“The rain lashes so fiercely I cannot turn my face to it and breathe…”
When Mary Kingsley reached the summit of Mount Cameroon in September 1895, the wind was so strong that she could barely stand up. The tropical storm had obliterated the panorama which she had been promising herself through many days of arduous climbing. She was drenched, cold, exhausted and her companions – eager but inexperienced African lads whom she had employed to carry supplies – were fed up with trying to light camp fires in the rain. Mary was, however, the first woman ever to ascend the 13,250-foot mountain, and the experience only served to deepen her passion for Africa.