An Icy Heaven (Kilimanjaro - Day 5)

I'm in a daze.

The volcanic crater is huge - a mix of volcanic rock coated in snow. Its stark, dramatic, unforgiving - and doesn't belong to our world. There is no life up here.

I'm surrounded by glaciers. They are smaller than they should be this season, and shrinking year after year. After all, nothing is safe from climate change. A pang of sadness hits me. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a race against time to see all the glaciers before they are gone forever.

Beyond the glaciers is the most brilliant color of blue in the sky above, and a thick blanket of clouds below. Nothing but ice and cotton candy. In the far off distance I can make out another mountain peak - Mount Kibo, which is also part of this mountain.

We continue walking on the crater rim for another hour, to Uhuru point. All the pain in my body has disappeared. I'm in a lucid dream.

Once at Uhuru peak, we break out the beers. I'm at the highest peak in Africa. Defying the odds, not just this summit, but the unlikely trajectory of my life so far.

I feel that sense of overwhelming wonder I set out to find. Its a feeling you can't buy or borrow. No high-resolution photography, no virtual reality can ever replicate it. No shortcuts allowed. You have to suffer a bit to find that magic.

Maybe that's why people keep coming back. Or maybe they got brain damage from the lack of oxygen on the first go-round?