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How the idea started.
Once upon a time in a far away land I answered an advertisment to share a flat with two girls, down on the shores of Sydney Harbour. My flatmates turned out to be the beautiful Liz and the delightful Linda.. Liz had a boyfriend called Cuddles (Ian) who used to sit on the poof very close to the TV and watch whatever crap was on.. Well role on a sensible number of year and Cuddles popped the question and they are now married and have Alexander and Edward two fantastic boys..
So I'm speaking with Liz about 5 months ago and she says that Cuddles is thinking of climbing Kilimanjaro.. and that was it.. I couldn't have Cuddles up a mountain without being there as well. The first question was who else, so we all made some calls and Sophie mentioned it to all her friends, she facebooked everyone, i mentioned it to the cricket team..and my school chums and names came in and names fell away...
Jo and Brownie were the first takers.. there was no ifs or buts.. they were coming.. Soph was adament that they were exactly what we needed and would be brilliant..great personalities, great drive.. up for the challenge and team players.. and from a girlie point of view.. lovely lads !!
I mentioned it at the office to Rohan in passing, and before I had finished the phone call, he had already booked his ticket.
Our last UK based climber was Kathleen who had talked to Godwin (our Tanzania guide) and he had suggested to get in touch.. which will be just brilliant for the team. She is really up for the challenge as these types of things cannot be taken lightly. So we were 5 from the UK and Ian had 3 from Sydney. What a great start.
As they say you can be a 'dreamer of the night' or a 'dreamer of the day' - and it should not be underestimated what it takes to be the latter. Time, commitment, inspiration, vision, organisation and a little cash..
So we were 8.
Our organisation was helped a great deal by using Google Docs, which gave us a single place to store information and intelligence on the kit, training, checklists, jabs, timings, visas, team dynamics and so it goes on. Any team has to be prepared.
We had meetings every few weeks to discuss training and kit.. We discussed motivations and inspirations, which included all our friends in the armed forces like big Matt and Guessy, who have been out or are going out to Afgan and the like.. hence one of our charities being Help for Heroes. As of the 9th September we have already raised over £900. You know that is just fantastic, and makes us feel very proud that anyone would do that for us..
As for training, well the photos tell the tail, with yomps up and down the hills, plenty of swimming, the Black Mountains, Snowdonia, etc.
Boy we want to get to the top, but the biggest achievement will be if we can all get there. The only bit that really counts is of course the charity money, and secondly the last step to the summit. All the steps to get up there will be nothing compared to getting to the top together..
So presently we have 22 days to go and I just feel and know that the team is going to be awesome..
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