The whole trek was an emotional roller coaster. There were 7 (3 trustees and their kids plus their friend) who started the trek. On the first night after trekking through the rain forest and reaching 9,000ft, trustee Haresh fell ill with headache, vomiting and diarrhoea at a temperature of around -2°C which was not a pleasant experience out in the open in the dark. He managed to recover and continue.
On the second day, after trekking through rocky terrain another colleague fell ill with the same symptoms and managed to recover enough to continue. On the third day after climbing to around 13,000 ft through rocky terrain and marsh land, Trustee Haresh's daughter started feeling unwell. She bravely continued for a couple of hours but started getting chest pains and feeling nauseous, her blood pressure had also dropped. The guide called in the rescue team so that she could be taken down and therefore Haresh decided to abandon the trek to be with his daughter and take her to hospital. The rest of the group continued and at the end of the 4th day at 16,000ft at summit camp, the colleague who fell ill on the second day became really ill with more vomiting and diarrhoea so she had to abandon her trek. At this stage only Trustees Jags, Dhiraj and their sons were able to continue to the Summit. At midnight of day 4, they started the final trek to the top of Kilimanjaro and 2 hours in to the last 6 hours to the summit, Haresh's son had to abandon as the altitude coupled with a lack of sleep and tiredness really got to him. He started feeling a migraine and became nauseous, so he decided to trek back down. With great determination and gradual pace the rest made it to the Summit. Straight after taking photos Trustee Dhiraj's son started feeling extremely tired and was too exhausted to continue so he had to be taken down in stretcher and was given oxygen.
Luckily, everyone has recovered and are safe back home. This was an experience and a great challenge and we would recommend this to anyone but would suggest the 7 or 8 day trek rather than 6 to give yourself more time to acclimatise. Everyone is very proud of all those who took part in attempting such a challenge.
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