I made it!

Just a very short message to let you all know that I'm back in one piece, and that I made it all the way to Uhuru Peak! I'll write up my diary over the coming days, but I wanted to share this with you, along with the other "big" news. John, my partner of 10 years gave me a card to open on the summit. I thought it would be a good luck/well done thing -but it turned out to be a proposal of marriage! Well, you can imagine my surprise and absolute delight. I could only send him a short text message to start with and had to wait for 2 days before I could actually talk to him properly! But what a way to do it?!

Anyway - enough for now - the full story will follow soon.

Today is the day!

So, we fly later tonight and despite trying really hard to force myself to enjoy a lie in and extra time in my own comfy bed, under a duvet - I failed. It's 7.20am and I'm up already. I've just made a big mistake and checked the mountain weather forecast....snow and rain! I can't believe it! We purposely picked this time of year to go as according to the many books and websites I've researched, this is the warmest time of year to go. It looks like we are in for a challenging trip. Time to re-pack that gortex bivvy bag - have some breakfast and try and relax until it's time to make our way to the airport. I'm feeling very nervous, a little anxious but also looking forward to getting on my way now....

Until I return.......

Cathy

The Video!

There are some really good videos done by the company I am travelling with of our route. Have a look through to see what we will experience!

http://www.exodus.co.uk/holidays/tyw/video

Tempted?

6 Days to go!

So, it's Sunday evening and I'm sat in my warm home relaxing in front on the TV (and making sure all my work is up to date before I'm out of contact for 6 days!), I'm 90% packed and ready to go. This time in 6 days I will be about to bed down in a tent for my first night on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. I can't wait now!

A number of people have asked who I'm travelling with and who am I raising money for -so here you go.....

The whole reason for this trips stems from my travels with Georgina (George) who I met many years ago whilst doing my first adventure for charity - trekking in Patagonia for Cancer Research UK. An awesome trip and I'm still in touch with many of those we travelled with. George and I then followed this trip a few years later with a trek to Nepal, where we climbed a 4000m peak (called Pike Peak - pronounced Peekay) and watched the sun rise over Mt Everest. It was an absolute dream come true - and I sobbed like a girl when we reached the top! Since then, we've spoken many times about Kilimanjaro, and after a superb trip to the Lakes in March last year - we decided it was enough of the talking, it was time to get walking!!

George is travelling with the man in her life, Paul. We've done a few training walks together and he clearly already has the patience of a saint as in our little gang - he's the only bloke! Mad (Irish) Mary is coming too - and we'll be sharing a tent - and a few other things too I'm sure (i.e. drugs - diamox to be precise, wet wipes, tears, sleepless nights etc!). Mary and I met when she worked for me over in Ireland - in fact we didn't meet for 6 months - but our fortnightly chats (i.e. very important operational conference calls) cemented a strong friendship. And there is Joyce - who also works for the same company and over a random meeting one day we discussed Africa, and the rest is history! Joyce has subsequently spent many months in Africa between contracts working with Lions, Cheetah's, Elephants etc - so the opportunity to climb Kilimanjaro was just too much to resist! So, there is 5 of us that know each other and apparently 14 people on the trek in total. I'm sure I'll have much more to tell you about our fellow travellers after the trip.

I am raising money for 3 different charities.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=cathyonkili

There are two charities via this link - Cancer Research UK and the Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre in Oxford. Both are excellent causes and you can read more about them and why they are important to me on the pages.

http://www.justgiving.com/CathyonKili

There is a single charity called the Felix Fund on this link. This is the UK Bomb Disposal charity and again there is further information on why I am raising funds for them on the link.

I'm aiming to raise £500 for each of these charities - and if I get anywhere close to that, it will be a brilliant result. I want to climb Kilimanjaro for myself and my family - and if I can raise some funds for these charities along the way - I will be delighted.

12 Days to go!

Oh gosh - just writing "12 days to go" has got my tummy doing summersalts! I am very nervous about this trip. It's not the travelling to Africa that I'm worried about - in fact I'm really looking forward to going back - it's the "am I going to cope with the altitude" and "am I fit enough" dilemma. To make matters worse - it's also the fact that I've been talked into letting people sponsor me too that worries me. What if I don't make it?

