Surmountables

A fortnight or so ago, yours truly et al engaged in 'extreme sport'. We embarked on the uphill task of scaling the great Mt. Kilimanjaro!

With our supplies firmly strapped to our backs, we found our way to First Caves... slogged through to the Second Caves before toiling up to the Third Caves... Eventually, we made our way to School Hut, where we launched our final assault on the unforgiving mountain.

At the stroke of mid-night, we embarked on the last leg of our ascent (this is where, as some clever guy put it, team work became an individual sport. For real!).

Up, up & up I laboured! Up past Gillman's Point... dragged my fatigued self through Point Stella... before crawling to, yup, wait for it... Africa's highest peak: point Uhuru.

It took everything I had, and then some! My endurance has not been stretched to such limits in recent memory.

'Why am I here?' my revolting body asked, doing its best to deal with the lower levels of atmospheric oxygen (at that altitude, the air composition does nothing to endear the mountain to the climber)... I tell you the truth, the Kili sights & heights very nearly 'took my breath away', literally.

Anyway, my mute response to the seemingly mindless, self- inflicted toil was turning a deaf ear... (a mind-over-matter moment right there!). ... ignoring the nausea and my aching limbs... & never disregarding the need to pay no heed to the persistent headache that seemed to have 'pitched camp' in my head... (BTW, if you think this sentence is long and winding, try the Zig-Zag section of the Kili-ascent, yo!)... Still, I pressed on.

So, why did I do it?

On one level, I needed time alone with my Maker... time to think things through... On another level, I needed a win, 'motisha' to catapult me to my next challenge!

Thankfully, I managed many wins on this expedition... Now, with my feet firmly 'grounded' in the Plains and with an 'un-clouded' head (pardon the pun), I can safely say that reaching that Pinnacle was well worth the stretch!