"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Tony

...there ahead , all he could see, as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the top of Kilimanjaro. And then he knew that there was where he was going." Ernest Hemingway, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro".
I first dreamt of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro - Africa's highest point - nearly 20 years ago when I first visited Tanzania - having also read and heard about the adventurous exploits of Ernest Hemingway.

I glimpsed Kilimanjaro then - this huge mystical mountain with snow on the top - rising up from the baking heat of the African plains - and hoped one day I would be back to climb it.

I finally realised the dream of standing on top of the highest point on my favourite continent, in my favourite country, at dawn on 12th March 2012, leading a team of my work colleagues. The realisation that we had reached Uhuru Peak complete with its new sign, however, only set in about half an hour after summit-ing, as we descended - and the sun began to rise over the rugged African rift valley.

That moment will remain as one of the most special moments of my life... And in completing the climb all the hard work of several months of preparation paled in to insignificance.

To have raised over £32k for WaterAid - and to have seen on this - and previous trips to Africa - the huge transformation to the world's poorest people WaterAid's interventions can make, made the hard work even more special.

This was perhaps best epitomised by the response given by the spokeswoman for a community we visited who had benefited from WaterAid's work, when asked what the community would choose to have if they could choose anything in the world:

"If god could give us one thing it would be another water point like the one we have - so other villages could benefit from having safe, clean water.

So, well done team - we climbed a mountain, deepened friendships and helped transform people's lives in the process.

Tony