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After the trek:

It's done.
It was by far the most dangerous and physically strenuous thing I have ever done in my life. About 100km total distance of walking over 6 days at altitude from 1500m to 5895m.
On day 4, we walked 14km through the misty alpine desert, got to Kibo camp at 14:00, that day 23:00 got ready for summit. Started walking at midnight (day 5) starting at 4700m, upwards to 5895m. Reached summit 8:40am. Distance 6km up and another 6km down.
The last 1000m altitude to summit were made even more difficult due to the ground being loose. It was sandy/ash, with some gravel, stones, boulders, ice and some snow. At night, the ground was frozen so going up was actually easier than coming down...
I started experiencing a headache on the way up from 5100m onwards... It was throbbing 10/10, with nausea and dizziness at the top and on the way down... It was so difficult because I had such a long way to go, with a sore head, no path that I could see, steep, feet sinking into the sand, sliding down, fell backwards a few times, worried that I may crack my head on a stone... Then some porters came to help me... Thankfully!
Got back to camp 14:00, had lunch, packed, and at 17:00 walked 15km to the next base camp down (Horobo). We all suffered the effects of high altitude.
Day 6 was described as a 'short walk' through the rainforest down to Marangu Park Gate... Which was actually 28km (not so short for me)
We did this to fundraise for Global Women's Health Charity. The money from this project will go towards developing a new project on developing an Emergency Gynaecology Skills course in developing, low resource settings. The course is currently being written, reviewed and piloted. The idea is that the local clinicians will be given the tools and training, so that they can then pass on the knowledge and skills to other clinicians locally, in an ongoing sustainable way.
Most projects relate to maternity/obstetrics. This is a somewhat neglected area in the developing world. It will include early pregnancy problems, and general acute gynaecology. I wish and hope to be part of it.
The success rate of reaching in the summit is quoted to be 60% overall.
As a group we were highly committed to the cause. Everyone in the group went the extra mile, and withstood the pain, and sickness of altitude and got to the summit! For some, it meant going up pole- pole (slowly- slowly in Swahili) for over 10hours before having to come down...
Hopefully, it will have all been worthwhile when women start benefiting from this work.

Before the trek:

I have started training for this challenge. I need to work hard to prepare myself for 10 days of trekking on Kilimanjaro at a high altitude. The temperature is 28C during the day and -15C at night. We will trek through African rainforest and frozen areas near the peak. 

I have been doing weekly classes in Pilates, Body Balance, Zumba and Insanity. I have also recently taken up running for the first time. I have found running really good at increasing my level of fitness fairly quickly. It was really hard at first, but as I am starting to get better at it, I am enjoying it!

You can follow my progress at my website: www.victoriaasfour.com and Facebook.

Thank you for your kind and generous support.

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