Updates - 8 weeks to go!

Eight weeks to go exactly, what a blast! So here's what's been happening:

The current status of our fundraising efforts: £1709.06, yipee!

We have been shopping and spending money like crazy but managed to secure some really good and useful stuff like insect repellents (DEET 100%!!! - quite scary really, the list of precautions and storage instructions is longer than its actual usefulness), balaclavas (can't wait to take a pic wearing it!), wet wipes (Johnson's baby rocks!), Imodium tablets (lots of them...), some sting & bite creams, more baselayers (Paul) and undergloves (Darina). Our visas arrived on Thursday too, the insurance is sorted and I've had my yellow fever vaccination today! Happy days!

We made a little trip to Lickey Hills to do some more walking as well. We have chosen the Woodpecker trail which was supposed to be 7miles long (the others were only about mile or so long) - the only thing expected from us was to follow the red arrow. How difficult could that be??? Oh well...

At the beginning it was quite easy as the red arrows were stuck to wooden poles along the path every hundred or so meters. During this time Paul has discovered that when his Camelbak is full of stuff, the shoulder straps get a bit tight so it is actually a good idea to use their "adjustable" property and adjust them so he could walk normally again and also the trousers won't be as loose if he clips on the belt... We learn something new every day, right :-)?

Then we sort of lost track of the red arrows (please translate to: he wanted to go to the left, I wanted to go to the right... I was - of course - right) so we improvised and followed an unmarked path that eventually after some mild descends through a forest led us back to the main path and we re-discovered red arrows route. That worked well for a few more meters until I made a mistake and forced us to go in a direction which kind of looked ok to me even though Paul was sure it wasn't the right one. Never mind. We women must sometime let the men think that they are the ones who actually know what's going on ;-)

In any case... we haven't found the seven mile route and we doubt that you can even find seven miles in the Lickey Hills country park as we kept coming back to one place (the car park & visitors' centre). We were supposed to go over 4 hills on this route but I am not sure we actually found any hills at all. This could be a question of personal perception of a hill though. The walk was nevertheless pleasant and we clocked in some more miles towards our Kili preparations.

The email from ATR (our travel agency) came through this morning, asking for paying the balance so we are now expecting their response regarding how many pounds they will want from us and after then it's all done and sealed and there is no turning back!!!

Training Begins.....

We've done a lot of research in to suitable training for Kilimanjaro, obviously when we are spending so much money and travelling so far you want to give yourself the best chance of being succesful, however I have not read anyones comments saying that they just got too tired of walking and decided to just sit down and give up (don't know what actually happens if you do this, do they jsut abadon you on the mountain?) , the only reason anyone ever fails to make it to the top is through altitiude sickness which we can't train for.

Anyway as per everyone else that seems to do Kilimanjaro we decided we needed to do more walking to prepare, also as I have not camped out anywhere since I was about 12 years old and that was in a freinds small back garden in West Bromwich and not on a big mountain (let's face it there are far more dangers in West Bromwich......) I could also do with some practise sleeping in a tent. We arranged to do a trip to Wales where some friends live, the plan was to spend the weekend trekking and sleep in the tent on the two nights.

I bought the tent a few months ago withe the intention of spending more time camping in preperation for Kilimanjaro, in actuality I removed the tent from the bag once and tried briefly to erect it in the house before realising there wasn't enough space and I packed it back away and didn't unpack it again until today. I chose the tent as it was suitable for backpacking as it packed away to a very small budle, weighed under 3kg and was quick and easy to assemble. Still we decided that the best thing to do when we arrived was to build the tent first as we had no idea how long it would take.

The tent assembly was actually really simple, if we weren't camping in a garden we may have been short of a hammer to put the pegs in but other than this we built the tent in around 20 minutes and didn't experience any problems (with the tent) all weekend.

Our home for 2 days

With the tent completed we went for our first trek of the weekend. Will and Kate (our hosts) went with us part of the way and provided us with a map to work out where we were and where we were going, unfortunately between us our map reading skills left a lot to be desired and we ended up walking up a track that must have been maded by sheep rather than an official walking path. This seemed to be a common theme for the weekend with us also wandering through some woods on a steep hill trying to find an exit from a field and also getting sent back from a field by a farmer on a tractor for walking on his property. Luckily on Kilimanjaro we will have a guide who hopefully knows the way!

Extreme close up of Darina, with the fields of Llangollen in the background......

The kit we have so far was very good though, I think I am going to stick with the boots that I have despite them beign a bit low and teh trousers I recently purchased were fantastic including side pockets the perfect size for my phone and camera, all this and they zip off to make shorts and even have colour coded zips so even I can't try to put the legs on the worng way around!

