Tiffany Blignaut jotted three words on her map before heading on her trip through Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The words were connection, collaboration and courage, and from exhilarating moments like finding herself looking at an elephant in the eye to summiting the peak, she experienced all three in the most unexpected ways. And loved every moment of her courageous adventure.
Tiffany had always had her mind set on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, but for various reasons it just never seemed to materialise. But last July she decided to set aside two months and take a ride through Africa with her Land Rover Defender to climb Africa’s highest peak. She had done a few trips to surrounding African countries, but this time she would be alone and in the driver’s seat.
‘I feel like I’ve been a passenger my whole life and I’m over that!’ she laughs.
‘I did have quite a few people asking me, “Aren’t you scared?” And I’d answer them “Scared about what?” Yes, there is a lot to be wary about; you do get stopped over by traffic officers and have to go through border control (not to mention being charged by elephants). But I believed that if I had problems – and I did have problems − that I would be surrounded by the right people.’
Tiffany also got a lot of comments like ‘Wow, you’re a strong woman!’ which she felt were quite strange because, she says, she does not feel she’s any stronger than any other woman. ‘I don’t feel extraordinary or like something special − it was just something that I wanted to do,’ she says.
AN INTENSE LOVE FOR AFRICA
Born with an adventurous spirit, Tiffany grew up with a love for the outdoors, riding horses and hiking. She travelled internationally, spending two years in Germany and three years in Spain, but had an incredible longing to get home to Africa.
‘When I came back it was like, “This is where I want to be, I don’t want to see any other part of the world – I just want to see Africa.” Having been abroad really showed me that Africa is in my blood. There’s a contrast, there’s a peace here and just a comfort and the people are just amazing. I love our people.’
She remembers watching Defender Trophies on TV as a teen and thinking ‘That would be fun!’ She made enquiries, was invited on a trip, and within two months owned her own Land Rover Defender.
‘It’s like being part of a family. All the Defender owners wave at each other on the road and I love it. There’s a joke that says there’s a wave because we all understand the agony of it,’ she laughs, ‘but it is so much more, it is a sense of belonging.’
PHENOMENAL JOURNEY THROUGH AFRICA
Tiffany began her journey driving through Botswana, then headed to Zimbabwe where she spent a couple of days in Victoria Falls and then went on to Zambia, and finally reached her destination in Tanzania (she went through Malawi on her return trip). On the way there she heard the lady who she was supposed to do the climb with had backed out, but Tiffany decided she was already on her way and there was no way she was going to postpone things, so she just carried on driving.
‘I also realised I would be virtually sitting sedentary for a month in the car before I would climb the mountain, so I saw a personal trainer and a biokinetics before I left, and they gave me some wonderful exercises that I could do next to the vehicle to keep my core and my legs strong.’
She owns her own practice which specialises in tax and accounting services, so continued working while she was on the trip.
‘That’s what drew me to becoming a CA, the opportunities and open doors, and there is an element of freedom that like for instance even this trip, I was able to continue work while I was doing the trip.’
THE BIG CLIMB
When she arrived in Tanzania at the base camp of Mount Kilimanjaro in Moshi, where most of the tours start from, she made a few enquiries and was able to join two French girls who would be doing the climb the following week.
‘Apart from the summit day, the hiking itself I found easy. You kind of climb a thousand metres a day, and then you go down a bit to climatise and then go back up again, so I didn’t find that too strenuous because I was quite fit,’ she explains.
‘It was a seven-day, six-night hike, so you go up fairly slowly and then you descend in one day. On summit night, you leave the camp at midnight, climb to the summit and then arrive back at the camp in the morning, have a bit of a rest and start heading down again.’
The altitude on summit night was the most intense part for Tiffany: she found the last 200–300 metres the hardest part of the whole climb. ‘Every step you take feels like a full-on sprint; it’s that sort of intensity in your lungs and I just wanted to fall asleep. But I had the most wonderful guide, Dominic, encouraging me and carrying all my packs up to the top,’ she says.
‘One of the French girls wasn’t so fit but was incredible to see her determination and the strength of that friendship in that they never left each other’s side and made it to Stella Point after hours and hours of perseverance.’
A memorable moment for Tiffany was meeting Mama Lucy, whom she stumbled upon by accident. When Tiffany got down, she spent a few days again with Mama Lucy, being welcomed into her home.
‘She is the most wonderful person. She used to have a campsite, but it closed during COVID and my GPS took me there because it hadn’t updated; but what an incredible lady. She invited me to stay in one of the rooms in her lodge as her guest before the climb, and then when I arrived back I stayed with her again. I got a bit sick after the climb, but it was such a nurturing experience the way she and her family looked after me; they included me as part of the family and invited me to meals.’
Mama Lucy is part of a care programme that takes in ladies from difficult backgrounds and teaches them various business skills from sewing to pricing their products to marketing, and has a school that cares for and feeds young children whose parents are out working all day. Tiffany has remained in contact with her.
SUPER-CLOSE ELEPHANT ENCOUNTERS
On the way back, at Luangwa National Park in Zambia, Tiffany had a close encounter with an elephant charging her car, and just when she thought the elephant had stopped changing her, she looked in her review mirror and it was coming for her again. Somehow she managed to miraculously get out of it.
‘I cannot explain to you the noise an elephant makes when it trumpets at you. It’s overwhelming.’
That night, not having reached her campsite as night was falling, she ended up camping with the game wardens at the gate to the park. Over a shared dinner that evening around the communal fire, one of the wardens, Andrew, advised her that if she ever encountered an elephant the wisest thing she could do was to stand still. Two days later, she was camping in the bush at Zikomo Lodge, in south Luangwa National Park, and as she was packing up her things into the back of her Landie, she found herself face to face with another elephant.
‘It was an incredible experience,’ emphasises Tiffany. ‘He was eating from the tree right next to my car and got so close to me that he sniffed my toes. I could scarcely breathe. Thankfully I’d had the advice a few days earlier that I must just stand still: I got to look the elephant in the eye. I had my phone with me, so I took a couple of videos and photos too. I could not have asked for a better experience!’
IF YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT, YOU CAN!
Tiffany says she wants to inspire people; that if you want to do something you don’t need to be an expert, but with the right support and the belief that you can do it, it’s possible!
‘Sometimes I feel we are a little too conformed, and I’m not talking about rebellion, but just getting out there and living life and taking in every moment. It’s about connecting to other people, connecting to nature again, and allowing it to connect to us because we are just caught up with this go, go, go and we can’t connect with others because we’re just trying to get through our own lives.’
Author
Lynn Grala
