Client and guest blogger Malcolm Durham shares his very honest thoughts on climbing Kilimanjaro, a once in a lifetime holiday experience - and how the skills required to achieve something so arduous can translate into everyday life...
A hill and back
Kilimanjaro is an irritating hill. It's not 6,000 metres high it's 5,895m. That's not 20,000 feet it's 19,341. There are no views to inspire you and the food that can be carried up there is dull, dull, dull. And it seems to go on forever.
Climbing Kilimanjaro
Having got up on "summit day" at 11pm and having climbed almost vertically on what can only be described as the highest and least appropriate sandpit in the world for 2 ½ hours, I thought that we were halfway to the crater rim. When the guide told me that we weren't, I realised that climbing Kilimanjaro really was rather a tough challenge. Six hours and 28 minutes later I got to the top, not with a feeling of elation, or of having done something quite fun, but simply with relief.
But what was most strange was that, having got there, I had no desire to actually move on (a.k.a. get down). None. Somehow, the part of the brain that instructs the motor function to put one foot in front of the other had broken. Having done what I set out to do, the greatest effort for me was to get down the mountain (another 7 hours, since you ask).
Achieving Goals...
So what does this tell us about cash flow for ambitious enterprises, I hear you ask? Can I suggest the following:
-Goals are rarely clearly defined, but when you get there, you know that you've got there.
-If you truly knew the scale of some of the tasks that you had undertaken, then there's as good chance you'd have thought better ab out doing them and not even started. Ignorance is often blissful.
-There are some things that you are determined to do, and unless catastrophes intervene, you will get there.
-And there are some things you don't want to do. I have a bad knee, and it doesn't enjoy going downhill. If help had been on offer to get me down, I would have been happy to avail myself of it.
Whatever you're trying to do, you're never alone. Did I get to the top on my own? Well, I wasn't carried there. But hang on, I didn't cook the meals, nor carry the food, nor the tent, sleeping bag etc. So, did I get to the top myself? As Dirty Harry said, ""A man's got to know his limitations"". Yeah, right. Annapurna circuit anyone?
For more information on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, contact Original Travel.