Meandering Moody a Conitental Crusader

I made it, Gillman's Point and the crater rim of Mt Kilimanjaro. The highest free standing mountain in the world, extruding from the African plains of Tanzania. I felt like I was on top of the world. I stopped to take in the wonders around me; the Sun was rising over the golden landscape, displaying the curvature of the Earth, a phenomenon I had only before witnessed from an aeroplane window. As I surveyed the enormous volcanic crater I was humbled by the ice that blanketed the ground, ice that I was often reminded may not be there in years to come. The state of such visually induced euphoria was so great it made me forget about the looming symptoms of altitude sickness, for a moment anyway. The group's leader pulled himself up next to me: 'Right, now just a two hour trek around the crater to Uhuru Point, the summit.' Suddenly the nausea, headache, fatigue and dizziness came spiraling back. Two more hours of the fight against becoming one of many poor souls being stretchered back down the mountain by two Tanzanian locals who descended the mountain like goats chased by a fox.Two more hours to trudge around this beautiful crater without a single thought concerning anything other than my now frozen water pack tucked inside my coat. Two more hours to reach the highest point in Africa. As i looked across the crater i could see vague silhouettes gathering around a signpost, my destination, hello Uhuru.