Upwardly mobile
Despite my general aversion to reality TV shows, I have to admit my addiction to 'Extreme Dreams'. The format is simple - a group of three women and two men join nice guy presenter Ben Fogle on gruelling treks in exotic locations. So far, Ben has led his teams 200 miles over the Andes to a remote Inca city, through the Guyanan rainforest to the world's tallest waterfall, and to the summit of Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
I found the Kikimanjaro expedition particularly absorbing, not least because I've always had a secret desire to climb it myself. I had the vague idea that more or less any reasonably fit person could make it to the top with a bit of determination and will power. Well, Extreme Dreams has shown it's rather more difficult than I thought. 19,000 feet may not compare with Everest, but altitude sickness is apparently, a real possibility for even the fittest walkers (there's no rock-climbing involved, just scrambling up steep rocky inclines near the summit after a long, slow climb up the lower slopes). Ben Fogle has trekked through jungles and rowed across the Atlantic earlier this year, so he's a very fit young man, but even he admitted to feeling drunk and came near to failing the expedition doctor's examination before starting the final 800 foot climb.
Sadly, all three women failed to make it to the summit. One succumbed to food poisoning on the lower slopes, and the youngest (a fitness fanatic) was affected by severe altitude sickness before reaching the final permanent campsite. Only the young doctor, a rather ungainly and unfit woman who didn't seem to be able to control her feet on an uphill slope made it to the crater rim. Perhaps wisely, she decided she'd reached the limit of her endurance and turned back when the three men continued the final slog around the crater to the highest point.
The dream of climbing Kilimanjaro has been kicking around in my mind since childhood. I never saw the mountain when I lived in Africa as a child. My family lived in the foothills of Mount Elgon (14,000 feet), another very large extinct volcano, and we used to climb some of the outcrops, although I was never able to persuade my father to try the mountain itself. We did once make an abortive attempt to get to the summit of Mount Moroto (10,000 feet) in Karamoja. I was still going strong at about 1000 feet from the top, when the altitude began to affect my smoker father's breathing and we were forced to turn back. I should stress that our home was 4000 feet above sea level, so the climb was less impressive than it might seem. I was also a teenager at the time, and a lot more energetic than I am now.
I'm not sure how well my middle-aged and slightly unsound knees would cope with descending 19,000 feet, even if my lungs got me to the summit of Kilimanjaro, but I still like the idea of trying. Anybody fancy a short walk in the African bush?
I found the Kikimanjaro expedition particularly absorbing, not least because I've always had a secret desire to climb it myself. I had the vague idea that more or less any reasonably fit person could make it to the top with a bit of determination and will power. Well, Extreme Dreams has shown it's rather more difficult than I thought. 19,000 feet may not compare with Everest, but altitude sickness is apparently, a real possibility for even the fittest walkers (there's no rock-climbing involved, just scrambling up steep rocky inclines near the summit after a long, slow climb up the lower slopes). Ben Fogle has trekked through jungles and rowed across the Atlantic earlier this year, so he's a very fit young man, but even he admitted to feeling drunk and came near to failing the expedition doctor's examination before starting the final 800 foot climb.
Sadly, all three women failed to make it to the summit. One succumbed to food poisoning on the lower slopes, and the youngest (a fitness fanatic) was affected by severe altitude sickness before reaching the final permanent campsite. Only the young doctor, a rather ungainly and unfit woman who didn't seem to be able to control her feet on an uphill slope made it to the crater rim. Perhaps wisely, she decided she'd reached the limit of her endurance and turned back when the three men continued the final slog around the crater to the highest point.
The dream of climbing Kilimanjaro has been kicking around in my mind since childhood. I never saw the mountain when I lived in Africa as a child. My family lived in the foothills of Mount Elgon (14,000 feet), another very large extinct volcano, and we used to climb some of the outcrops, although I was never able to persuade my father to try the mountain itself. We did once make an abortive attempt to get to the summit of Mount Moroto (10,000 feet) in Karamoja. I was still going strong at about 1000 feet from the top, when the altitude began to affect my smoker father's breathing and we were forced to turn back. I should stress that our home was 4000 feet above sea level, so the climb was less impressive than it might seem. I was also a teenager at the time, and a lot more energetic than I am now.
I'm not sure how well my middle-aged and slightly unsound knees would cope with descending 19,000 feet, even if my lungs got me to the summit of Kilimanjaro, but I still like the idea of trying. Anybody fancy a short walk in the African bush?