Unsurprisingly, our final morning dawned with glorious blue skies and the sun shining on all the freshly fallen snow atop the mountain! It was hard to believe the difference in conditions from just 24 hours previously. Once we had finished breakfast, all the porters (who numbered about 60 in total) gathered round and gave us two choruses of traditional African songs. It was actually quite emotional saying goodbye to them all, they had supplied warm water for wash...

We were woken around 9:45pm, and after checking our day packs one last time, and dressing in our warmest of clothes (I was wearing layers and layers) we assembled in the mess tent for a last warming cup of tea before we set off with our head torches glowing. It is hard to explain just how slow our pace was when we set off, "polé polé" (slowly, slowly), which had been our motto the rest of the trek, suddenly took on a whole new meaning, and we literally ...

We had a long drive to the National Park gate in order to register. En route, we saw albeit some distance away, an elephant, which in fact was headed towards the Maasai lands we had visited. Bags were weighed at the gate to ensure that no porter had to carry over 15kg. After that, we were on our way to the starting point of our trek - and our first experience of the conditions we would face. My newly purchased gaiters and walking poles were called into commission...