I'm not a defeatest individual - I'm just very competitive and the thought of failure fills me with dread. Most people that know me, know that I was in the Army - and therefore the assumption is that I'm definitely going to make it. What they don't know is that for at least 5 years I've been extremely lazy and done hardly any exercise at all - and I'm nearly 40! Whilst I've built up my fitness over the last 6 to 8 months, there was always so much more that I could have done. Although, I do remember someone who has done it telling me about a friend who did it with them; he was a marathon runner and that they struggled terribly. Actually - is that a good thing or a bad thing to know..?

All the other preparation is going well - all my jabs are done and I've got more than enough kit to see me through. I got out my sleeping bag this weekend - pleased to see that it does go down to -20 deg C!! I've got a fleece liner too, just to be sure I'm warm enough at night. I'm also delighted that I found my army issue gortex sleeping bag - nothing worse than a wet sleeping bag. I didn't steal it - it was a "surplus" one given to me by someone else. I did return everything when I left, apart from my boots which I was allowed to keep (and have never worn again!). I also got out my large kit bag and had an initial "practice pack." Yes - not only do I have a fear of failure -but I'm totally OCD when it comes to packing! (Prior preparation and planning....and all that!). I just need to get my individual dry bags sorted along with organising camera's, batteries, emergency snacks etc - and I'm good to go!

Off to the gym again tonight. I'm not running at the moment - 30 mins walking on a severe incline, followed by 20 mins on the stepper and 20 mins on the X-trainer really gets the heart rate going and the legs burning - all the things I'm expecting to happen whilst I am away. I'm not going too mad now, as with just days to go, I don't want to pick up an injury - and let's face it - are the next 12 days going to make any difference? Too late now - just need to keep the fitness ticking over....

Speak soon!

4 Weeks Today!

Having now started to promote my trek, I thought I should revisit my blog so people can follow my preparation - and then read my trip diary afterwards. I can't believe the last time I wrote on here was back in September. I'm clearly showing a lack of discipline - and I hope this doesn't extend to my training and commitment of climbing Kili next month!

Despite a lack of activity on my blog, I have been undertaking other activities of the physical kind. Having had a terrible few weeks personally in the run up to Christmas, the extended break for the holiday period served me very well and I did 2 x runs, 2 x gym sessions and 1 long walk. I have been doing at least 2 gym sessions a week - work really restricts doing any more than that as I'm normally too tired, too late or too hungry to do many more during the Monday to Friday working week. The gym sessions consist of 20 min run, 20 min on the stepper, row 1 km and 20 min on the cross trainer. At the weekends I will do either a long run or a walk. Just such a shame I don't live near any decent hills - can't really call the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire a hill - it's more of a lump!

The other preparation is also under control. I've got all the kit I need - must do a practice packing session soon to ensure I don't take too much! All my jabs etc are done and up to date, any my fundraising websites are published.

I will keep this short for now and work on the principle that "little and often" is best. Speak to you all soon!

Today is my Birthday!

Today is my 39th birthday - my last birthday in my 30's, so I've decided to start my blog again to record my pre-40 adventures and my thoughts before I reach yet another landmark birthday, which all seem to happen closer and closer together as each year goes by.

As I've got older, I am becoming more conscious of time passing me by and needing to keep myself focused to make the most of my life whilst I'm still young, fit and able. In my 20's, I achieved so much - both physically and academically. My 30's have seen a real change; a focus on work and career, with much less time for me and those people around me. I've had a "sort of" bucket list in my head for some time and if I'm honest, I've done most things that I wanted to do - and many more! The No1 on the list was seeing Mt Everest, which I was fortunate to do in 2005. Apart from a short adventure to Namibia in 2009 (which started my blogging career), I've not really done a huge amount - apart from work really hard!

So, with my 40th approaching, it was time to refocus - and make sure that I'm "Fabulous at 40!". With that, I entered the ballot for the London Marathon for 2012 (although if I'm honest - that one can fall off the bucket list without me being too upset about it) and I'll find out in a few weeks if I've got a place, but most importantly I've signed up to climb Kilimanjaro in February 2012. With this, I have to loose some weight and get fit! This process is already underway, and there will be much more on that to follow...(no more excuses!)

But before we get there, in a months time, I am returning to Iceland where I spent a month with the British Schools Exploring Society after finishing my A' levels, 20 years ago. This time, I'm going with Mum and Dad for just 5 days - to explore (in a little more comfort) volcanoes, geysers and hopefully the Northern Lights. I'm really looking forward to marking this milestone with Mum and Dad.

So here begins a year of adventures with great friends, loved ones and most importantly - my family.