CLIMBING the highest peak in Africa was always going to be a challenge for a middle-aged mum who was quick to confess she was unfit and overweight, but Sarah Travis was determined to give it her best shot.

She built up her stamina, lost close to a stone in weight by taking seven-mile walks and swimming 50 lengths every other day and she raised £3,000 in sponsorship.

By the time she left Salisbury last month to tackle Kilimanjaro as part of a charity trek on behalf of the disability charity Scope, she felt she was as ready as

she was going to be.

But nothing could have prepared her for the awesome experience that this particular challenge presented to her and the other intrepid travellers in the group.

"Everybody was positive, focussed and raring to go," says Sarah, who runs the Footlights Caf at Salisbury Arts Centre.

"The first part of the journey from Nairobi - seven hours jolting across the bush in a minibus - is a killer.

"You know you've got to drink a lot, but then you need to pee and there are no loos, so we all jump out and run through the bush clapping our hands to ward off snakes, and then all these strange women are whipping down their knickers."

Day three was the start of the climb.

"It's not really mountaineering with crampons, it's a walk up a great big hill," she observes.

"That day was my birthday and it was very emotional - my daughter had sent me a present of jungle animals in case I didn't see any.

"It's such a well beaten track you don't see many although we did see some monkeys."

There were 64 in the party plus a doctor and around 200 porters.

Local guides are acclimatised to the altitude, but even a day spent at Horombo Huts 3,720m above sea level, which they reached at the end of day four, was not enough to stave off altitude sickness.

"Some had it really badly - the simplest thing is done in slow motion.

"The Swahili words are pol pol meaning slowly slowly.

"I didn't get it much, but it makes you physically sick and gives you a pounding headache."

In the event, Sarah got no further.

On doctor's advice, she and three others had to stay at Horombo while the rest of the group made the final push to the top.

The peak was only another 1000m up, but was going to take 14 hours hard climbing starting at midnight to avoid the heat of the day.

"Of the 64 of us, only 20 made it to the peak, most of them women.

"It was so cold - grown men came down crying from frustration and exhaustion.

"Two fitness trainers from Swindon didn't make it, collapsing within 15 metres of each other - they had to be picked up on stretchers by porters because if you stay on the ground at -25C, you freeze."

Sarah had the chance to rest and admire the view.

"Even sitting in my hut waiting for people to come down, watching the nimbus clouds go by, was just amazing.

"It gave you the chance just to be, to sit in the clouds and enjoy it."

The descent from barren mountain through the rain forest to the heat of the bush below - and a very welcome shower - was rapid, followed by the journey to Nairobi airport and a flight back to the chaos of a Heathrow on terrorist alert.

Sarah doesn't regret one minute.

"You make lots of friends, all there for the same reason.

"The biggest thing is raising the money, and I'd like to thank Colin Holton and all the bands who played at the gig for me, but people you least expect came and put £10 in the pot.

"Stupidly enough, I'd like to do it again and would encourage anyone else to do it."