Not content with merely cycling from London to Paris, and raising a brilliant amount of money for Children in Crisis along the way, Suzanne has just recently scaled the heights of Mount Kilimanjaro, with Children in Crisis again benefitting from her canny fundraising. We've just been sent Suzanne's account of the climb.

Read on, be inspired...

How do I sum up a week's trek in one paragraph? Mount Kilimanjaro, what an amazing experience. Conquering the summit felt amazing, but getting there was full of highs and lows. Taking that first step on day one was what I had spent five months training for, so I was raring to go. It didn't take long before I started to question what I had gotten myself into, the heavens opened and it didn't look as if the rain was going to let up. It didn't for the whole time we were on the mountain.

Every day brought something new - different terrain, flora and fauna. It had to be said that my favourite flower was Kilimanjaro Passion otherwise known as "elephant's trunk". It was amazing to be walking through rainforest one day and really sparse landscape the next.

Every camp we reached was an achievement. Some days had steeper climbs than others, harsher environments to sleep in - certainly not helped by the fact that the tent leaked! Emotions were all over the place not helped by altitude, but still we kept going.

As we had agreed to disagree about the route to summit before we left, it was a relief when the guide made the decision for us on day two. We were going up the Western Breach. For those of you who have read about it you'll know that it is not a light decision to take. I was just glad that we were starting our ascent in the dark and all I had to do was worry about putting one foot in front of the other and not - or what was more to the point - was not around me!
 

Pretty exhausted by this point the 00:30 wake up call was not very welcome. After a quick drink and biscuit we set off. The ground was covered in snow and it was getting deeper the further we walked. We arrived at the point of no return and from then on in it was going to be a scramble on all fours. Timepassed and the sun rose but we were still going - we were told that we would be at the summit for sunrise so obviously there was an issue!

It took several hours to crack the rim of the crater. The snow was deep and kicking in every step was tiring and time consuming. It was well worth the effort - arriving at the rim and looking down on the route we had taken was breathtaking. Not only was it beautiful, but had I seen it in the daylight I would have bottled it! We walked across the rim, still some way off the summit, past a glacier. The colour was so pure and the snow just glistened.
 

It is at this point that we had to really push ourselves to continue to the summit. Seeing the final ascent ahead of us covered in deep melting snow we knew it was not going to be easy. More scrambling was definitely required but there was no way that any of us were going to give up. The truth was we couldn't as it was also our only way down!

You would think that we'd reach the summit after the final ascent, but no, we got to the top and there was still a walk on a very slow uphill gradient.

The mist came in and there was a total wipe-out. We headed very gingerly in the right direction. Eventually seeing the sign for Uhuru Peak I walked the quickest I had for the whole week - the only time pole, pole (slowly, slowly) was not shouted at me - and collapsed in a heap under it just after midday.

I had achieved my goal along with the others - summiting the highest mountain in Africa. No one could ever take away the sensational feeling of achievement away. It was just a shame the game lodge wasn't next door and we still had a day and a half's walking to do!

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