Jo Thoenes' Kilimanjaro diaries

Nine months ago Jo Thoenes first heard of Oxfordshire charity The Nasio Trust.

Now she joins fundraisers as they head for the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

"When I heard about the day centres that helped children in Africa who have been affected by AIDS it really hit home," Jo says.

"I grew up in Kenya, so this seemed like a perfect way for me to fulfil a personal challenge and see the lengths people will go to raise money for a charity they feel passionate about."

You can follow Jo's journey and her day-by-day diary account of the climb by reading on...

DAY 1

26 hours of non-stop travelling after leaving Oxfordshire we pulled in yesterday evening to the Zebra Hotel in Moshi, which is a small town nestling at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The mountain has made its presence known and felt ever since we first landed in Nairobi, with a glimpse through the clouds here and a bottle of cold water dedicated to the peak there, it really is at the fore of everybody's minds.

The group I've been travelling with who are doing the climb for the NASIO Trust, consist of 8 people including me, ages ranged from 15 to 40, from a number of walks of life; teachers, students, police, financiers, but all with one aim that this time next week we will share together the thrill of standing at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The drought which has been widely reported in the press back in the UK is in full evidence here in east Africa. Aside from the lush greenery surrounding the town of Moshi itself and Arusha which we passed through, the bleak dusty landscape, emaciated cattle and thirsty children begging for water at the side of the road, was really quite a harsh reality for us.

At times the air was so full of this volcanic dust it looked a bit like a spacescape with Maasai people silently moving across it with no other real sign of life to be seen.

Last night, however, as we stayed in Moshi ahead of today's climb, the heavens opened and torrential downpours turned the main street, in the space of 5 minutes, into a raging torrent.

This morning as we wake up it's muggy, it's fairly warm and we're hoping that the worst of the rain is well and truly behind us. I'm in Moshi at the moment as we prepare to pack the 4x4's up. We're heading to the main gate of the mountain, and today we start our climb.

Today we'll be going through lush forestation with a chance of wildlife. We're going to be accompanied by an armed ranger for this first leg before settling down at 2,750 metres for our first night on the mountain.

In Pictures: Jo's Kilimanjaro climb

DAYS 2 to 4

This is without fail the toughest four days of my life. It's rained non-stop for pretty much the last three and a half and it would have been tough without the rain to be honest.

We started out on Sunday and drove out to the set off point which took us through the forest glades. We camped for the night.

It should have been a fairly easy stop but I suffered night terrors which wasn't the best way to start the trip and ended up sitting outside my tent hyperventilating for a few minutes.

The second day I set off not feeling that great, nausea was already kicking in which didn't bode well for an eight day trek. We left the forest and entered the giant heather zone and gradually kept climbing up to about 2,800 metres.

Over the last couple of days my nausea has completely cleared but a couple of other people in the group have suffered quite badly. And today we have done an acclimatisation day and we walked up to 4,600 metres to a place called Lava Tower.

The air is so thin there you have to stop every few minutes to catch your breath. It's a case of just letting our bodies acclimatise, getting used to the lack of oxygen and walking very very slowly to give ourselves the time that we need.

It's very wet, it's very soggy. Day 2 was the toughest day I've had, but we're hanging in there. I'm feeling much better, on day 2 it was ridiculous. I just kept crying for no reason whatsoever. I wasn't necessarily thinking about people back home, but the floodgates just opened.

But since then things seem to have improved and today we walked for just over seven hours and it's a case of just switching your mind off and placing one foot in front of the other.

Tomorrow we climb the Baranco wall. We can't see it actually because we are just surrounded by mist, but it is about a 400 foot wall and we then go on to Baranco camp.

We are going to be heading round the mountain rather than up it over the next couple of days so on Friday night we'll come into Barasu camp, that's where we do our ascent from.

We'll go to bed about 8 o'clock in the evening, wake up again at midnight, and start our hike in the middle of the night so we can be at the crater rim for sunrise. We'll then come back down, spend one night on the mountain coming down and walk for a second day and we'll be back at base.

