Mt. Kilimanjaro - to the Roof of Africa

K-Minus 1 Day

Well, this is it.

The last five months have flown by.  It feels like only yesterday that I tried walking to work in the snow that time, almost killing myself in the process. Since then I've climbed Snowdon, the peaks in the Lake District, Roseberry Topping several times, and I've made the 14 mile round trip to Thorpe Thewles via the Castle Eden Walkway more times than I care to remember. I must have walked over 100 miles in the gym on the highest hill setting, and I've swam countless lengths of the pool.

But is it enough? Have I got what it takes? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Later today, Palma and I will be on our way to Nairobi. On Thursday we have a 6-8 hour drive across the border into Tanzania to look forward to. On Friday morning we will begin our walk in the rain forest and very early Thursday morning, June 18th, we will make our attempt on the summit (download the full itinerary if you want to follow our pain).

If AMS doesn't clobber us you can be sure that we'll do our very best to reach the top. But even if we don't make it (Neil Armstrong had to turn back, apparently!) we'll have a bloody good time trying.

Phone coverage is supposedly available on the summit and if I manage to get any messages back home they'll be posted on my Twitter feed.

It just leaves me to thank you for the support you have given to us. The kindness and generosity of friends, family, work colleagues and complete strangers alike has raised over £3800 (over £4,500 with gift aid!) for UNICEF. That's brilliant.

Just before I go, here's a final video blog that shows in detail what I have to take with me on this trip. It's just a shame I didn't film the ensuing fight with the kit bag where I desperately attempt to make it dimensionally transcendental...

I'll see you on the other side...

Neil

Video Blog #2

I spent a fantastic Saturday on Red Pike mountain near Buttermere Lake with Palma and her friends Amanda, Dawn, Jackie and her husband Emlyn, who also acted as our guide. Brilliantly, he decided to inject some jeopardy into the day by taking us off the beaten track and into a fairly challenging descent that really tested my equipment, not to mention my knees.

I had a great time - the weather was incredible and the scenery was stunning (pictures available here) - and it also gave me a chance to play with my camera settings, because who reads the manual?. Unfortunately, most of the footage that I shot in the morning ended up being completely unusable, but, as luck would have it, as soon as we got "lost" I stumbled upon the optimal settings and what follows is a little taste of our day:

The unorthodox descent resulted in some invaluable training and it was great fun clambering over the rocks, heather and scree. It's given me a big confidence boost too - especially when I woke up on Sunday and discovered that the 8 hour trek didn't destroy my ability to walk straight. You know, I think I might actually be ready to do this now...

Neil

Video Blog #1

I finally got hold of a small HD camcorder and, as promised, here's my first video blog entry. You can also watch these videos directly via my YouTube channel where they are slightly larger and in HD too.

I promise that the next video won't be quite so boring as this one. I'm just trying out all the settings. Honest.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Two weeks to go and I have two fascinating new illnesses to report. The first, fat fingers, is apparently normal for some hikers who go walking in the summer months. It's something to do with blood rushing to the extremities and your hands swaying beneath your heart. Or something. It's harmless, I think, if a little disconcerting.

My second illness was completely self-inflicted. Sunburn. Yes, on Sunday, like many others around the country I'd wager, I went a little bit crazy at the first sign of sunshine. I was only out for an hour and I ended up with third degree burns for my trouble. My right arm still glows in the dark, while my knees gave off so much heat you could have fried eggs on them.

Worse still is what happened to my face (see right). Not good. Not good at all. And I'm not just talking about the beard.

Thankfully, a crate of Aloe Vera gel has managed to reduce the excruciating agony into a mild irritation and I was even well enough to go for a 3 and a half hour hike today. On Saturday I managed six straight hours without even a twinge. No aches or pains the next morning either. Six months ago I would have been hospitalised.

In other news, we're almost £200 over our target now, and there's no sign of it stopping, which is fantastic. Sadly, my Doctor Who Charity Auction is going down like a lead balloon. Or perhaps people just don't understand the rules, in which case it's doing really well! Or maybe everyone is waiting for the last possible second to make a bid on a novel signed by Nicola Bryant. Go on, google her.

Or maybe I've simply exhausted the generous seam of Doctor Who fandom, which surprises me as I would have thought an extra fiver in exchange for Bernard Horsfall's signature and a small child's welfare would have been a shoo-in. Oh well, there's still time!

And finally, Palma and I are off to the Lakes this Saturday and my new HD palmcorder is currently in the postal system, so with any luck there might be a video blog available this Sunday.

Neil

Target Acquired!

