What do you need to climb Kilimanjaro?

Standing at 5895m above sea level atop Mount Kilimanjaro, a packet of Tim Tams, a can of beer and a toy sheep were essential items for Albany businesswoman Noelene Evans.

Picture by Noelene Evans: Rory Goldhill, Mark Skinner, Joanne Skinner, Noelene Evans, Aurore Joly, and Shane Evans celebrate making it to Mount Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru Peak.

It took five days of hard hiking, six months of preparation, training, and countless hours of organisation, but when Evans made it to the top of Africa’s highest peak, it wasn’t just for the sake of climbing a mountain; it was all in the name of charity.

Evans, who owns luxury heritage accommodation venue The Rocks in Albany, was inspired to do the climb after learning about the work of the Grey Man, an Australian-based charity that rescues children trafficked into child prostitution in South-East Asia.

Evans came across the charity as a member of Skal International, an organisation of tourism and travel professionals, and a signatory to the code of conduct for the eradication of exploitation of children in tourism and travel.

“I started thinking, well what does that mean to individual members, and what does that mean to me, and it didn’t mean much to me until I saw a couple of projects by the Grey Man,” she said.

“It’s a project run by an Australian guy who did it for the first five years out of his own pocket, at his own risk, just because he couldn’t cope with seeing it.

“It’s a big issue, trafficking of people is massive as we know, but we are talking about kids who don’t have a choice in any way, shape or form … naive young women make the wrong decision but a lot of these kids don’t get a choice.”

For Evans, it was also important to know her hard-raised money would go towards its intended cause.

“They have just come back a couple of weeks ago saying they have rescued 21 kids from being trafficked across the border, so our money goes directly to that,” she said.

The cause piqued an interest in Evans, who swam across the Albany Harbour to raise $6500 for the charity last year, and then turned her attention to a more challenging fundraiser in Mount Kilimanjaro this year.

Evans climbed the mountain in Tanzania with her best friend from South Africa, two friends from the Sunshine Coast and her Perth-based brother and his girlfriend.

The trek was 12 months in the making, with Evans embarking on a gruelling six-month training regime at Bodycare Health Club to get in shape ahead of her mission. The group set a target to raise $25,000 and Evans hosted a successful quiz night fundraiser in Albany in June, which raised $17,500 more.

On August 23, the group set off from the base of Mt Kilimanjaro, looking up in awe at the behemoth they were about to face.

“We sat on the bus on the first day, going ‘Oh my God what are we doing’ and then to get to the bottom seven days later and think ‘Oh my God we did it’, was pretty overwhelming,” she said.

With the help of 16 porters and three guides from Team Kilimanjaro, the group took five days to climb and two days to descend the mountain.

“The company we went with was exceptional, all six of us reached the summit within 10 minutes of each other, and none of us got altitude sickness or any waterborne sicknesses, so no vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, and we had perfect weather the whole time, so we were really, really lucky," Evans said.

“It becomes very much a mind thing, because unless you are into hiking it is actually quite boring. Especially as you get higher because you can’t talk while you are walking because it’s too much effort.

“It’s what I imagine childbirth to be like, there are points I have no recollection of.” Memory or no memory, there are plenty of photos to prove Evans and her group made it to the top – and celebrated in style.

“My brother was donated $1000 by one of his friends to crack a beer at the top, so we took a beer up, and his girlfriend is a Tim Tam fiend, so she took a pack to the top, and we had Lindt chocolate up there too… all the essentials,” she said.

Evans plans to continue fundraising for the Grey Man.

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