DAY 5

We got up from Baranco camp and we were faced with an incredible challenge of climbing a 400 foot, sheer face of rock called the Baranco wall.

It involved a lot of scrambling and by then the altitude was around 3,800 metres so we were getting quite out of breath just carrying our day bags up this sheer cliff.

All the time we could see Kilimanjaro to our left and it seemed to be hovering over us. Following the wall we then actually started the descent because the first five days of the climb is all about altitude acclimatisation.

So we were doing lots of ups and downs to allow out bodies to get used to it, so despite the fact that we were trying to get to the peak, sometimes it felt a little bit disheartening that we seemed to be going downhill, but it was all very much a part of what we were aiming for.

DAY 6

The day before the ascent we arrived in Barafu camp, and we got in there about midday. It was a short walk - only about a four hour hike setting off about 8 o'clock in the morning.

The idea was that we would stay the night at Barafu before beginning our ascent at midnight. Having got in at lunchtime we had a couple of hours to get our heads down and sort out our kit. We then had lunch, had another couple of hours sleep, and then were woken for the final meal at about 6 o'clock before going to bed for a further four hours and being woken up at about 10.30.

DAY 7

We were woken to basically freezing conditions and a hailstorm in our campsite and at midnight we set off on the ascent in the pitch dark which was done for three reasons.

We set out to arrive at the summit at sunrise, and also because of the altitude they try and get us up and down the mountain as quickly as possible for health reasons. Finally the sheer prospect of seeing what we had ahead of us in the full light of day would have put us all off straight away.

The start was very rocky and we were scrambling up through the snow and the ice. The intention was to get to the crater rim and a place called Stella Point before continuing for another 45 minutes to Uhuru Peak which is the highest point on the African continent.

It took approximately six hours for me to get to the crater rim and just under an hour to get to Uhuru Peak itself by which point I was so exhausted that one of the porters was literally holding my walking pole and towing me behind him to keep me going. Every five steps you were having to stop to gasp for air.

Just as we were coming up to Stella Point as we turned round to see where we had come from there was this incredible streak of orange as the sun was rising behind us. It was absolutely incredible. We could look out across Tanzania and across the plains and see for hundreds of miles and that really gave the whole group a boost psychologically to see daylight and definitely drove us on.

Getting to the actual summit peak it was light. We got a great view not only of the crater but of the spectacular glaciers that surrounded it. But it was just so taxing both mentally and physically that once you got to the peak it was a case of getting your picture taken and then starting the descent.

DAY 8 and beyond

The satisfaction of actually completing what we set out to do, and for me particularly, actually being able to say that I got to Uhuru Peak is far more satisfying than I thought it would be.

Everybody on the trip did incredibly well. The success rate of the Lemosho route is only 60 percent and for the first 3 and a half days we were walking six to eight hours a day through pouring rain because the short rain season came a little bit early.

With our group we had 100% reach Uhuru Peak which was fantastic. A number of groups that we met on route actually turned back on day 3 or 4 because they didn't think they had the mental or physical stamina to complete the task.

The only reason we as a team got to the summit was because of the team of porters and guides. They just had this unending enthusiasm to the point that they told us that we were all going to get there; they probably had more belief in us than we did ourselves.

At one point when many of us were to exhausted to even pull our boots and graters on they were literally dressing us and pushing us towards the summit. I think now that I've done it, I'm back in Moshi and it's a great feeling, but I don't think it will be till I get home that it will really dawn on me what I have achieved over the last week.

I managed to have a cold shower back in the hotel. I never thought a cold shower could feel so good! I'm looking forward to getting back to my normal routine because that is going to put into perspective what I have achieved.

Whilst I'm here in Moshi, it's still very much a town that is built on the tourism industry and the mountain experience. The town is full of tourists either coming off the mountain or going on up the mountain, and I think it's when I get back to my normality that the intensity of what we all achieved will really hit home.