Great news! Firstly, I'm back to full health. Aren't antibiotics brilliant? Secondly, and much more importantly, we reached our fund raising target late last night! The donation that sent us over the edge was made by a Doctor Who fan that I've never met and probably never will. Who said that being an anorak (Berghaus, of course) was sad? It's never ceased to amaze and inspire me that this community has come together to help me out; it's especially heart-warming when we are currently swamped with images of strangers out for what they can get.

Speaking of Doctor Who, and I usually am I'm afraid, I've just launched a mini-auction on my blog where donations to UNICEF can win you signed Doctor Who goodies. If you are a fan of the show there's a wide selection of stuff to bid on, so please pass this on if you know of anyone who might be "into that kind of thing". The plan was to use this auction as a last-minute push to the target but there's no harm in smashing it into tiny little pieces now, is there?

In other news, I've just bought a small HD palmcorder and with any luck it'll be here in time for next Saturday when I'm heading to the Lakes with Palma for some serious hill walking. It's our last major ascent before the real thing, although we still are toying with the idea of climbing Roseberry Topping in the dark before we leave - but do I really want to risk an injury at this late stage? If the camera does show up I'll try to post some video to the blog before I leave.

Other than that, I've almost got all my kit, my training is going well (another 6km up-hill walk and 20 lengths in the pool today), and I've had my last rabies jab and dental check-up. And while I'm still a little bit terrified and I've just this second realised that I'll miss the finale of The Apprentice while I'm away,  I simply can't wait to get started on this now...

Neil

Illi for Kili

K-Minus 28 days

Ever since I agreed to this challenge I've been in a state of constant paranoia about my health. That slight twinge in my knee? Almost certainly rheumatoid arthritis. Runny nose? Probably swine flu. Sore throat? Lung cancer. Got to be. Every niggle, every weird sensation, every sniffle inevitably leads to panic: what if it stops me climbing the mountain?

Factor in a global fear about a flu pandemic and it's got to the point where I'm afraid to leave the house anymore. I mean, what if I slip on those stairs at work? It's becoming debilitating.

Now, I'm not a hypochondriac by any stretch of the imagination; I've been to the Doctors four times in the last 20 years and two of those visits were to receive vaccinations for this trip. In short, while I've had my fair shares of scrapes, bruises and infections, I've never had to bother the NHS about it. Until now.

In the last two weeks my health has gone completely pearshaped. It all started with a persistently bad taste in the back of my throat, which was then joined by a bad cough and a gurgling sound coming from what I thought were my lungs. In short, I felt bloody awful. Worse still, my training ground to a complete halt. And with that comes guilt, paranoia and self-doubt.

On Monday I went to the Doctors, and after recovering from the shock of being instructed to urinate on command, he decided that my tonsils were inflamed and that my kidneys were infected. He gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way. 24 hours later and the taste was gone and the gurgling had stopped, and, for a afternoon at least, my confidence soared.

Yesterday I felt worse than ever; tired, nauseous and generally unwell. Could it be the antibiotics playing havoc with my so-called friendly-bacteria?

Today I feel like my throat is blocked. It's as if I've got a lump of food stuck in there and I can't shift it, even though I haven't. It doesn't hurt but it's difficult to swallow and it's irritating as hell. The Internet isn't much help - according to various online medical forums my condition is either a) stress related b) a virus c) tonsillitis or d) terminal cancer. If I look in the mirror my tonsils look really inflamed on one side so I'm guessing (praying) that it's all connected somehow. My course of antibiotics run out on Monday and I'll be back to the Doctors if things don't improve.

But it's terrifying. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't be overly concerned by this condition, but as I enter the last month of my preparations I'm gripped by this horrible feeling that someone - or something - will stop me going up that mountain. Not only that, my training routine has slipped and it's got to the point where I know I'll have to force myself to train tomorrow, despite feeling unwell. And then that leads me to worry that I'll only make myself worse.

Brilliant.

Anyway, assuming that I survive the weekend I aim to publish more frequent updates on this blog as the date looms ever closer. It's starting to feel very, very real...

Neil

Back from Oz

Well it’s been almost two weeks since my grand trip to Australia and I expected to return to feral children and a house I wouldn’t recognise.  Now that’s no reflection on my wonderful husband but let’s face it nobody can really do a mother’s job.  But to genuine my surprise, my lovely girls were in great shape and my house was spotless, showcase material.  Joe assures me he didn’t pay anyone.  I don’t know whether to smile about it or cry about it. That said, my body and mind are almost in sync and life goes back to normal.

 

While I was down under doing the family thing, there really wasn’t a lot of training going on to be honest, lots of going out, drinking, socialising, catching up with people I haven’t seen for years, introducing Joshua to family was grand and spending quality time with Dad was the best. Several things got in the way of training like really bad storms, cyclones, floods all sorts of forces against you.  I even tried going swimming, but you could say that didn’t go according to plan. 

