Star of Wonder

She stands at 5895m; a monster of the African continent,  blown from the bowels of the earth she watches our awaiting ascent.  As we prepare ,a claustrophobic mist wraps it's fingers across the mountain, reducing visibility and increasing the tension within our dorm.  We layered our clothing to combat the -25C on the summit,  much resembling the michelin man. A lone star is visible as the mist clears and our 'star of wonder' became our guide.

Words alone can not do justice to the ascent to the summit.   Only those who have experienced the ascent actually know of the torment, the self doubt,  the pain, the delirium, the willpower, the belief, the euphoria,  the celebration and the emotional rollercoaster that the mountain throws at you.

And so at midnight,  with our star of wonder burning brightly in the night sky, we made our first tentative steps up the mountain. Zigzagging, pole, pole upwards. The cold bites deeply, dragon breath escapes from our lungs and the altitude collapses upon us.  Each step sends shock waves rocketing through our body, our lungs try to suck in the frozen air and our heart responds by jumping into tachycardia.  As nausea attempts to take control, we suck down hard on our water tubes to discover that they have frozen by the artic temperature and a realisation hits home that for the majority of the ascent no water is available to nourish us.

After about two hours a decision was made by our head guide, Joseph to separate us as he believed it is our best chance of reaching Gilman's Point and then the summit.  The reason for the separation was that the altitude was hitting Lea hard.  Shortness of breath,  nausea and disorientation were taking their toll.  So for three hours we were separated; a silhouette of a Giraffe like Lea could be seen traversing the mountain and an exchange of torch beams between the guides signalled how we were progressing.  These torch beams disappeared and for a further 30 minutes Brad progressed with the assitant guide reaching Gilman's Peak, elated, tired but concerned for Lea's wellbeing.  For 5 mintues Brad waited at Gilaman's hoping that he would see Lea reach the point of rendezvous;however, with the temperature hitting -25C the guide ordered Brad forward to the summit.  As Brad began the reluctant march to the summit he heard a noise  coming from the last corner to Gilman's Peak and on turning he saw Lea sobbing and hugging every one in the vincinty of GIlman's. He quickly made his way back to Gilman's, took his delusional wife in his arms and held her tightly and celebrated with her.

Somehow, with the support of Joseph her guide and with sheer guts and determination Lea made it to Gilman's.  There was nothing that was going to stop Lea from reaching the summit and as the sun rose over the African landscape we joined hands and kissed on the roof top of Africa and we walked together to the summit and the completion of our journey.

The decent saw Brad thinking he was an acrobat in a circus as he somersaulted down the mountain no more than three times, arms and legs flying every where and hiking sticks becoming javelins as he fell.  Bruised and battered from our 9 hour journey we slumped into our sleeping  bags to be awoken 1 hour later for a 4 hour hike back to Hombaro Huts.

The final day saw a 20klm hike out and us collapsing on to the bus for our journey back to our home based ready to celebrate with a cold Kilimanjaro Premium Larger.