SHAP Kilimanjaro Challenge: "Chris Moyles and Cheryl Cole climbed it, so it must be easy"

SHAP Kilimanjaro Challenge October 2010

Welcome to the online home of the SHAP Kilimanjaro Challenge. This October a team of intrepid explorers will trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for SHAP, a homeless charity based in the North West of England. On this blog you will be able to follow our journey and along the way find out information about Mount Kilimanjaro, the trek, the training, the team and of course about SHAP.

SHAP aim to enable homeless, vulnerable or disadvantaged people to take control of their own lives, and to receive the quality of housing and services to which they are entitled. To benefit our service users and to provide new opportunities for our service users which we are unable to fund through our normal resources, we need your donations. You can do this by sponsoring one (or more!) of our team

If you would like to sponsor one of our team please click here, scroll down a bit, and select the just giving link of the team member you would like to sponsor (IMPORTANT BIT - please remember to select gift aid when you donate and we can claim an extra 28% from the taxman at no extra cost to you!).

Thanks for visiting and please give generously.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

"Chris Moyles and Cheryl Cole climbed it, so it must be easy"

That’s what a journalist thought until she did the trek :

"We strike out towards distant Mawenzi. Feel worse. Fall three times as path crosses series of ravines and gullies. Increasing nausea. Stop to rest and Bruce, a telecommunications engineer, offers me a banana. Throw up behind rock. Coordination worse and dizzy, too. Then get indigestion (side-effect of malaria tablets). Am miserable because no one else is sick."

"Pace slows, people wheezing away in thinner air. Drag myself to mess tent. Can’t eat but drink gallons of ginger tea, which is supposed to help AMS symptoms. Very cold tonight; Four Seasons sleeping bag, silk liner and fleece blanket insufficient – wearing thermals, a fleece top, two pairs of socks and hat, but still freezing."

"We weaken quickly, palpitations, breathlessness. Like walking through treacle on precipitous narrow path inside crater. Eyes hurt behind glasses as sun hits the snow, headache intensifies and nausea returns. Interminable plodding past glaciers and ice cliffs. No talking, must concentrate on every step, ignoring stunning views. Just want to get there and get it over with."

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