Unfortutely it can’t be too active, well by that I mean I can’t do any repetitive knee movements (well not for the next 6 months). I injured my knee training for the South Downs Randonnee in 2007 and I ended up having to have a lateral release, real life example here. I’ve had to have one operation and am waiting on the other now, with a 12 month recovery period. Anyway the South Downs Randonnee is a 100 mile mountain bike ride from Winchester to Eastbourne across the south downs way and has to be finished in around 12 hours.

My second big event was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa which was simple amazing. It is just short of 6000m and took 7 days to complete the climb. I’m one of the above in the photo, that was an additional bet for a few additional pounds.

But now I am stuck for what to do? So far I have thought of maybe climbing Mount Cho Oyo, or infact summiting any mountain naked, walking the Bering Straight, or canoeing the Amazon, your ideas and suggestions below please.

Just a little over a year ago a group of 7 of my friends and I succesfully summited Mount Kilimanjaro by the Machame route raising just over £12,000 for the home. This money was used towards a playground for the children and towards their family reunification project.

It’s great to see something that we all worked so hard for to come to fruition, so big thanks to everyone at iCrossing who contributed and to all my family and friends.

I’ve been thinking of other charity fundraising ideas for next year such as maybe climbing Mount Cho Oyo, walking the Bering Straight, or canoeing the Amazon.

So I would much welcome your ideas below.

Thanks to everyone and especially my mum who brought me my nice down expedition sleeping bag

The climb to the summit was hell, not only sliding back down after every step, it was just soo boring and tiring. I was the unsociable one and had my ipod on, not that people had the energy to talk anyway. This way I could just shut myself off and climb.

Surprisingly only Tom K and I were the ones not suffering from altitude sickness, and only had to physically struggle to the summit. Doug was throwing up whilst David Coats kept collapsing on his knees and Dave Hughes was seeing things which didn’t exist. (Unfortunately for him Penelope Cruz wasn’t one of them).

After about 6 hours of walking up the scree which is down the side of the volcano we got to Stella point where we got a view of the inside of the crater.

The highest point, Uhuru Peak only looks a few hundred meters away but due to the lack of oxygen & altitude sickness of others it took us 1.5 hours to get there. Coats and I were the first there and it appeared that it was only Doug and I who weren’t crying.

Due to the sheer coldness, lack of oxygen and the majority of the group being far from perfect health we couldn’t risk going to the crater. So after a few photos and yes a nude one, we started our descent.

Walking down to Stella point i saw Will and David Coats almost fly passed me, being dragged arm over arm by the guides…. shortly followed by Jon and David… oh dear I hoped they were alright!

Sliding jumping and falling down the scree was extremely painful on my knees. We all eventually made it back to Barafu after about 3 hours where we had lunch, packed and then had a 4 hour trek down to 3600m half of which was in pitch black. Luckily we all had our head torches.

We will be ascending either around midnight this evening or 0400 tomorrow morning. Either way I’m not going to get any sleep. Everyone else is asleep in the tents i just want to make the most of this view.

I can no longer see the summit it is covered in cloud. It will be around 5.5 hours to the top of the outer crater and then around 1.5 hours to the summit. Coming back we can’t stop at Barafu camp as it’s for summiting only, so it means another 7 hour trek back down to the next camp. Wow a 14 hour hike.

Well we have just had dinner after coming back from taking a peak of Barafu camp (base camp). It was the most incredible feeling ever. This was our first proper view of the summit. I have never felt this excited my whole life, I just want to climb it now. All the fear and anxiousness has gone due to the sheer excitement. Above me is the 4th highest free standing peak in the world and I’m going to be there, below me the sky I normally look up to and dream of being in. Bliss.

We have a lay in tomorrow, we get up at 0700. We will be trekking to Barafu camp, from here is where we will summit. This is our last and final stop before summiting.

I am praying I am as fit on the summit as I am now. I really want to go down into the crater.

Yet again I’m scared for my head. It’s never come this close to exploding. My head is going to explode!
After climbing up to the Lava tower at 4600m my headache is the worst ever, I’m taking such small steps at times, where my boot only just passes the end of the other.

I feel like a goldfish in a bag struggling for air. Every 4 or 5 breaths I take up here feels the same as one back home. I’m struggling to stop myself from being sick. I’m worried I’m going to be the first to chuck up. Luckily for my pride Will owned up to feeling ill as well. On the way back down to a new camp for us to stay Tom K really struggled. To think we have to climb a 1500m straight up section tomorrow is scaring me. We climbed 800m today and we are all suffering with extreme headaches.
It still seems somewhat surreal living in the clouds, I’m now almost living at the heights I used to skydive from.

My writing is really bad, my hands have swollen up due to a lack of something called air pressure. Funny thought, as I swear there is no air up here.

Been dreaming weird stuff and having the most uncomfortable sleep ever.

