A blind woman from Rondebosch has conquered the gruelling hike up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Chiropractor Lynda Greathead, 47, did the climb with her husband, David Heyneke, 56, a chartered accountant, along with 20 other companions, in June.
The couple’s son, Daniel is in Grade 10 at Bishops, which organised the Mount Kilimanjaro hike for parents, pupils and staff as one of several activities to mark its 175th anniversary this year.
Dr Greathead was born with an underdeveloped right eye and low vision in her left eye.
“When I was a teenager, hormone complications caused me to lose more of my vision,” she says.
She now has only 3% vision and is legally blind although she can see some shapes and bright colours.
After hearing about the planned mountain trip, she checked with her ophthalmologist to see if the altitude would impact her vision, but he gave her the go-ahead.
Both Dr Greathead and her husband are keen runners and he guided her when they completed the Cape Town Marathon last year. To prepare for Mount Kilimanjaro, they did weekly hikes with Bishops geography teacher Phil Court.
“We also worked with a biokineticist to do strength training for the legs for going up and down the mountain,” says Dr Greathead, adding that they also needed to get sleeping bags, hiking poles and thermal clothing.
And Mr Heyneke had bright yellow fabric sewn to his pants to make it easier for his wife to follow him.
“There is not a lot of sound on the mountain as there are not many animals,” she says, describing the hike as “one of the hardest things I ever did”.
Along the way, the air temperature dropped to -5 degrees Celsius, but the 90km/h wind brought it down even more to -12 degrees.
Reaching the summit at 5900 metres after trekking a total of 50 hours over five days, Dr Greathead says she burst into tears.
“It was so tiring. We got to the top at around 10.30pm. Just the feeling of making it to the top made me so emotional.”
Mr Heyneke says the hike would have been a lot harder if they had not been able to do it as part of a group.
“Lynda has always tried new things; she enjoys her running; she is an inspiration to everybody, and the group that came on the trip got to know her and was also inspired by her.”
Lynda adds, “If opportunities come my way then I grab on them and I do them.”
Mr Court says it was a bonding experience doing hike with parents, staff members and a few pupils.
“We all got to know Lynda during the hike, and when we got back down at the base of the mountain, we saw her as our superstar.”
