TRAVEL TALES

The Day I Stood on Top of the World

Those feelings I experienced were beyond anything I could ever describe

I don’t know how to describe it but whenever I see this picture, an explosive mixture of feelings and memories erupts in my body. I get transported back in time and place. That photograph is just so much more than just me. On a rock. To me at least.

To some, the top of the world is something within their horizon. To others, Mount Everest is the top of the world. To me, that mountain isn’t just far enough out of my comfort zone but also out of my horizon.

It was a different mountain. A different moment. It wasn’t even the highest mountain I’ve ever climbed. But it was the surroundings that gave me the feeling of overlooking the earth. Not only the physical surroundings of standing at the top of a mountain but also mentally. I was at a place and time in my life where I don’t know if I’ll ever reach that level of happiness again.

I was still kind of believing I’d only stay for a couple of months in Namibia while all my friends, at home and in the country, knew, I wasn’t. I was there for the long run.

I was living the best life.

And so, it happened a bunch of us loaded camping gear in a few not-camping-worthy vehicles and we drove off. Into the desert. And if I say a bunch of friends, it includes people from their early twenties to those in their late forties. Or more. Who knows. What is age anyway?

Spitzkoppe was our destination. I had never been. A mountain known as the ‘Matterhorn of Namibia’ due to its lone-standing location in the vastness of the Namibian desert.

Some of us had been camping at the base of the mountain before. It is a very rustic and basic campsite but at a beautiful location. In the following years, I’d end up more than fifty times right there. To go rock climbing on its challenging cliffs.

But back to the story. Our mission was to get to the top and as someone who had hiked the Alps up and down, from East to West and North to South I was in for a very mind-blowing experience.

• Not all hiking is as easy as in the Alps.
• Not all hiking is as safe as in the Alps.
• Not all hikes include regular water access such as mountain rivers.
• Not all hikes happen in daylight.
• Not all hikes are done on well-trodden trails.
• Not all hikes have trails at all.
• Not all hikes have signs.

No other hike will ever be like this one.

One of us had been to the top once before. And one other friend had been atop three times but years apart. Not much memory regarding the route but lots of mountaineering experience among us.

We might not have been the best prepared or experienced ones on this route, but we were smart enough to attempt the summit of a peak located in the desert at nighttime.

There was no way we’d get up there during the heat of daytime hours.

And so, we began. At some stupid o'clock, I guess it was something between 3 and 4 in the wee morning hours. We had three torches between the six of us. Yeah, stuff happens.

The stars were shining brightly above our heads. An endless sky.

I remember walking somewhere in the middle of the group following blindly our leading team, the two who were scouting out the route ahead analyzing every few meters if we should go right or left around the upcoming boulder.

I didn’t see much. I stepped on rocks and then on grass again. I pulled myself up on roots and whatever trees or branches I could grab. Many boulders required us to scramble up. Luckily it was dark and none of us could see how deep we’d fall if we slipped.

Slipping was simply not an option.

Sometimes we would get instructions to stay far right or left not knowing what the danger or the other end of the direction was, and we followed blindly in the faint light of the few torches we had.

There were points during this climb where I didn’t think I’d get up any further. Then someone pushed from behind and an arm pulled me up from above.

Somehow, I got to another level.

Slowly but surely, we could see light on the horizon, but this only made us realize how much further we still had to go. I now looked at my water bottle and realized I had two more sips left.

I’d save them. For when I’m really thirsty I said.

And we kept on scrambling up in the twilight hours.

Eventually, we reached an opening. A flat rock allowing us to see the sunrise in the East. We didn’t make it all the way to the top for the first rays of sunshine but remained for a few minutes to take in the beauty.

Nothing but barren land as far as the eye could see. The vast desert landscape stretched across the horizon at sunrise. It was mesmerizing.

Secretly, I had hoped this was the top or we would decide this was it. But no, we all went further. Walking along the edge of a cliff as if we’d stroll across a trail on the fields. Deep rock crevices were to our right and left.

Then a two-meter-high boulder was blocking our way. The guys quickly got up but the two girls remained behind. My friend was saying she couldn’t get up. There was nothing to hold onto. No foot holds. Yes, we were all rock climbers but out here with no ropes and nothing.

I moved in and offered her my thigh as a step. She looked at me knowing that would work but asking how I would come up afterward.

“That’s gonna be a problem of future-Anne. Let’s first get you up.”

This way I got her up but noticed there was no way I could push myself from the ground even closely high enough for them to pull me the rest. I looked around and opted for the only alternative.

Jumping across some deep crevices and walking around the boulder.

And so, I did.

A few minutes later, we made it.

Indeed.

I couldn’t believe it.

This wasn’t a peak as you know it. There was not a single flat surface up there. But there was a place for us to take a group photo. Somehow, with my tripod. Because, of course, I did carry my camera with me all the way.

And then I saw my rock.

As if I wasn’t lucky enough not to have died on the climb up, I leaped over and lay down atop this boulder. It might not look comfortable at all but this was where I came to rest.

I lay there for a long time — normalizing my breath and taking in the moment. I didn’t feel the spiky rock underneath my back. I didn’t feel as if I was lying on a cliff.

I was just there.

Completely relaxed.

I felt happiness.

True happiness from within.

And not to spoil the story but we had to go down again, and the problem was now, we had daylight. We saw the crevices we had to jump across. We saw the deep drop-offs centimeters next to our feet. We saw the size of the mountain we had just climbed.

And we still knew we had to get down. Even though we were all exhausted and tired.

All, except one of us. I don’t think I knew it from the beginning but at one point I saw the guys scouting out some spots. One of our friends had carried up his speed wing and then flew halfway down the mountain back to camp.

I hated him.

Climbing up the mountain is fun. But getting back down? Certainly not. And he did the best of both.

Anyway. We all made it back down. Alive even if scratched and exhausted.

And this is one of the experiences I have the fondest memories of. I still see the darkness and the sky filled with stars as we begin the hike. I do see the faint light of our torches scanning the mountain. I also see the sun rising above the horizon and us gasping in awe.

And I do remember lying on the rock atop. In full happiness.

Scott-Ryan Abt was asking if we have a photo that tells a thousand-word story of our travels. I guess my answer is yes… I wrote 1500 words on it.

What about you? Do you have a photo that tells a thousand-word story of your travels? If so, please share it with us and don’t forget to tag me in it.

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