After getting to the camp we went over the map to see what is in store for us tomorrow. I am for the first time in my life scared. We are now all quietly waiting the perpetual vomiting which is coming that we have heard so much about. I can’t wait to come back down.

The day before we summit we have a 7 hour trek, then a 4 hour break to hopefully get some sleep. Then we will probably be leaving at midnight for an 8 hour climb of the steepest part to spend 15 minutes on the summit marvelling the views before spending another 7 hours coming back down.
Lack of oxygen really is making it hard to do anything… I couldn’t pass a s primary school spelling test!

Ok I’m bored. I’m still in my tent waiting for the poor person to have to cook my dinner, after spending an hour resting to relieve my head. Wow I’ve just remembered to do something, I am so impressed. I’ve just put my camera batteries in the storage pouch in my sleeping bag (the cold makes them go flat rather quickly) and to take my head touch with me for dinner. It goes from light to dark so quickly on the equator.

Tom is looking for his notepad to get the guide to write down the words to this Swahili song which we are now unable to sing as we are struggling to walk.

This is reading so positive and to think the worst is still to come including delusion, paranoia and confusion. Cool, David Coats has just informed me about hallucinations, we are basically asphyxiating ourselves. Maybe this is my chance to follow Angelina Jolie or Penelope Cruz up the mountain.

Right I’m getting out of the tent, Tom has just registered us with the Park Warden as Pimp, Ho, Chigalo etc… We’ve now changed our job titles from Superheros as if they would know what SEOs are anyway. I really hope that none of us actually get lost!

Up at 0630 our cook brings mugs of Milo to our tents. (Milo is like a watery malt hot chocolate drink.) I manage to get one arm out of my sleeping bag to hold the mug and drank it slowly.

FUCK IT’S FREEZING!!! That’s all I can think, when I’ve just unzipped my sleeping bag. We are only at 3000m, we will be going to almost 7000m! I really want to get dressed immediately. Do I bother changing my pants? This was the first decision I had to make. Inevitably I forced myself to wash and change. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to carry on changing my pants when it’s this cold.

Today our trekking has almost been vertical, rock after rock, it was like climbing a waterfall. Even though technically this is harder than yesterday, I’m the only one actually finding it easier. I’m thinking this is solely due to my karate and deep training stances, which made it easy for me to take the big high steps.

After arriving at Shira Camp at 3850m we are almost 2/3rds of the way to the top. The air really is noticeably thinner up here, I’m having to breathe much faster. Now that our bodies really need to start to acclimatise better, we walked for another hour or so vertically above our camp, then slowly walking back down. Walk high, sleep low is the saying for climbing.

We have such an amazing view from our tents, we’re at the edge of a small rock face overlooking the clouds which are now below us. The sun has now quickly set and it must have dropped 10⁰C in the last three minutes. On with the jumper and jacket.

We sit down for dinner and celebrated Diedus’s birthday (our guide). Our team song lots of Swahili songs and was great fun until my head started to rapidly feel like it was going to explode. My headache from hell, is due to the lack of oxygen. I still have it as I write this

Anyway I’m now in bed and equally impressed that my biro hasn’t freezed yet. My thoughts are with Tom. Poor little Tom Morphy. Tom has hired a sleeping bag, which wouldn’t keep you warm in Jamaica. Let alone on an icy ridge 3850m high!

I’m dreading getting up at 0630 again, it’s going to be freezing, and worse still it’s only going to get colder. I need to empty my bag out so that I can find my thermals and any sort of movement at this height is making me out of breath. Still when trekking I’m not sweating as much as the other guys so at least I’m not getting as dehydrated as well.

Right I’m now off to bed for a very hard cold and windy trek. Hopefully we will be above the second cloud layer and we won’t all be damp in the morning.

Night.

It took about 30 minutes to register with the park authorities, followed by possibly the hottest poo on record, from the Indian meal yesterday… I’m now petrified I’m going to be digging holes every 30 minutes!

To be honest it’s already harder than I thought, it’s similar to climbing up the side of Devils Dyke, but through sub tropical rain forest. The fact that we haven’t stopped for 6 hours and we still have another 4 days of ascending to go has made me realise how big this Kilimanjaro is. It’s a really strange feeling as I keep expecting to find the top. I had never thought it possible that you could keep walking up hill for this long, my calves are going to be like Arnie’s!

I can’t believe the altitude is making me fart so much, it’s unbelievable. Thinking I should have now brought nappies for nearer the summit.

Machame Camp – 3000m
We arrived at the first camp reasonably early, after approximately a 7 hour trek. The air is slightly thinner but not too noticeable. We had dinner and a hot mug of Milo and wait straight to bed… after the pain in trying to get undressed efficiently. The Milo was so comforting it reminded me of being back in Australia.

