Day one - I met my fellow climbers for the first time at Heathrow airport and had my last 'proper' meal for over a week before boarding the flight to Nairobi, Kenya.

Day two - Landed at Jomo Kenyatta Airport then travelled six hours in minibuses to Tanzania. It looked like a movie set from Indiana Jones.

We ended up at our first night's bush camp a couple of miles from the Maasai village of Tinga Tinga where we had our last opportunity for a shower.

Day three - Travelled another three hours in a bus then registered for the trek.

Began a three hour walk up through a rainforest that was full of creepy crawlies.

Day four - First full day trek with a height gain of over 2,000ft. After lunch we crossed into the Shira Caldera, a high altitude desert plateau rarely visited by man.

We also got our first glimpse of the summit and it looked enormous.

Day five - Six hour trek to 12,730ft. Reached a point where there was mobile reception so everyone phoned home with much excitement.

A man was taken down suffering with breathing problems.

Day six - First time I felt a bit sickly. Had a nine hour trek that put our next camp only 330ft above the last but we had gone up to 14,930ft at one point.

Apparently it was valuable acclimatisation to the altitude.
Another man was taken down because he was poorly - our paramedic had a busy night.

Day seven - Climbed the Barranco Wall with an immediate height gain of 700ft. It was not possible to use trekking poles because it was a climb and not a walk, at times on all fours.
Day eight

Six-hour trek that set us up for summit night.

Then at 10pm after resting we got up and set off in the dark.

We reached Stella Point at 18,865ft then headed to Uhuru Peak - the true summit that is one hour away at 19.340ft.

We reached it at 6.45am but had to come down quickly because of the altitude.
It was definitely worth it.

KILIMANJARO FACTS

The highest point in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak on the volcano Kibo at 19,340ft.

Kibo has a 1.5 mile wide crater on the top of it.

The summit was first reached by the Marangu army scout, Yohanas Kinyala Lauwo, German Hans Meyer and Austrian Ludwig Purtscheller, on October 6, 1889.

Two other peaks on Kilimanjaro are also extinct volcanoes, Mawenzi, 16,890 ft, the third highest peak in Africa, and Shira, 13,000 ft.

Due to the mountain's equatorial location as well as its high elevation, climbers experience almost every climate type on earth during the journey to the top.

It is also known for its year round snow-topped summit

.