A STUDENT from Crewkerne had double cause for celebration this week.

Abbie Barnes, 18, returned from the trip of a lifetime to Africa with three of the world's top scientists and found out she had achieved top A-level results.

Abbie, who studied at Richard Huish College in Taunton, filmed the Climb4ClimateAction documentary while trekking up Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness about the effects of climate change.

She was with tropical field biologist and conservationist Dr Ian Redmond OBE; Dr Ian Singleton, director of conservation at PanEco Foundation and scientific director for the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme; and Dr Andrew Steel, founder and chief executive of the PATT Foundation.

She said: “This opportunity was a major step towards my career goal of becoming a wildlife conservationist, filmmaker and presenter. It was the most incredible experience as my first visit to Africa.

“During the trek I saw a wonderful array of wildlife, including my first primates, blue monkeys, baboons and colobus monkeys, sunbirds and the rare and endangered lammergeyer vulture.

“The plant life was also astonishing, like giant heathers and red hot pokers.”

When she returned from Africa she received her Alevel results and found she had achieved one A*, two A’s and a C.

After a gap year she plans to go to Exeter Cornwall University to study for a degree in Environmental Science.