Moivaro Lodge cont..

On arrival the staff greeted us with warm towels and watermelon juice. We were then showed to our lodges.

Cute stone houses with thatched roofs, very rustic but set in lots of greenary. I love it.

Running theme but then we made our way to the bar and time for some Kilimanjaro and Serengetti beer yum!!

Again the sturdy ones stayed up until 3am local time and ended the night singing.

We were once again sensible!

I feel good but a little gypy tummy, I think Malarone related.

I'm sat in our porch with Anne whilst the sun shines listening to "Jambo" and singing in the trees, bliss.

The biggest mother F****** of an insect just joined us. I have no idea what it was but I'm sure if it bites it could take your hand off!

Some of the group are popping into Arusha prior to our 3pm briefing but I'm gonna chill, repack and drink water.

I'm just struggling to do up my duffle bag after taking all the essential stuf packed in my hand luggage (incase they lost our bags) and putting it into my duffle but according to my scales it is dot on 15kg!

So tomorrow the adventure begins. It's hard to believe sat in this heat that in a few days we'll need down jackets!!! More water I think!

18th March. Moivaro Lodge, Arusha, Tanzania.

11:20am.

Well we're here! I meant to write in this from Birmingham and from Amsterdam but OMG the time flew.

It's already a crazy adventure. Arriving at Birmingham and seeing Navy Kili Hoodies and pale blue TCT T-shirts everywhere!

Naturally we congregated in the bar in departures! No late arrivals, everyone eager, excited and scared.

My camera got broken in customs, it still works but the lcd screen is blank apart from the top right hand corner. This means all pics will be a surprise (thankfully they came out pretty good) and I can't change the menu from auto settings! However I'm in a group of 43 so I'm sure we'll get a few good shots between us.

We landed in Amsterdam about 8pm and made our way to the Park Plaza hotel. Oddly we ended up in the bar, of course that was for food!!!

Myself and Anne were very sensible and turned in about 10:30. Some peoples faces at breakfast (Dan) suggested the 01:30am drinking session after starting at 4pm was not such a good idea!

On the actual 16th (departure day) I think we were all so excited that no-one had slept. I woke up at 5:45am and by 6:30 had done a million manic chores. Then the texts and facebook comments started. Everyone was wishing us luck whilst we were panicking about do we check through to Kilimanjaro and keep day sack or do we take everything off at Amsterdam??

In the end 50/50 mso no need to stress.

The flight to Kili was very good. It's quite the oddest thing to look up and see people you know from work on every row!

Arrival in Kili was 21:30 Kili time (18:30 in England) and we walked into a heat cloud.

The airport is small and their was a little anxiety whilst everyone waited for their luggage.

However not much time later and everyone had luggage and we were seated on 3 rickety buses for a 36k drive to Moivaro lodge.

The Journey

I've now been back 10 days. I made it to the top, to Stella point. It was hard and took me a long time. I am gutted I didn't make it to Uhuru but apparently anything from Gilmans point onwards counts as a successful summit so hurray! I kept a diary whilst I travelled. It may be influenced by my hypoxic state but I will attempt to write it up. Tomorrow we have our Kili party so I need to get back on track with keeping this in chronological order.

I've raised over £3500 for charity. That is the biggest success in my eyes and I thank everyone that supported and sponosed me! Now to go back in time xxxxx

The night before ...

So thats work finished, hoodie picked up, flight checked in and seats sorted and packing done.
I have swerved between childlike excitement and fear. What is I don't make it? I'll be so gutted. All this effort, all this money raised. However I know I won't fail however hard it is. I'm not just doing this as a life experience. My motivation started with Sam more than 10 years ago and was massively increased when Claire started her fight.
Claire is for me an inspiration. Her way of making cancer seem like a small irritation whilst she gets on with her life is so the best way but something so many find difficult to do.
As well as these 2 wonderful women I have known others who have fought and who have inspired.
You can't not leave an imprint on this world and if its to inspire good in others then your life has been a success.
Getting to know the Newhams and Fosters has added more reason to succeed.
This will make a difference to teenagers in the midlands and to bowel cancer patients.
Every step I take will help in the fight. We have one life, live it.

Packing

5 days to go and its starting to be very real. last night I was awake at 4:30 because I'd been packing in my head in my sleep for so long I was unable to sleep.

Today I tried to pack, my day pack is so full and my book for the flight won't fit in! I think I will need to do some juggling but there are so many stories about luggage missing that i've put all essentials in my hand luggage!! This pic is the start of my packing!!

It's the Final Countdown (and the sun shone)

Today we tackled Edale and Kinder Scout again. So far we've been snowed off twice, rained off once and the other time we completed a walk in the pouring rain. Yesterdays walk was wet and miserable so it didn't bode well for our final training walk.
Sunday dawned dry, arrival in Edale and a strange yellow blob could be seen in the sky, OMG its sunny!
We took the Grindsbrook path which starts off on a nice paved path and then gradually becomes more rocky and then the final half mile is a sheer climb on rocks, great fun. Once at the top it was time to admire the view and have some lunch. Boy did it quickly get cold so onwards across the strange moor, through the rocks that due to weather look like sculptures and eventually down Jacobs ladder and back to Edale.
A fab finale to our training. Sponsors are on about £30,000. On Tuesday we're meeting the Teenage Cancer Ward sisters and Heather from TCT. Boarding tickets can be picked up tomorrow eeek! 10 days and counting.

Lost, muddy and the cheese shop wasn't open

Well I've said on several times what a muddy walk we'd done so I thought I was prepared. This walk started in Hartington and was described as a strenous 12 mile. That was about where the instructions ended! multiple getting lost and the intense mud meant we'd taken hours to get to Longnor. We were exhausted at this point but hoped a spot of lunch would restore spirits for the return journey. It seemed to initially until we realised we were going in the wrong direction and losing light.

We asked a friendly local who suggested we went back a mile up the steep hill to the village we'd had a late lunch and then on the roads it should only be another 6 miles!

We probably started to get an idea of what summit night will be like with our moods! However we speed marched up hill and along roads and shockingly made it back just before dark. Last time I do a walk with so few instructions!!!

Up to about £30,000 in fund raising!