Me and my trousers (That is just an unfortunate crumple on my t-shirt and not my belly, honestly......)

We  have also sorted out the insurance for trekking now with a company called Dogtag, not only do they give us a set of gimmicky dog tags to wear with our name, insurance policy number and a contact telephone but they were also the cheapest we found (although I did stop looking when I saw the gimmick).

The holiday balance is due imminently so it really is no turning back now, the fund raising is also going very well with one of our suppliers sponsoring us £1200 which is absolutely fantastic. Louise is also looking to organise a party for a couple of weeks before we go to help raise some more money.

So that is the latest status of how we are progressing, I went to Go Outdoors yesterday to take advantage of their 15% off sale and buy some more trousers (pretty much the same but in grey instead of green) another fleece, a base layer and a buff headwear which will hopefully be enough to keep the sun off me as I really don't want to wear a hat! I still have to sort out my vaccinations for Yellow Fever and something else that I can't remember but is written down somewhere, I do however have my Malaria tablets that I must have had from something else as I found them while doing a clear out of my medicine cabinet (I actually had some medicine that expired in 1997 in there!) so hopefully I won't end up like Cheryl Cole.

Just need to update my kit list now to find out how many more things I still have to get.........

Wales Oh Wales

In an attempt to do some proper trekking and try camping we have set off to Wales. The destination: Llangollen, Velvet Mountain, Kate and Will's home's garden. It's not that they wouldn't let us sleep inside but we really wanted to see if we're able to build a tent and more importantly survive a night in it.

We got to Llangollen just after the midday on Friday (9th July) briefly stopped in the city centre (which was very lively and busy as the Musical Festival Eisteddfod was on since the beginning of the week) and then drove to the Llantysilio where Kate and Will live in a cosy cottage with a magnificent view over the hills and meadows. After refreshing lunch, building a tent (carefully following the instructions from the inside of the tent bag), observing the various birds on the bird feeder and petting Kate's and Will's cat Blackberry we set off for the first trek.

Now, the Welsh names are like jaw-crackers so I don't remember any so this is going to be fun describing :-). We have climbed one of the closest hills, I believe it was one of the Llantysilio hills (which would kind of make sense...) and followed the path towards the old tramway route (I believe it was called Oearnant, please someone correct me if this is not the case...). Trying to get to the top of the mountain led us through some tough and very very off-road paths; at one point we were fighting with bushes of some kind of fern that led us to one of those fences over which you cannot exactly get without some damage to your clothing or your skin. After some more fighting we got back to a proper path though and accompanied by many sheep we trekked over the Llantysilio hills.

The route led us back towards where we started, namely to Britannia Inn on the Horseshoe Pass View road, where we rested briefly with a pint of Guinness and a lovely view over the valley in front of us. We were walking for about three hours on day one during which we learnt how to read a map (a little bit), that there are vast blueberry fields in the hills, that the trekking trousers Paul finally bought on Tuesday that week were really cool (I am sure he will praise them in his post immensely) and that we are able to survive a night in the tent. Oh and there were no sheep marching through the garden in the morning (which was a little disappointment) although there was this cow that booed so loudly in the early morning that it almost felt like she was actually standing next to the tent... you could hear her breathing!

Day two was slightly overcast - at least in the morning. We set off around nine am and took a different direction for our trek. We walked through the meadows and forests of the Eglwyseg, got a bit lost in one of them and again tried what it is like walking in a very uneven and varied terrain, and then joined the famous Offa's Dyke trail that led us through Panorama Walk back towards Llangollen. On the way there we encountered intriguing creatures, something looking a bit like sheep but also looking a bit like cows:

Before ascending to Llangollen for a lunch we also climbed a very steep hill to the ruins of the Dinas Bran Castle.

The weather has cleared a lot since the morning and the sun and lunch made us a bit slow and tired. Still we continued our walk and followed the path along the canal, from Llangollen towards the Horseshoe Falls. The canal is known for its horse-drawn boat rides (unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the horse actually drawing the boat so this is how it looks around the canal):

After reaching the Horseshoe falls I have noticed a persistent pain around and above my left ankle which wouldn't go away and was most likely caused during our tackling the uneven terrain of the forest near Eglwyseg. That meant we started to look for a shortcut back to Will's and walked through some fields and meadows to avoid rather boring road walking. Funnily enough we ended up in Britannia again which was quite handy as we had a chance to refresh ourselves , we just avoided a heavy rain downpour and after we finally made it back to Will's we looked great and not a bit tired! :-) The second night in the tent was as good as the first one, this time we had a chance to experience a little bit of rain and some strong wind, fortunately the tent didn't fly away. Still makes me think about what it's going to be like on the slopes of Kili without the comfort of a cosy cottage nearby or even a comfortable grassy ground under the tent...

