83 Days to go

Had some great news today! Reach for a Dream has (finally) agreed to let me raise some money for them with the climb. I have been waiting for this permission before I can get the word out that I will be climbing to the highest point in Africa. I have fulfilled some dreams for them over the last two years (go here to have a look http://www.richardmulvey.com/content/view/137/81/) and as it has been my dream to do this climb for seven years it is entirely appropriate to combine my dream with some of theirs and raise money while I am climbing. The target I set myself is R100,000. This will be challenging now but I am sure I can do it with a little help from the local media. (With a bit of luck)

86 days to go

We left early this morning for Kloof Gorge and had our hardest walk by far. Six hours up and down the side of the Gorge was great exercise and I am beginning to feel as if we are getting fit enough to make it to the top of Kilimanjaro. The map we had wasn't very good (at least, that’s my story and I am sticking to it) and we came out of the reserve too early. We (I) must have missed a path earlier on and we were not in the mood to back track and find our (my) mistake so we walked around Kloof for a while looking lost until a friendly local (who happened to be a long standing customer) took pity on us and offered to drive us back to the car. (Thanks Robert).

Despite the mistake we had a good day and I was exhausted by the time we got back home

87 Days to go

Great News.... John has decided to come with us up the mountain. He has the stamina and he is a good friend so I am sure he will add to the event. We had a good walk through the Virginia Bush today. Tried some of the new twists and turns and found a lovely picnic spot that I am sure is a great place for lovers... Oh to be young again! John led the way and he will have to learn to slow down his pace. He is a fast walker and that will not do on Kili. We went shopping for him this morning and bought boots, a rucksack and walking poles. R3,500. I think he was a bit surprised! Oh well... you don't want to get to the top and realise that you should have bought better boots.

We still have a lot of purchases to make but we are leaving the clothing until we have found out more from the people who have done it.

At the bottom the weather seems to be warm and maybe wet, so that will be easy to dress for with a waterproof something to cover it all. The best advice for the top (where the temp can get as low as -25C apparently) seems to be four layers on the top (Thermal vest, t-shirt (not cotton) fleece and waterproof jacket with hood) and three on the bottom (Thermal pants, fleece and waterproof pants). Most of all we will need flexibility as the weather can change instantly.

We are still waiting on “Reach for a Dream” to see if they will allow us to raise funds for them and Geoff to see if he is joining us.

Off to Kloof Gorge tomorrow. We really battled to do that walk two months ago so it will be really interesting to see if we are fitter now.

101 Days to go

We discovered Shongweni Dam and Reserve this weekend. What a lovely place! We arrived, put on all our kit and made for the only hiking trail in the reserve only to discover that it had been closed. There are a few paths we could have taken to start the walk so we decided that we had taken another path and had not seen the notice! :-)

The walk only took 2 hours but it is most beautiful and rewarding.

We had plenty of time when we arrived back at the camp so rather than do the trail again we walked to the dam and back. This proved to be more draining than the trail but just as rewarding.

104 Days to go

We have just had a wonderful weekend at Giants Castle. The weather looked really bad all week and we couldn’t decide whether to go or not. Right up until Saturday morning we were still undecided. But we left anyway. It was raining in Durban but it cleared up on the way which was promising. Michaela came with us as we had decided to stay over and get in two days walking up the mountains.

At Giants we put on all our kit and set out for Meander Hut and Beacon Ridge. Within 2 minutes this walk gets very steep for about 30 minutes and you wonder if you have made the right decision, however it levels out and after that the views are spectacular.

The walk is about 15km and it took us about 4 hours with a break at the Beacon for a snack. Michaela was skipping ahead all the time. How does she do that?

It didn’t rain until we were just about back at the camp.

That evening we spent at White Mountain resort which was fun. Although the beds were hard we all slept until 08:00 on Sunday.

The morning climb included the caves and the river walk. Nice, but not mind blowing.

We are worried that we won’t be getting enough time to exercise in November. I am away for a lot of that month so we will have to be careful to walk when we can.

108 Days to go

Monday evening walking is always a challenge. After a hard day at work and school to worry about tomorrow there is never enough time. It was raining at 17:00 as well so the temptation to give it a miss is strong. We didn't give in however, and had a good 90 minute walk (about 7 km) in a circle around Durban North.

We are still doing a lot of reading about the climb and trying to make decisions. The main one at the moment is whether to take tablets to avoid Altitude Sickness. There seem to be two problems:

1. The best way to avoid altitude sickness is to drink plenty of water. Four litres a day seems to be the optimum. On the other hand the tablets seem to be diuretic, taking water out of the body which defeats the object.
2. The other reason to be concerned seems to be that the tablets seem to hide the symptoms, but if you don't know feel the symptoms how will you know if you have a problem?

The symptoms to watch out for seem to be: headache, nausea, dizziness, and difficulty sleeping, and are aggravated by not drinking enough water, drinking any alcohol, cold weather and climbing too high too quickly. I think we had better get some tablets (Diomax) and give them a go.