Exactly one week ago we’ve all been sitting together at Horombo Hut at 3700m altitude, the day after summit day, with sore legs, but happily enjoying the view and the sense of accomplishment outside of the mass tent.

It still seems unreal to me that this has happened and is already over and done. At the risk of over-romanticising in retrospect I need to say that this has been one of the most amazing, exceptional and impressive things I’ve ever done (although summit day also counts as the most horrible thing I’ve ever done).

The surrealistic beauty of this trip was already present at the lodge where we spent a lovely day chilling by the pool, watching turtles wander around, splendidly entertained by Dan and Will jamming.

Up to summit day we spent some days seeing the mountain coming closer while walking towards it, the nature transforming from jungly to rocky, and the air getting thinner. There were some absolutely stunning views, lots of laughter and music, unfortunately not lots of sleep for all of us (poor Julia!) and some altitude sickness kicking in for some of us.

To deal with the shortness of breath and lack of oxygen (and because I was awake early anyway) I made it a habit to do some yoga in the mornings which had the wonderful side effect that nearly every morning I watched the incredible nightsky full of stars change into the most beautiful sunrise which often revealed that giant mountain all of a sudden out of the darkness while one could also see the vanishing city lights in the valley.

Despite those wonders of nature, when we arrived at Kibo Hut at 4700m altitude – the camp before and after summit day – we were all quite weary due to the previous days’ hikes, the lack of oxygen and sleep and for some the symptoms of altitude sickness. The toilets at that camp were a little uphill and it proved to be quite a journey with lots of rest and recovery afterwards even to go there. Nevertheless we were all in good spirits for the upcoming day (foolish of us).

On summit day we took off early in the morning – or more in the middle of the night – at 5, wearing our head torchs luckily not really seeing what’s ahead, and started plodding. Which we continued to do for a very long time, in zigzags up that mountain with less and less oxygen and every step getting harder to take. We went so slowly that it felt like slowing down even a little would be standing still while at the same time we felt like we’re at the maximum pace everyone could get out of themselves. But we were rewarded with an incredible sunrise in between and arriving at the edge of the crater eventually (which I think was about 12). At that point I felt completely drained already, and considering that apart from a slight headache I had almost no altitude symptoms I’m even more impressed how my fellow teammates could find the determination and willpower to hang in there all the way up. The person who impressed me most that day was Denise who put in an incredible effort enduring a 17 hour day of pure strain.

However the edge of the crater wasn’t the turning point, we needed to do another 1.5hour walk to the peak, which at least wasn’t as steep as the whole previous part and had some impressive glimpses on glaciers and the crater to offer. Finally arriving at Uhuru Peak at 5895m we all had or have had quite an emotional moment, but it didn’t last long since we needed to get down to lower the altitude we were exposed to. The way down was neither as quick nor as relaxed as we hoped it would be but at about 4pm the first of us arrived back at the camp. There wasn’t much left of us except complete exhaustion, so we soon passed out in our tents.

The next day was a gentle stroll down to Horombo Hut in fully good spirits again, which I initially mentioned was exactly one week ago from today. I had an icecold shower that felt like heaven there, but was completely useless given the next day when we covered ourselves completely in dust, doing our final 20km walk through steppe and jungle.

Finally arriving at the gate we all came together again and also had Hilary and Frostie waiting for us with cold beer (such angels!) and soon left for our final night in Africa at the lodge. Thanks to Iggy red wine supply was secured and we had a jolly last night celebrating our success before getting on the bus to the airport.

After a very sleepy flight back to Amsterdam saying our goodbyes to our teammates and to that overwhelming adventure was expectably hard. After the 3 Peaks Challenge in October we were quite a team already, but after those 10 days in Africa we were bound together on another level. That bunch of people has worked so well together, has been so supportive and attentive and has had so much fun together that I can only be absolutely grateful to have gotten the opportunity to be part of that.

The whole organisation was absolutely on point, Hilary and Frostie on the ground have been phenomenal, the guides, porters and cooks accompanying us have done an incredible job and performed some magic on the mountain making our lives there lots easier and more comfortable.

Although it might be cheesy, this experience has been so much more than I expected in so many respects thoughout the whole preparation and journey that I am full of thankfulness for everyone who has made it possible and made it the kind of experience it turned out to be – and I wholeheartedly can only recommend taking the chance to be on the third group next year (even if summit day was the most horrible thing I’ve ever done – everything else makes up for it)!