Sunrise from 4,000 metres

Altitude sickness hit at three in the morning. Headache like a vice. Nausea. My guide said we could turn back. I said no. We kept climbing in the dark with headlamps bobbing ahead like fallen stars. When the sun came up over Kilimanjaro, I forgot about the pain. The clouds were below us. Below us. I have never felt so small and so alive at the same time.