Success!

I reached Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak at 8am on August 4, 2011, after witnessing the sun rise from Gilman's Point at 6.30am. Although the overall climb took almost four days, the final ascent from Kibo started at midnight the night before summiting. Pitch darkness, a seemingly never-ending steep climb, sliding volcanic shale, freezing weather and a lack of oxygen all added to the challenge. You may not notice, but I'm actually hanging on to the sign in the picture to stand upright!

We started the climb over lunch on Monday 1st August and ended on Friday 5th August at around 5pm. The final break down was 3.5 days up, 1.5 days down. After summiting, the bad news was that there was another 11 hours of walking to get to a place where we could rest, so overall it was a 19 hour ordeal. 

This trek was one of the adventures of a life time. I met some amazing people, and saw four seasons and four different types of terrain in four days.

I'd like to thank everyone who donated to this page and who made this more than just a personal journey. I hope that the next time around you can join me in person, because this is just the beginning!

Warmest regards,

Sunil R. "Tsunami" Vaswani

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Hello and thank you for taking the time to visit this page.

UPDATE: Thanks to all for your generosity!  We've almost reached the goal, but please let's not stop there.  Anything over the target amount is more than appreciated!

Now for an update on the trip. I departed Saturday evening as planned, but we had to make an unexpected stop in Athens due to technical problems with the plane.  Unfortunately this caused us to lose a day as we were supposed to reach the lodge on Sunday afternoon and have the rest of the day to acclimatize.  Instead, we will arrive on Monday morning and have to start hiking straight away in order to catch up with our group.  Just makes things a little more challenging, I guess!

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I'm climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania this August as a personal challenge and I'd like to make a difference to society in the process. I've chosen to raise funds for Take Heart India foundation as this charity does good work in providing practical education to underprivileged students including the visually impaired. We've all seen Slumdog Millionaire!

Jokes aside, this is a worthy charity. I encourage you to check out THI's website at  http://www.takeheartindia.org/main.htm

The fundraising period is rather shorter than traditional as it took a while to find an efficient method to raise third party funds without incurring a large audit burden or adminstration charge. As such, you will only have 10 days to make your donation.

My trip to Kilimanjaro starts on Saturday July 30th 2011 and ends on Sunday August 7th. This is the day that this donation page closes so please donate before that if you'd like to.

Apart from flights and acclimatization, the actual hike is approximately 100km over 4 days, ascending to almost 6000m (for comparison, Mt. Everest is 8850m), a lot of it in an oxygen poor environment. It sounds pretty tough, and I'm sure it will be, but it is nothing compared to the daily hardships suffered and bravery shown by the people Take Heart India aims to serve.

The idea of making a difference has been on my mind for quite some time now. I am excited to finally be doing so - however small it may be.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now. My thanks and best regards,

Sunil Rajan Vaswani