a mixture of walking, running and hiking. This included hikes on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, climbing Pen Y Fan, Sugarloaf, and the Skirrid in the Brecons, and Snowden via the Pyg Track. 

You can see the training video here - VIDEO