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Six Excellent Development suppporters recently raised £8k towards our work with community self-help projects, when they pushed themselves to their limits in a bid to conquer Kilimanjaro.

In this challenge of a lifetime, journeying through mountain forests and across 'lunar' craters, the team battled severe altitude sickness to reach heights of between 5000m and 5895m-Kilimanjaro's highest peak, Uhuru.


Our expedition leader Helen writes her story of the trip:


After months of fundraising and training, a dedicated group of six Excellent Development supporters and I finally arrived in Moshi, the small Tanzanian town at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. We had seen the snow-capped peak breaking through the cloud line as we flew in from Nairobi, but from the ground the bulk of the mountain lay hidden in mist.

Before the hard work began, we spent a day visiting a Maasai community living on the edge of the Serengeti. Cows and goats kicked up dusty earth as we wandered through the weekly village market, and our Maasai guide helped us greet some of the elegant women and men in their striking red robes.

Although we were offered 50 cows to sell Katy to a distinguished Maasai warrior, we resisted temptation and all arrived back in Moshi with one thing on our minds: that huge rock still hiding in the clouds.

The next morning we set off with our Tanzanian guide Eligi on the two-hour drive to the start of the Rongai route. At the remarkable age of 65, Eligi had been a porter and guide on Kilimanjaro for almost 50 years so we knew we were in safe hands.

For the next six days we would be trekking and sleeping on the mountain, so we needed a team of 20 porters to carry our kit, tents and food, plus our fantastic chef and two guides. The first day’s walking was not too challenging, only 2 ½ hours up to the first campsite through farmland and forest with chattering Colobus monkeys to keep us company.

As the sun set we tucked in to vegetable soup, beef stew and potatoes, fresh fruit and coffee. At only 2,650m it was still fairly warm and everyone slept soundly until sunrise.


As we emerged from our tents the next morning we saw Kilimanjaro looming above us for the first time, snow sparkling in the sun. It looked very high, very big and still very far away. Day two was a longer trek of five hours, but Eligi made sure we went ‘pole pole’ (slowly) to save our energy and minimise the effects of altitude gain. The forest disappeared and was replaced by alpine flowers and shrubs amidst the rocky slopes. By the end of the day we had ascended almost 1000m to 3600m and the beautiful Kikelewa Cave campsite, which sits just above the clouds.

After another great meal we tried to gaze at the incredible stars that litter the equatorial skies, but the increased altitude meant the temperature had dropped massively and despite our thermals, hats and fleeces we were soon forced to crawl into our sleeping bags.


Day three was a shorter climb of three hours, but much steeper and harder on the lungs. The first signs of altitude sickness hit the group with headaches creeping in, but otherwise everyone was feeling fit and energetic.

Our porters continued to amaze us by packing up our tents after we set off, racing past us during the day with 15kg packs balanced on their heads, pitching our next camp and handing us steaming cups of tea and popcorn as we arrived. Neil also continued to amaze us by wearing his shorts at 4000m as the temperature hovered above zero. Our camp was at Mawenzi Tarn, sitting below the craggy peak of dormant volcano Mawenzi that reminded us of Tolkein’s Mordor.

We set off the next day across the Saddle – a wide and gently sloping plain that links the Mawenzi peak with the Kibo crater – our final destination. It was a beautiful but windy walk of four hours before we reached Kibo campsite and by then two of the group were really feeling the effects of altitude sickness and we were all finding it harder to breathe. At 4700m the amount of oxygen in the air is significantly less than at sea level and any exertion leaves even the fittest people gasping.

As Paul and Susanna battled with headaches and nausea, we ate quickly and tried to sleep, as our summit attempt would start in six hours' time, at midnight. At 11pm we reluctantly left the warmth of our sleeping bags, put on every bit of clothing we had and followed our guides into the darkness.

The scree path leading up to the summit reared up at an angle of 16 degrees, and we slowly zig-zagged upwards with our head-torches focused on the feet of the person in front. Concentrating on nothing else but putting one foot in front of the other and fighting to breathe, it was painfully slow progress. Although everyone wanted to rest, it was too cold to stop for more than a few seconds – our water bottles had frozen solid after an hour and our hands and feet were heading the same way.

At around 5000m Paul was forced to turn back as his altitude sickness was getting steadily worse and it would have been dangerous for him to continue. I was the second casualty at around 5200m, with constant nausea and every part of me screaming out to get down the mountain. It was an agonizing decision for Paul and I to make, having walked for 5 days and to be only 2 hours from the crater rim.

The rest of the team trudged on, it was now a mental battle to keep going. But they reached Gilman’s point, the edge of the crater rim, just after sunrise at a breathtaking height of 5681m.

Uhuru Peak, the highest point on Kilimanjaro is a further 3 hour round trip along the crater rim but for Katy, Neil and Susanna it was too late in the day to set out for the final leg. All suffering from altitude sickness by this point, they were delighted to reach the crater rim and after a celebratory song from our guides they headed back down to the camp.

Sarah and Katie had been able to keep a quicker pace with Eligi and heroically reached Uhuru Peak – the highest point in Africa at 5895m!


The journey back down was much faster, and taking the shorter Marangu route meant at the end of day five we had walked almost all the way back down the mountain to just 1800m. After 12 hours of walking everything ached and after one final night camping in the forest we were back in Moshi enjoying a cold beer.



There was no time to rest however as the next day we took a bus northwards, crossing the border into Kenya and arrived at the Utooni Development Centre in Kola that evening. There was a warm welcome from Joshua and Simon, and we found an assortment of Quest leaders and filmmakers were also staying at the centre, ready to show us around the sand dam sites and help with the construction for the rest of the week.


The next few days were spent with two community groups, helping them build sand dams. Having spent months forming a working group, identifying the dam sites and collecting the hundreds of rocks needed, they were celebrating the long-awaited construction of their dams, and their enthusiasm and excitement was infectious.

Shrugging off our exhaustion, we shovelled sand and cement, carried water and rocks and loved every second. The women of the community group sang and danced as they worked, and teachers from local schools bought their pupils to the river bed to help carry stones.

We saw how completed dams had transformed the land around them, with banana trees and crops growing on the terraced bank, where before there had been nothing but dust. Helping to build a dam built from start to finish gave us all a fantastic insight in to how important it is to construct them in the right way; the local fundis (skilled dam-builders) won’t tolerate sandy cement or the wrong sized stones!

Hopefully within three rainy seasons the dams we helped to build will be storing hundreds of thousands of litres of fresh water underground, and the communities will be able to plant trees and grow crops on the surrounding land.


Everyone was reluctant to leave Kenya after an unforgettable two weeks, but we headed back to the capital via the beautiful Nairobi National Park and home to the UK. We all felt immensely inspired by the community groups working with Excellent Development, and if you were to ask if the pain and endurance of climbing Kilimanjaro was worth it, I think the answer would be unanimous: absolutely.