I’ve now made two trips back to Moshi airport, after being told my bag would be on the next flight. I’ve now spent 4 hours in a taxi and still haven’t got my bag, however I’ve got a new friend who is loving charging me for my regular trips to the airport. It really is starting to seem like I’m in a new film crossed between Ground Hog Day and the Terminal.

Note to self: Alex next time you’re bags are thrown out of a plane onto a runway, make sure you pick them up. Physically ensuring they both get on the other plane.

Finally my bag arrived 1900 hours last night. Unfortunately the airline can’t deliver it until 1100 tomorrow morning, we start the climb at 0900. Which means another trip back to the airport, my new found friend the taxi driver isn’t working this evening so is unable to take me.

After lots of negotiation with various taxi drivers after our splendid Indian-Italian dinner. Doug kindly offered to keep me company for the next 2 hours. Doug and I jumped into the back of a taxi which seemed to be under the control of underage driver(s), yes the driver had a co pilot. We were expecting to go to the airport directly, there was only literally two roads to get there once out of Moshi, by now I could have practically drove myself there blindfolded. After the driver made a few unnecessary random stops and started pretending to try and speak broken English, (really his English was probably better than mine) was explaining that he didn’t know where to go. He then started making more stops talking to people from the window, I was getting rather angry at this point where I thought I had connected with him and he realised he couldn’t try it on anymore and we seemed to make good progress down a long road. I had no idea where we were now, then he got out and spoke to some people who were randomly loitering down a road in the middle of nowhere, they started laughing and joking. This is where Doug and I thought it would be a good idea to make a run for it, before we ended up being mugged by 20 Africans.

It’s late at night, pitch black and we’re lost and with no water. After following our gut feeling and walking for some time we heard English voices… actually a screem! Following by laughter with hoped these people would be able to help us. As we got closer we realised it was the rest of the guys. They were walking back from an outside disco and Will had just fallen down a 1 meter deep gutter in the side of the road. I don’t think either of us had felt this good. It’s still amazing we can drive around for about 35 minutes and only be around 3 miles from where we started. On looking back I still feel we were getting set up to be mugged.

Spoke to the guys at the hotel, who managed to convince my friend the taxi driver to take me. Finally got to the airport and was told after getting to customs that they were shut. They shut 2 minutes ago. I wanted to scream! They were still fucking in there, I could see them, I’ve spent about £100 on bloody taxis, on the verge of being mugged, and all this to get equipment needed for a charity climb I was starting in 10 hours! Worried about being deported by the oncoming security I agreed that yes I would come back at 5am to get my bag. After speaking to my newly acquired friend he couldn’t take me again until 0630 the next morning to which I was worried would cause another issue with me being 2 hours late. I arrived back to the hotel at 1215 and was so annoyed I couldn’t sleep. Great no sleep.

Arrived at the airport at 0715 and they were shut… fantastic! Customs open at 0500, but the actual airport is only open when flights are in operation. This meant the airport wasn’t due to open until 1000. After picking up a small amount of Swahili, thanks to my now 8 hours of lessons in the taxi, managed to amuse a young lady who worked at the airport and took me around the back of the airport and somehow managed to convince the military police to let me through with her. Several x-ray scans and being padded down a few times we were finally through. After wondering around the side of a hanger which housed the carcass of an airplane crash, I decided for once I wouldn’t tell David Coats on the flight home. The fact that we landed on two wheels and in a plane where the lights kept turning on and off, probably scared him enough already. (David is scared of flying and I didn’t fancy doing having to do his work, if he decided to get a cruise home)

After being left on my own, wondering around the airport anonymously. I managed to find the customs room. Success! After a 45 minute wait I got my bag back. Morri, my now private chauffeur actually looked sad. He would probably never see me again. I arrived back to the hotel where the overgrown stretched Landcruiser’s were being loaded up with everyone’s equipment. I had made it back in time, and with minutes to spare i packed all of my needed equipment into my bag and left the rest with the hotel to look after.

Bring on Kilimanjaro!

I am off with a few friends, well 7 in fact to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. We will be attempting the climb by the Machame route which takes a day longer, but in theory this gives us an extra day to help acclimatise to extreme altitude. (I really don’t fancy the side effects!)

The reason we are doing this is for the Amani children’s home which is situated in Moshi at the foot of the mountain. The home started in 2002 and now looks after around 110 children, both boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 16. As well as providing a home for the children, the Amani children’s home financially support 64 children who used to be homeless whose Amani’s social workers were able to reunify with relatives. A home is great but if they can reunite the children that’s even better.

I am hoping to raise £2000 personally for the climb, with the eight of us hoping to raise at least £10,000 which we will be able to use to build the children a play ground, yes very expencice all the equipment and materials need to be imported from South Africa.

The trip is entirely self funded so all money raised will go directly to the home, if you would like to sponosre me you can sponsor me online here. Perhaps I could give you a free link for a reasonable donation?

If you are interested why not find out more information on our Kilimanjaro climb.