Age was no barrier to Kilimanjaro climbers

May 2003

MOVING into our sixties, most of us are thinking of putting the feet up and taking it easy. Not so with Annacurra couple, 62 year old builder Jimmy Cullen and his wife Jane who only last month fulfilled a long cherished ambition of climbing to the roof of Africa.

It had long been a desire of Jimmy Cullen to tackle and conquer Kilimanjaro in Tanzania after he and his wife took up hillwalking eight years ago with the 22 members of the 4As club, made up of people from Aughrim, Annacurra, Askinagap and Avoca. But Kilimanjaro was going to be something a little bit different from what hillwakers Jimmy and Jane were used to on their weekend treks through hillsides throughout Ireland and Scotland.

At almost 19,000ft, the tallest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro is six times the height of Wicklow’s Lugnaquilla - a typical Sunday climb for Jane and Jimmy and their colleagues in the local hollwalking club.

‘ Tackling Kilimanjaro is something I always wanted to do. But what with rearing a family of six, we never had the time or the money to do it up to now,’ said Jimm who did workouts in the local gym in addition to his hillwalking to prepare for his assault on the roof of Africa. When they flew out to Kilimanjaro, Jane discoverfed to her horror, that her trekking gear, boots and gaiters had been put on the wrong plane and sent to America instead. She had to undertake the four-day climb up Kilimanjaro and the two-day descent in sneakers, which she got from their guides and helpers.

For the first three days they climbed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. But the final assault on the peak was undertaken from 12 midnight to 6 a.m. so that they would be arriving at the summit just in time to see the spectaculor sunrise over Kilimanjaro which is on the Equator.

‘It was the experience of a lifetime, I was glad we did it,’ said Jimmy.