 

Here we were Joshua and I splashing in the pool just getting started and Joshua said “look Mommy, a frog” as I got closer I discovered that the frog was indeed a huge water scorpion not to be messed with.  They aren’t poisonous but their claws can nip your toe clean off!  I didn’t need any more convincing that swimming was not a good idea. To top off our experience of outdoor swimming there also were poisonous toads jumping about, and I don’t even want to tell you about the snake story because you really won’t believe me. Joshua fell in love with the kangaroos however ….

 

Back in England and training has started up again in the form of walking on week-ends much to my children’s horror.  It’s rather comical, as all three chant “We’re not going walking again!” and me saying “Oh it will be fun, lots of rocks to climb”, while Joe’s rolling his eyes thinking to himself “Here we go again”.  Bless, they have been brilliant but five months of walking is starting to get to them and we still have several weeks to go.  Joe was of the opinion that going to the gym would be of greater value to me rather then just walking out and about.  His way of saying, “I too don’t want to walk anymore”.  So off he went and bought me a membership at my local gym.  How thoughtful, I get the training and he and the children get some peace.  So now I also go to the gym but my experience of my induction was rather different from Neil’s.  My instructor was very gentle with me and very helpful and after my induction was finished (15 minutes) I did an hour of the treadmill and steps combined while several well fit men pumped weights.  If that’s not incentive enough to go back I don’t know what is. 

 

Ready for Anything?

With less than six weeks to go until the big day, my preparations continue to go well. I'm going to the gym at least a couple of times a week, and as far as I can tell I still haven't made a complete arse of myself yet. I've also been taking long walks as often as I can, although the lack of company can be vaguely depressing now that the novelty of walking for four hours straight has well and truly worn off. In addition, my Tanzania visa has arrived, my kit list is almost complete and the fund raising continues at a steady pace. In fact, the only thing that might stop me now is if something really improbable were to happen. You know, something like a flu pandemic that will either knock me off my feet or cancel my flight. Take your pick. Suddenly, the Greg Preston post I made back in January seems eerily prophetic...

But never mind the swine flu, let's have some rabies!

Yes, I had my second rabies jab today. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I'd find myself in a situation where I'd have to be vaccinated against one of the scariest diseases I'd ever heard of. Well, until last week, that is.

When I was growing up in the 70s I was utterly terrified of rabies. I vividly remember the posters and the TV adverts, the novel about that mad Saint Bernard, Cujo, and the 1983 film The Mad Death (right), which had a profound and lasting effect on me; in short, it did for cats and dogs what Jaws did for sharks and mayors.

Incidentally, there was an episode of Survivors that featured rabid dogs but Greg Preston was nowhere to be seen so I have absolutely no idea what he would have done. Which is a bit worrying.

Anyway, it turns out that the rabies vaccination it isn't even remotely mandatory for my trip! This wouldn't bother me so much if the side effects weren't so awful. I feel bloody terrible and my right arm is killing me. And I've got to go back for a third installment in three weeks time. That's if I the health centre hasn't been overwhelmed by Captain Trips.

In other news, a couple of weeks ago I made a guest appearance on the Doctor Who podcast Radio Free Skaro, and if you can bear to listen to me banging on about Michelle Ryan and Red Dwarf then you'll also hear me outlining some of the details of the trip whilst simultaneously begging for money, a tactic that appears to have been quite successful given some of our recent donations. Thanks for that, lads.

And finally, I received some instructions concerning our itinerary from Charity Challenge today and I was immediately drawn to the final paragraph:

May I take this opportunity to remind you that this is a challenge and that you may experience extreme conditions, unpredictable weather, and last minute changes to the itinerary, so please bear this in mind and be prepared for “anything”.

What the hell does that mean? Is John Barrowman going to magically appear on the summit? Will the snows of Kilimanjaro turn out to be polystyrene? Or perhaps we'll end up being the only survivors of a global plague that wipes out humanity while we are huffing and puffing our way up Kili. Yeah, and pigs might fly...

Neil

Gym'll Fix It

Apologies for the lack of updates but I've been busy getting on with things. There's so much still to do: visas to apply for, equipment to buy and hire, vaccinations to endure, fund raising activities to organise, episodes of Extreme Dreams to watch. And then there's the training.

I finally got around to taking a gym induction a couple of weeks ago and it nearly killed me. I didn't exactly go in prepared - I skipped breakfast, I didn't take any water with me, and I had about five hours sleep the night before. Naively, I thought a gym induction would simply involve someone showing me how to turn the machines on and off and what did what. No such luck. Within five minutes of arriving the young man who took me around (I can't remember his name so let's call him Bauer) was asking me to give him 15 reps. I didn't even know what a bloody rep was!

