Hongkonger conquers Africa's highest summit, Kilimanjaro

My first sight of Africa's highest summit is from an aircraft window, on the short flight from Nairobi, in Kenya, across the border to Tanzania. The mountain looks imposing - a giant humpbacked whale breasting a sea of clouds - and for a moment the prospect of me standing on top seems an improbable fantasy.

When the climb begins two days later, I quickly learn the word " pole", meaning "slowly". My guide's constant refrain of " pole, pole" is good advice; beetling up the rocky slopes of the mountain, which is as awe-inspiring from below as it is from above, would only invite trouble.

describes Arusha, at the foot of Meru Mountain, where many Kilimanjaro climbers base themselves. Meru may be a smaller mountain than her cousin 50km away but she is a more technical climb and looms over the town, casting afternoon shadows across the small collection of shops and houses and the dirt square bus station, from where travellers make their way south to Dar es Salaam, east to Kenya and north to Lake Victoria and the jungles of Uganda.

The town has a languid charm; locals sit outside bars drinking Tusker beer as the spring sunshine filters through the delicate purple flowers of the jacaranda trees that line every street. Most of Arusha's trade and bustle belongs in the colourful market but even here there is a relaxed air, traders sitting beside neatly stacked pallets of colourful vegetables and enormous avocados.