Having negotiated too much luggage to the check in and survived the security checks, Terminal 3 on a Friday night is a familiar collection of motley passengers all in various states of anticipation and/or disrepair. I’ve been here at this time three times so far this year – but this should be the last such trip of 2011 and thus the last visit to soulless confusion of The Bridge for a pre-flight drink.... read more

Long flights home. Kilimanjaro to the Mombasa bus-stop then on to Addis Ababa. Five hour wait at Addis Ababa airport before boarding a plane to London. Completely exhausted by then but all that happens is I get more exhausted by the time I land back at Heathrow. There are questions multiplying in my head and answers keep appearing before me, tempting me to pretend I know what I want next. Is this what happens when you run at life? Does it come at you even faster? When I was very young, I used to dream of running through lush, green, wet forests, will-o-the-wisps dancing their riddles around me as I went. This is beginning to feel like the part of life where dreams begin to come true. ... read more

Rise at midnight to find a red shadow of moon hanging directly above amid a gleaming sea of stars. Over the next hour or so, this moon will slowly reveal itself as it moves round to allow the sun's rays to hit it - a stunningly beautiful total lunar eclipse. We begin the march up the crater wall. I cannot believe we are really going to go this slow. I swiftly make my way to the front and begin a repetitive conversation with man-mountain that lasts for the whole of the ascent to the rim of the crater (Gilman's Point). "Let's go faster" "But what about the others?" Six long hours later we're at Gilman's Point. We've lost four of the twelve who set out. The first faints with heart palpitations and is swiftly taken down ... read more

Long march across to Mawenzi Tarn (14,206ft). Beautiful spot - tarn beneath the crumbling, rocky faces of Mawenzi. More rock-surfing keeps me from drifting off but I keep telling myself I must take this time - must be patient to allow for success on summit day. We head up to the ridge at 14,763ft for an acclimitisation walk. Many of the primates who are hiking with me are beginning to feel the strain - headaches, light-headedness, shortness of breath. The wanderer is blissfully unaware of any such inhibitions - the shoulders are feeling lighter by the day and air is getting thinner and fresher, the temperature dropping. This makes this goat feel alive. Spend ages talking to the man-mountain chief guide about mountains, famous mountaineers he's hiked up here with who have gone on to achieve ... read more

I stood at the foot of the mountain preparing to ascend to its summit. Over the past two days - since I had left the western world behind - my shoulders had slowly been lifting as the weights of life began to fall away. And now here I was, on the gentle slopes of the highest mountain in Africa. I've read and dreamt about Kilimanjaro for many a moon - long before I began to think I might ever visit. And now I was on it. I stood beside six smiling guides, impatiently leaning on my hiking stick while we all waited for the rest of the group to prepare themselves. Their confused scurrying and fretful preening brought to mind a troop of idle baboons. My mind wandered away from the people around me, away from ... read more