Big thanks to Kate and Will for letting us camp in their garden and for feeding us through the weekend! The burgers from the barbeque were excellent!!!

So this was Llangollen, fairly tale place where biking and running is not for the faint-hearted but which offers wonderful views, great trekking adventures and many sheep and cows' encounters. Hoping to be back there soon again...

Oi...leave my arm alone!

It's quite unbelievable how fast the time goes. Twelve months ago this whole trip seemed to be like a distant dream but here we are, 71 days into the departure, our excitement increasing and our bank accounts shrinking.

The last few weeks were not very significant in relation to Kili preparation due to my travelling abroad and Paul's travelling abroad although I did manage two trips to Malvern Hills and one "long-distance" walk from Leamington Spa back to Coventry. I've also done some shopping so I can now tick off my list sun screen (SPF 50+), gaiters, socks and more socks and base layer leggings (which I wasn't brave enough to try yet). I also attempted to buy flip-flops, really cute and pink ones. Unfortunately due to my excitement (you see, flip-flops are the only shoes I am currently allowed to buy) I've overseen a slight detail, like the size 6/7K (ignored the "K") and got these really really nice but tiny, kiddies flip-flops. Oh well, it's an experience, right?

Another adventure was getting the vaccinations & prescription for malaria tablets (£70 per 30) and Diamox (£1.50 per ten). Two separate appointments were needed as the prescription can only be written by a doctor but the vaccinations are done by a nurse. The prescription trip (Wednesday 30th June) was quite easy and painless, the doctor explained what courses are available, which one is the best (the most expensive one, of course) etc. etc. I wonder if Cheryl Cole was using these Malarone tablets, although on the other hand I'd rather not know if she managed to get the disease... He also warned me that Diamox although widely and commonly used for preventing the altitude sickness is not intended for this purpose (it is for treating epilepsy and/or glaucoma).

The vaccination trip (Tuesday 6th July) wasn't as pleasant. Or to be more specific the aftermath wasn't. The nurse was very kind and talked me through all the details (also gave me a vaccination record booklet which contains some very useful information for travelling, like "only swim in safe water and always check for presence of sharks" or " electric buzzers, garlic and vitamin B12 are ineffective for bite prevention"). Then she jabbed one of my arms with a Hep A & B and my other arm with a tetanus/diphtheria/polio combination. Wonderful. I felt quite ok and I might have overheard her asking me if I was planning to go to work afterwards and that I might not be feeling well. Phew. I am strong enough to handle this, right? Silly me. Or more like, inexperienced me. The last time I got a jab was tetanus about ten years ago. Apparently this was different.

I was ok on the day of the vaccination, only felt my arms heavy and useless (also wasn't able to beat up any annoying dweebs in my immediate surrounding). Wednesday wasn't as good though. Left arm sore and immobile, headache, weak stomach and shivers despite the warm outside temperature. When I was trying to explain things to my colleague Paula at work I realised that her slightly perplexed face expression is probably a sign that my articulation has gone a bit awry and when I felt freezing cold even though I was dressed in my very warm fleece I knew I shouldn't be at work. Nice experience (this was sarcastic...) I just hope that the second course next month (another jab of Hep A & B and typhoid) won't have the same reaction. Oh and please don't forget the yellow fever. That one is not available at my medical practise so I need to make an appointment in a different one. Happy days.

Despite all the pain and mental confusion I am getting very excited (I don't mention Paul as he's been madly excited since last February) as several great things are happening in next few days/ weeks. First, tomorrow we're going for a trip to Llangollen to do some serious trekking (and camping... hehehe), then we're applying for a visa, we're going to meet Chris Powell who is our big inspiration and who climbed Kili in February this year and after the 15th we're expecting an email from our agency (ATR) requesting us to pay the balance for our trip! Ok, this last one is not as exciting as this means my/our bank account(s) will be wiped out back to zero, but hey! It's happening! And it's going to be legendary! ;-)

Having said that, the nurse on Tuesday also sent me back to Earth by simply stating that from all the people she came across (while vaccinating) only a handful made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro... You have to have the respect for the mountain, no doubt about that. This is not your regular Malvern hill. Still, I am sure everything will go well and we will raise loads of money for MS Therapy! Big thanks to Louise for taking care of all the administration with the charity!!!

Right, time to stop now and get some sleep before conquering the Welsh hills! Lala salama!