I've been a student for my whole life, up until about 5 days ago. Things are going to change but one good thing is now I actually have time for hobbies... so I'm starting to write, paint, draw again. Steemit is a unique outlet for people to express their creativity! I'm all about peace and love, seeing the world, appreciating commonalities and seeing the goodness in people. I'm anti-neoliberalism and fossil fuels and war and all the nasty things that are done for money. I'm pro people-power, nature and sharing knowledge. My mum calls me a hippy.

I thought I'd share some of my stories and photos of some beautiful places I've been, and hopefully more in the future!

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

On 25th August 2015, I got in a cab at 3am to make my way to Heathrow Airport in London. The month before, I had graduated from university with a Bachelors in History, and the month after I was due to enrol studying a Masters in Environment, Development & Policy. It may have been a nice break, that month in between... but a year before, I became an Ambassador for a charity called Hope for Children, and spontaneously signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro as a sponsored challenge! It would turn out to be the best decision of my life. I recruited a team of student volunteers, and we fundraised throughout the year for the charity's work in East Africa, knowing that at the end of it all, we had a mountain to climb - the tallest freestanding mountain in the world.

I was in Moshi, about 18-20 miles from the mountain, when I first saw it...

Kilimanjaro is made up of 5 ecological zones. Zone 2: the Rainforest.

I had never climbed a mountain before. I stand at 5'3" with very little sporting abilities. My training consisted of going for a run all of 4 times. I may have underestimated the mountain a bit, but I did have the motivation and confidence to do it. In the end, that's all that counts. But it wouldn't have been possible without the porters that took us on our route - I've never been so amazed by humans in my life than I was when these guys, wearing flip-flops and carrying 50kg+ bags on their shoulders, were passing us at twice our speed, sometimes jumping rock-to-rock. Our guide, Chombo, who happened to be somewhat of a legend, had climbed the mountain near 400 times.

Zone 3: the Heath/Low Alpine zone, breaking through the cloud line.

Hakuna matata.

We were taught a Swahili phrase on the mountain that the porters loved to say to us all the time - Poa kichizi kama ndizi (I remembered it as: poh-ah kitch-easy kama-n-deezy). We asked them what it meant, they said "crazy cool like a banana." Well, when you have nothing to do other than keep putting on foot in front of the other, anything that resembles a catchy phrase or song can become a mantra; we've all been there. So it stuck and we repeated it constantly for days. Other groups of trekkers would pass by, and their porters would shout it too! It was a thing!!
... except it wasn't, because when we eventually got back to civilisation and said it to people in the town, not a single person thought we were sane. We did get some belly laughs.

I did pee here, but photo not my own: click for source.

When we went down, to go back up again. Thanks, altitude.

Zone 4: the Alpine Desert.

By this point, I'd had both my knees strapped up and was popping painkillers every 4 hours.
Turns out that I did the climb with 2 pulled hamstrings. But still poa kichizi kama ndizi.

Pole, pole means slowly, slowly. Its almost the only thing you hear throughout summit night. Summit night will stay at the top of my 'hardest things I've ever done' list for a very long time. You can only get to the peak in the nighttime, because it has to be cold enough for the ground to freeze. That means leaving base camp at 11pm, with the aim to get to the top for sunrise by 6/7am. We had barely any sleep before because the altitude makes it hard to breathe and even in our sleeping bags, designed for arctic conditions, I thought I could have frozen. We pigeon-stepped up the mountain, the altitude messing with us (someone thought they saw a dog, I thought the first patches of ice was a trail of foam/goo), and our faces cold and dribbly. With our headlamps on and headphones in, we quietly followed the feet in front of us and focused on not throwing up, like some of the people from other groups we had passed. Right when I thought that could be me and the snow started to swirl around my feet, Chombo stopped us for sugary tea. Legend.

I listened to Bob Marley and David Bowie, and they did a great job. Everyone was very emotional in the last couple of hours. We'd been trekking for over 4 days, we smelled, we were so tired and in pain, some nearly turned around. But we had to get to the peak, we were so close. The porters started taking weight off us, carrying our water and keeping a close eye on us all.

At about 7am, we all made it to Stella Point, the second-highest peak.

The struggle. Me at Stella Point.

We all sat down and struggled to get up again. Chombo told us, it's another hour and a half to Uhuru Peak, the highest point at 5,895 meters. We didn't have to go, we could start making the 6+ hour journey down to the next camp. If we did go, we could only spend 10 minutes there because of the lack of oxygen. But it was worth limping on a bit further, even with our heavy legs, to complete the challenge.

I ended up with two pairs of gloves on one hand and none on the other.

Thought to be 10,000 years old, 85% of this glacier disappeared 1912-2011. It's expected to completely vanish by 2030.

This experience truly shaped my character and worldview. The trek itself pushed me to my limits. As I walked and walked, the environment around me would fade into new zones, new landscapes and a harsher climate. I began to appreciate the complete uniqueness of everything around me, shaped over time by very specific conditions. Then, when I looked into the night sky, and saw streams and dustings of stars above me, I realised that nature is beyond our imagination, at all scales. Humans are tiny ants in the cosmos. This is a particular feeling or perspective that I usually get when I travel. I find it comforting.
(Nevertheless, in reality, our impact on the world is not like that of an ant... studying my Masters has made me passionate about environmental issues that I'd love to post more about in the future.)

I hope my photos do the beauty of Kilimanjaro justice. I'm glad to have the chance to share them with people.

I have other adventures to share, and I hope to go on many more! Including this one, exploring Steemit!