Jamaican woman climbs Mount Kilimanjaro for 50th birthday

When Rotendo Mukulu decided a year and half ago that she was going to climb to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, to celebrate her 50th birthday, she had never even hiked before.

Nonetheless, the immigration adviser believed climbing to the top of the highest peak in Africa, and the world’s highest free-standing mountain at more than 19,000 feet above sea level, was a most fitting way to welcome this milestone.

“I was really trying to find a place of gratitude. I was trying to think you know if you’re healthy enough, strong enough, you should celebrate that at 50. I have several friends who are not here any longer…and so I really wanted to mark that,” she said.

So she started her preparations. She said she was already was into fitness, but joined a hiking group - Trekkers Adventurers, to train and get some experience.

Her first hike started at the University of Technology in Papine, St Andrew, and ended at Holywell in the Blue Mountains.

“Nobody could have told me in my right mind that I would ever have hiked so far,” she recalled.

However, describing it as fun, Mukulu said it was confirmation for her that with training, she could hike to the Peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Along with doing strength and conditioning in the gym, she started hiking consistently. She would hike for anywhere between six to nine hours, carrying at least a 20-pound backpack.

“I started off doing them (hikes) monthly, and then by the time we got to the start of this year, I started doing hikes every two weeks, and then by the time we got to May, I was doing them every weekend,” she said.

These hikes would take place all over Jamaica, she said.

“Jamaica trained and I used all of our different beautiful parts of our countryside and green areas, and it was fine, it was really nice to do it in fact.”

SISTERS RISING

After 18 months of preparing, she began researching tour companies for the journey. She found a group called Sisters Rising – a group of 10 black women that hiked together. It was organised by a tour company called Soraka Tours, co-founded by Jamaica-born Sophia Naiditch.

After making the necessary arrangements, she booked the flights that would take her from Jamaica to Tanzania, to begin the challenging trek - an eight days, seven nights journey. The hike began on June 14, and they reached the summit on June 22.

“The key thing when it comes to summiting Kilimanjaro is the altitude because it is over 19,000 feet in altitude. To put that in context, the highest point in Jamaica is the Blue Mountains, that is under 7,000 feet in altitude,” she said.

However, she said being a part of a group made the experience less overwhelming and although it was difficult, she was determined to reach the peak.

“Nothing prepares you for what they call summit night, which is the last leg of the journey up to the very highest point, which is called Uhuru peak. On that particular stretch of the journey, you are awake for more than 24 hours, you are hiking for more than 20 hours, and a fair amount of that is minus figure in terms of Celsius. It is very cold, and there is snow, and that was hard, that was hard,” she said.

On top of that, the high altitude caused an elevated heart rate, even while moving at a deliberately slow pace, she said.

“That was the time when you had to dig deep, find the mental fortitude, and keep going,” she said.

MESMERISED and RELIEVED

When she eventually got to the peak, she was mesmerised by the beauty of it, but also relieved to have accomplished her goal.

“I did pour a libation, I did pray. My mother is a Rasta woman and she gave me a little piece of her locs, and seh ‘leave it up there for me’, so I followed the instructions of mi muma, and I left that little piece of her on the highest point of Africa,” she said.

She then proceeded to celebrate with the other hikers before embarking on another two-day journey to get down the mountain.

On Friday, Mukulu, who was born in the United Kingdom to a Jamaican mother, but now has Jamaican citizenship after relocating 15 years ago, was relaxing in the hills of St Andrew as she celebrated her birthday, after returning home on Wednesday.

Still high from her momentous trip, she said she is already looking forward to her next quest.

“Maybe the 50 is going to be the year of adventure. Maybe I am going to see what else I can find. It certainly has left an adventurous tingle in my bones,” she said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com