Within 10 minutes I was balancing free weights on my shoulders. Twenty minutes after that Bauer was screaming at me as I nearly tore my wrists apart on a rowing machine.

By the time I arrived at the weird climbing frame that looked like something the Marquis De Sade might have stored away in his garage, I couldn't even walk straight.

But you have to start somewhere and I'm surprised to say that I'm actually enjoying the gym now. I walked five miles up a hill today, all whilst watching Jeremy Kyle on ITV2. I honestly don't know what was more torturous...

On the fund raising front, things continue to go well. We've broken through the £2,000 barrier now, thanks to the kind donations from West Park and Golden Flatts primary schools in Hartlepool (see above) and I'm confident that we can hit our target with just over two months left to go.

I've also managed to make contact with 17 of the 25 climbers who will be tackling Kilimanjaro with me in June by setting up a Facebook group. They seem like a thoroughly nice group of people and I can't wait to risk life and limb with them this summer.

Money for Nothing?

Fund raising is tough. I expected the training to be the most difficult part of my preparations but pestering my friends and family for cold, hard cash has given me more sleepless nights than my ankles ever will. Strangers? No problem: I'll happily shake a bucket at anyone I don't know. But when it comes to haranguing people that I talk to every day, it suddenly feels a little more complicated.

I've also had to deal with the inevitable question: "If you are so concerned about the charity why are you bothering to climb Kilimanjaro in the first place? Why don't you just give all the money that the expedition and the equipment is costing you directly to UNICEF?" This is, I have to admit, a perfectly valid question.

The truth is, I'm taking on this challenge to change my life - to shake myself out of the unhealthy rut that I've found myself in. I figured that if I was really lucky I might inspire someone else to do the same. When Joe initially suggested the idea of climbing Kilimanjaro the charity aspect didn't really register with me at all. I honestly had no idea that a Comic Relief expedition was on the cards and I didn't twig that this was the sort of thing that people did for charities in the first place. On reflection it makes perfect sense: this is a little more difficult than sitting in a bath of baked beans and people give money to nutters who do that all the time, no questions asked. The last time I checked no one has ever died from sitting in a bath of beans.

When I finally realised that my efforts could potentially benefit people other than myself I immediately decided to support a charity that helped children. UNICEF was the natural choice because they do incredible work in both the UK and Tanzania, the country in which I plan to push myself to the limit. Thankfully, there's never been any pressure on us to raise a minimum amount of aid because we are paying the expedition costs ourselves, but it's been playing on my mind ever since we set our initial target, which in retrospect looks quite modest and yet occasionally seems impossible.

It should be easy to ask you lot for money -  UNICEF is a fantastic charity after all, and the more I learn about the work they do, the more desperate I am to do my best for them. Unfortunately, this invariably leads to feelings of frustration and self-doubt: am I really doing enough? Has Cheryl Cole turned public opinion against me? Did the lack of a hospitalised Chris Moyles lower the bar? Are people suffering from Kili-flavoured compassion-fatigue? Should I just chill out about the whole thing or should I get evangelical on everyone's ass?  How can I possibly ask people for money in the middle of a recession? Am I beginning to bore the pants off everyone I speak to? Am I turning into a clipboard welding freak that you have to side-step in the street? Isn't climbing the mountain enough?

Worst of all, If a friend doesn't donate any money does that mean they secretly hate me and/or assume that I will fail? It's a tricky call...

I know that a few people still don't have a clue about what's involved; it's as if I'm asking them to sponsor me to take a nice relaxing holiday. At least two people I know were under the impression that I'd climbed the mountain several weeks ago - over a long weekend, no doubt! Another believes that once we reach the summit we all come down in a big helicopter. A couple have suggested that I should give the money back if I don't summit but I'm not sure if they are being entirely serious or not. Would it help if I offered to climb the mountain covered from head to toe in baked beans?

I've still got plenty of fund raising activities planned: a Dr Who Charity Auction (god willing), a sponsored Tea and Scones Event on the peak of Roseberry Topping in May, another local paper are going to run a story about our climb next month, and I will be appearing on a local BBC Radio show just before I leave. I'm also receiving support from other websites who are doing their best to drum up support for me. I would like to single-out the brilliant Radio Free Skaro and Cathode Ray Tube in particular. Thanks lads.

One thing I'm certain of: when the going gets tough up there on the mountain (and believe me, it will get tough) the one thing that will keep me going will be the thought of all the people who have donated their hard earned money to show their support for me. And for that I'd like to thank you in advance.

Neil