Africa is the most amazing place I've ever visited.The people are happy in a way I profoundly admire, their simplicity and gratitude changed the way I look at the world forever.

Trip Notes
Kilimanjaro - 2 years on... Karen McCreadie

If you asked my closest friends to describe me I doubt very much that intrepid, climbing or mountains would be mentioned - impulsive & possibly slightly erratic might come up. Although I was born and raised on a farm in the Scottish Borders I was hardly the mountaineering type, I can lamb sheep but that skill isn't generally called for at 19,000 feet! So when it was suggested, one ordinary Tuesday night, that I climb Kilimanjaro to raise funds for an orphanage in Zimbabwe I agreed.

I would love to tell you that the reason I accepted that challenge was out of some deep sense of doing the right thing or of wanting to help those less fortunate but the truth is I am impulsive and slightly erratic & it seemed like a good idea at the time! I was of course moved by the stories of Africa & I'd even watched Meryl Streep do the worst accent known to mankind in Out of Africa but short of a romantic notion of lions & elephants I really had no idea.

The process from "Do you want to climb Kilimanjaro?" to "Get me off this mountain!" was about 2 months.That in itself was a challenge - we had to raise the money for the village & also find some corporate support to assist with the trip & gear that we needed - a huge thankyou to Jurlique, Mountain Designs & South African Airways for getting on board.  It was a big ask & pushed all of us to our limits. Needless to say, Kili did too.

Looking back now with 2 years of distance I have mixed feelings about the adventure. At the time I was sure it was the hardest thing I've ever done, yet I imagine, like childbirth, you forget the pain. I watched a program recently about a Paralympics Gold Medal skier who had climbed the mountain with his sister. It all came flooding back & I cried & cried. Not only had he done it with one leg (unbelievable!) but his reaction at the summit was a mirror image of ours.There was no jubilation or celebration - just tears and very disjointed & laboured breathing. A quiet bewilderment of what they had just done, how they had been forced to go inside & find reserves of strength & determination that had surprised even me. I remember that as though it were yesterday. It was an extraordinary experience & one I will never forget. It wasn't easy - but nothing worthwhile ever is.

Sometimes I'm sad that I didn't really take in the beauty of the summit - the glaciers & sunlight dancing across the rivers of ice. Sometimes I wish I recognised more what an incredibly difficult thing we had accomplished. Only a very small percentage of people who attempt the mountain make it to the top. Sometimes I'm sad that I didn't enjoy the process a little more instead of getting lost in the deadlines and stress. But it was a powerful reminder of how we all do that in everyday life. We don't see the beauty of the moment enough - too busy looking forward or looking back. And perhaps the African people showed me that even more than their mountain did.

Africa is the most amazing place I've ever visited. The people are happy in a way that I profoundly admire, their simplicity & gratitude changed the way I look at the world forever. I had always thought that we should feel sorry for people living in such poverty & that we should do everything in our power to change it. Support causes & donate time & money to provide assistance (and we should). Yet what I realised is that it is they who feel sorry for us. We have so much & still want more, they have nothing & want for nothing more. The sound of laughter is never far away - be it from gaggles of children or ladies hanging washing on a line.

That may sound very Pollyannaish and perhaps it is, but that is what I remember most about Africa. Not the mountain but the people - vivacious, happy, beautiful, dignified, extraordinary people. And I'll always be grateful for that experience.