CLIMBING the World’s highest free-standing mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most people and one of this year’s brave challengers was Joe McDonagh from The University of Salford who took on the mountain with nine other students at the university.

The second year Architectural Design and Technology student raised £2700 for Childreach International through fundraising.

Joe described reaching the top as “wicked” and added that the whole experience was “really, really good, but a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

He admitted that he didn’t train as much as he could have but that it wasn’t as bad as people expect – no harnesses were involved, just one big “steep walk.”

His group took six days to get up the mountain and two days to get back down spurred on by the chance to spend the rest of their week in Zanzibar.

Mount Kilimanjaro is 5,895m tall which is 2,950m shorter than Everest and, as it’s situated in Tanzania, it would be quicker to drive to the base camp, than it would be to actually climb the mountain.

An estimated 25,000 people attempting to tackle the challenge each year.

Childreach International are a children’s charity that aims to restore child-rights and ensure that children have improved access to education, protection, and healthcare. Visit their Mount Kilimanjaro page here.

Fancy the opportunity of sleeping under the stars and being able to say that you have seen one of the top 10 sunsets in the World at Shira Camp? Then you should give Mount Kilimanjaro a go.

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *