A View from Kilimanjaro - its all over

Those of you who have been following the blog you will be aware of my recent successful climb up Mount Kilimanjaro as part of the Sunderland Partnership's charity expedition. I was interviewed for the work magazine and i thought the interview would help me explain how amazing the trip was. 

So in answer to the big question - what was it like?

It was the toughest physical experience I have taken part in. The first three days lull you into a false sense of security with relatively straightforward walks on well worn tracks, but day four is an absolute killer. It’s the first time you really reach extreme altitude, when you reach Lava Tower we really started to suffer with altitude sickness, nausea and headaches were the biggest issue. We had good weather even though we had chosen to climb in the rainy season, there were only two days when we got totally soaked.

The food on the mountain was great, breakfast was porridge and toast with plenty of tea and coffee, lunch was a packed lunch we carried with us, that consisted of sandwiches and some marble cake, a boiled egg and citrus fruit.  For tea we always started with soup and a variety of different meals on each night from fried chicken to spaghetti bolognaise with cheese. All in all we were well fed and didn’t go hungry.

The sunrise at Stella Point was definitely something I was looking forward to and I had seen many pictures from other people’s blogs and books. I had also read as much as possible about the climb to Stella Point and Uhuru Peak. The books were right - it was a slog of a climb setting off at midnight and walking slowly following the person in front. My head torch was sadly quite dim but thankfully others had better torches that I could follow. As I reached Stella Point I was greeted by some of the team that were ahead of me and one of the guides gave me a cup of hot sweet black tea, the best drink I have ever had! The sunrise was worth the climb and I would swear I could see almost all of Africa.

Reaching Uhuru Peak was amazing, and slightly disorientating. As were climbing in the rainy season the whole top of Kilimanjaro was covered in snow, at points it was hard to see where the snow stopped and the clouds began. We all cheered and posed for our photos at the top which I am sure most of you will have seen by now. We were only allowed to stay at the top for a short time due to the lack of oxygen.

The way back down Kilimanjaro is not well covered in the books I had read. The ones it was covered in suggest you can “Scree Slide/Ski” down the mountain which would be great fun, if you weren’t so tired that even walking in a straight line was a problem. Coming down from the top was a four hour trek with help from the guides, I have to admit I have never been as pleased to see my tent as I was when I walked into camp that morning.

The final day took us back down to the gate and onto our waiting mini bus, the trip was over and I was looking forward to a long shower and a shave. All of our trip would not have been possible without the aid of our amazing team of guides, porters and cooks. So before we got on the bus the group thanked the team by singing a traditional Sunderland folk song “The Lambton Worm”.

As everyone will know the climb was for charity and I am pleased to report that the group have now raised £69,306. I raised over £3,600 though personal sponsorship and support from PCT staff, that will go to support the Kilimatinde Hospital in Tanzania and the African black wood project in Tanzania.

Finally, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who supported me in the trip.

Blog feed from our site while we are away

Hi all while we are away on the mountain we will be using another blog
http://www.usskilimanjaro.co.uk/

The following may be a feed from our blog site while we are on the mountain if you click on any of the links it will take you directly to the main blog site with picture and will help to keep you updated on our progress. Many thanks Aaron

Thanks for the help Fundraising

With just 6 days to go before I fly out to Tanzania I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped with the fund-raising, if you have been keeping an eye on the Just Giving site you will have noticed that it is now at 130% as we have raised £2,620.72 for the 2 charities. 

 

Charity Fundraising has included: 

Cakes sales, an Easter quiz, pancake sales, weight loss clubs with forfeits, guess the baby competition, raffles, a magic night, a dress down day, a charity auction of photos, sponsored children's mini Kilimanjaro climb (at my daughters nursery), personal sponsorship and donation.  

The generosity of the everybody, who has helped with and has taken part in the events, has blown me away. 

Just to remind you all the money goes to an excellent cause, the NHS SOTW charity is the Kilimatinde Trust, a charity that supports a hospital with four community clinics and a nurse training school in one of the poorest provinces of Tanzania.

Outpatient Clinic, Kilimatinde Hospital.

Operating Theatre, Kilimatinde Hospital.

Many thanks Aaron

Successful Magic Night & Band of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

On Friday night, 26th March, Stephen Taylor, Neils Vinter and I hosted the magic night at Seaham hall and I am please to report it was a really good night. John Archer was very good with comic songs including a classical piece on the ukulele and psychological magic as well as some very clever maths with magic squares, which had everyone guessing. 

The cake went down a storm with everyone getting a piece, I also took the little people off the top of the cake for safe keeping and plan to take them to the top of Kilimanjaro. There was some concern that there were only 17 people on the top of the cake; however the other 3 were just round the corner less than one hour from the top. It was an excellent night, a big thank you to all who came along to support as.

The summit of the cake 

On Sunday night, 28th March, Neil and Jessica two of the other climbers, arranged for The Band of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers to play a charity concert in Sunderland Minster as a fund-raising event. The band were joined by guest singers John Rowland and Julie Pendleton and Neil plays the Clarinet in the band.

It was an excellent evening with the band playing rousing military marching tunes and tunes from the movies and shows including Oliver, Phantom of the Opera and the Sound of Music and when they played “Climb Every Mountain” I did smile. I’m not sure the song will make it on to my ipod but it is a funny song for the trip. The evening finished with “Rule Britannia” just like being at last night of the proms.   

 The Band of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Magic Cake Arrives

Just a very quick post to show you all the magic show cake,  it was created by Janice who works in the Stop Smoking Team in NHS SoTW

 The cake in all its glory, almost seems a shame to cut it up  

 

Cake Maker Jancie in the middle and the smoking team who all contributed

The cake will be at the magic show tonight where it will be cut up and sold to those who are coming along.

If you fancy a piece the only way to get some is to come along.

Tickets available on the door £25 per person with drink and food and magic and of course cake included.

Meet Some of the team - Taken at Scafell

Some pictures of the team while on our Scafell Trek
Gillian, Aaron, John, Emily, Chris, Jessica, Karen and Stephen

A Big Big Thank you - Cake Competition

I wanted to say a big thank you everyone who took part in the cake competition,  and guess the baby  competition that took place in Rapier House. Sadly I was on annual leave so was not able to taste the wonderful cakes, however Hannah stepped in the breech and helped out as a cake judge.

The cake rush  

 The baby competition

 There we so many cakes that i can't show them all on the blog, but thought I should show you the first and second place cakes, well done to Jane and Judith.

The event raised over £113 thanks very much it is very much appreciated.

Training weekend 5: Camping and Scarfell 20th - 21st March

On 20th March, with less than 4 weeks to go, we had our final group training weekend we were staying at Wasdale Head campsite in the western lakes, on Saturday night for camping before walking on the Sunday. The campsite nestles under the Scafell mountain range at the head of beautiful Wastwater, the deepest lake in England.

Map of the Lakes  

We arrived in Wasdale head on Sunday afternoon and put tents then headed down to the local pub, the Wasdale Head Inn. Sadly the pub had no TV signal so we couldn’t watch England getting beaten, we had a good meal and a good discussion about the remaining things we needed to do for our preparations for Kilimanjaro. 

Then it was back to the tent, to try out my new sleeping bag and roll mat, which I had bought earlier in the week in Keswick. After much searching I went with a down bag and I am pleased to report it was lovely and warm, so I am very happy to take it to Kilimanjaro with me.  

  Our tents in the morning lightly frosted

Breakfast was provided by the duo that is John Anderson and Scott Elwell who we refer to as our version of the Hairy Bikers, although they don’t have bikes or big beards. They supplied us with tea & coffee and cracking bacon butties with beans. Top quality mountain climbing food. Jonathan was to be the maitre'd but sadly had to miss the trip after he bruised his foot kick boxing and was told to rest.

After breakfast we set off on our expedition up Scafell, the day was really pleasant as we set off with reasonable temperatures and even some sunshine, you would think it was spring.

 

 Setting Off 

Scafell hidden by cloud

It was scary at various times getting to the summit, including a precarious route which we called the wall of doom on the journey back to Sunderland. The trip back down was challenging too, with the rain and the mud on the stone steps, provided by the National Trust, I managed to slip at least 3 times and put a slight bend in my walking pole.  

The scramble

 The view at the top

 

Ski Sunday on the way back down

So in the space of one weekend we have camped beside the deepest lake in England and climbed the highest mountain in England, this is all good training, but Kilimanjaro is 6 times as big as Scafell, oh well at least we have 6 days to climb it.

Training weekend 4: Walking in the Cheviots 20th February 2010

On 20th February we had our next training weekend. We had planned to try and camp in the Cheviots but we found the campsites were not open so we scrapped this idea and instead went with a walk, which we started early on the Sunday morning.

We met at the Rose & Thistle, Alwinton, NE65 7BQ in Northumberland, which is near the areas that were totally cut off by snow in December 2009 and January 2010.

Our walk was planned to take us up to Windy Gyle, it was described as a gentle training walk, and it turned out it was more than 16 miles.

Map of where we were heading

The group were assembled by about 8.30am and we set off into the hills. We were led by Richard our guide for the day. The start of the walk was crisp and frosty but with no snow, however, after about half an hour we were into deep snow.

Start of the walk

So deep that a Land Rover had been abandoned after slipping in to a deep gully. Apparently it had been there for a few days!

The deep snow

The Northumberland country side is really beautiful, and when covered in snow it could have been Austria, Switzerland or Sweden.

We stopped for lunch after about 4 hours walking and we were all very grateful for the break. Trudging through snow is very tough and it did feel like one of the most challenging walks we had done.

Lunch stop

Lunch stop

After lunch we headed for the summit of Windy Gyle. We got to the top and posed for team photo.

The Team Photo

Left to right: John, Richard, Emily, John, Dave, Ralph, John, Mick, Chris, Claire, Karen, Neils and Me (Aaron) in the red        

We then headed back down to the car park and home. It was a really good walk and great to have so many people there, as 12 out of our group of 19 climbers made it. There were lows and highs in the walk and we had a great time discussing what music we would and wouldn’t listen to on the mountain. The favourite seemed to be YAZZ’s The Only Way Is Up and QUEEN’s Don’t Stop Me Now.

Is this Narnia?

The journey back home was interesting with blizzard conditions on the way back to the A1 and all the way back to Newcastle. All I could think was thank goodness it had held off while we were walking.

There are now only 5 weeks to go until we head off to Tanzania for the climb. In this time we will be having some charity events, including the Evening of Magic on the 26 March 2010, an Easter quiz and a Talent Show 9 April 2010, so the question is “Do you have the K Factor?”

‘An Evening of Magic’ - Friday 26th March 2010 @ Seaham Hall

The climb up Kilimanjaro is fast approaching, 50 days left until we fly out from Newcastle as I make this post. To help raise money for the charities we are supporting we are putting on a charity event.

‘An Evening of Magic’ Friday 26th March 2010 at Seaham Hall.

As well as a performance from renowned magician John Archer, the evening will also feature a raffel and a Charity Auction and a Disco.
Food will be provided, with the amazing Kilimanjaro Cake rising high above the surrounding selection of bowl food and snacks!

Doors open at 7.30pm, with the show starting at 8pm.

Dress Code: Lounge Suit/ Cocktail Dress

Tickets: £25

Venue Address:

Seaham Hall

Lord Byron’s Walk

Seaham

County Durham

SR7 7AG

For tickets and further information, please contact Aaron Tucker, via the normal contact routes.

Pancake Post

On the 16 February we had decided to sell pancakes for Kilimanjaro funds. The night before I spent several hours cooking 80 pancakes, well 86 actually, but some were sacrificed for tasting purposes and as always the first pancake is never any good.   

The pancakes were sold at 50p per pancake with a choice of fillings. I need to say a massive thank you to all involved in the providing of toppings and the selling of the pancakes especially the OD and Workforce Team and People Development Team.

Lisa and Hannah, part of the selling team  

I also need to say a big thank you to all who bought pancakes this morning; we raised £64.10 for the Kilimanjaro fund. The pancakes went really fast, with most of them being sold within 20 minutes.

 The Pancake Rush

 

Meeting Steve Cram: Team Coco Climbs the Mountain

On the 2^nd Feb 2010 we met with Steve Cram and his wife. They both climbed the same route that we are to take up Kilimanjaro in last November for Steve’s Charity COCO.

Steve Cram

There were 29 in Steve’s group and the majority of them made it to the top. A few suffered with Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) and had to go down before reaching the summit and one climber dislocated their knee, ouch, and had to go back down. From Steve's presentation it sounded like an amazing trip, from signing in at Machame Gate, right through to the final summit climb on day 6. 

 Machame Gate

 

 The Coco Team at the summit

Top tips were given are:

• You need to drink 4- 5 litres of water per day so a bladder pack is a good idea
• Make sure you have a wet weather gear otherwise you might end up paying $50 for a poncho at the gate before you start the climb.
• Moshi is a great place to get last minute things before the trip but remember they expect you to haggle
• Get to know your guide in case you forget something as they will pass you on the mountain 
• A lot of climbing the mountain is about keeping the team together so having a joke book, quizzes and riddles are good to keep you talking
• Group huddles at strategic points, such as 4000 metres, worked well
• Barafu camp also sells beer, so that must be the highest pub in the world 15239 ft/4633 m, and the toilet with the best view in the world.
• The final night we climb from 4600 metres to 5900 metres in one go, rising from high altitude to extreme altitude. Keep talking as it’s about encouraging each other at this point and your personal desire to get to the top.
• You have to be aware though that you might not be able to get to the top; 2 of the group were turned back at Stella Point (18,652 ft/5,685 m) 30 mins to the summit - Uhuru Peak.
• You can 'scree slide' down the slope on the way back down if you have any energy left. This entails skidding/running down the loose gravel at medium speed.