Fund Raiser

What an amazing night!  Rose cooked wonderful African food of vegetable rice, cabbage, bhajia & chapati.  Rose & Muhoro took the stage and told us all of the wonderful work they do back in Kenya.  The auction was a great success and raised plenty of money.  We had a great array of raffle prizes...

Rose & Muhoro were overwelmed by all the support from everyone who turned out and was very pleased with all the attention. Volunteers arrived to visit them from various parts of the country who had previously visted them in Kenya...

A hugh thankyou to the helpers - Julia, Gra, Geri, Angie, Carla, Tanya, Megan, Beth, Emily, Jolan, Alex, Harry, Abi, Sam, Adam, Jo's daughters and Kevin...

We rasied over £2,000 - THANK YOU to everyone!

Rose & Muhoro have arrived!  At first they felt the cold but aclimatised to it today.  They are currently both in the kitchen making chapati's for this evening.  Rose was up early chopping carrots and peppers.  She is wearing typical attire, a Leso and barefeet!  I fear the house may burn down - its getting very smoking wth Muhoro at the pan!

We will be attending Garden Fields School fete today and setting up a stall there.  Kevin will be rnning the karate demonstration.

This evening is the FUND-RAISER!  See you there!

Rose & Muhoro visit the UK

Rose & Muhoro are now boarding the plance in Nairobi.  They will be staying with us for 2 weeks and we have a very full itinery for them!  Firstly the fund raiser on saturday night - please come and meet them there.  Tickets available on the door at £5 each.  Entertainment, auction, raffle, food, drink....

Day 4 – 32km – That Mountain was ‘Summit’ else…

It was 2.30 am when I had to get up today and 0 degrees!  I slowly dragged myself out of my sleeping bag and slipped my boots on, considering the temperature I had decided to not get undressed before I went to sleep so I didn't have to much to do to get ready other than wash my face and teeth and down a cup of coffee.  At around 3am Nicholas and I left to climb to the summit of Mount Kenya.  As soon as I stepped outside I was astonished at how dark it was compared to England at night and the sky was unbelievably clear!  I felt like I could pluck the stars out of the sky as the seemed so bright and close.  My vision was extremely restricted during the initial stages of the day’s ascent, and all I could make out for the first hour was my guide’s feet with my head-torch. 

Now I don’t mean to boast (well I do actually) but I didn't feel any altitude sickness whatsoever and managed to rocket up the mountainside in 2 hours! It normally takes 3.5; according to Nicholas I was the fastest Englishman to climb it in his 12 years of being a guide! As we approached the top it was starting to get light so we sat and waited in -5 temperatures for the sunrise, I have to admit this was possibly the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed!  All around me was a carpet of clouds with small peaks poking through, as was the glorious sun as it rose.  

It was so cold and windy that my camera refused to turn on but luckily I managed to get this cheeky snap from my mobile phone. I considered this lucky as otherwise I would have had no proof I made it!

Once I saw the sunrise and took my picture I decided I wouldn't hang around as I was starting to lose the feeling in my feet, so Nicholas and I belted down the peak twice as fast as it took us to climb!  I suppose the thought of breakfast and a quick rest aided in our enthusiasm to descend.  Over our breakfast Nicholas told me that we were 2 ½ hours ahead of schedule so I suggested that rather than walking to our first camp ‘old moses’ and camping the night there, that we should just mission it all the way back to the start considering my time in Kenya was fairly limited and I didn't want to waste any unnecessary time.  He looked at me like I was crazy but in the end agreed that it was a fairly sensible idea so we packed our stuff up and made our way back, and after 22km we arrived at ‘camp old moses’ for lunch. 

Once my stomach was satisfied and I had comforted my overly sore feet we embarked on the final 10km to where we had began. This last section was possibly the most exciting of the whole trek as the wildlife seemed to be rife! At one point we were surrounded by literally 50 baboons acting like a bunch of drunken teenagers on there first holiday! Needless to say I was rather anxious but I was reassured that they were more scared of us than visa versa (Yeah right!!!).  I was also stopped in my path by some female bushbuck, these are basically African deer but with some interesting marks and stripes. A little further down our path and after 4 days of hard graft I had completed my challenge!  I was overjoyed and rather proud of myself and was very much looking forward to finally having a shower and a well-deserved Tusker! (A Kenyan beer).

JOB DONE!!!.

P.s.  Just for fun I decided to trek the whole day dressed as a monkey! Needless to say every guide and mountaineer I passed laughed at me. (And yes they are clouds casually blowing past).

Cake Sale

We set up a stall this morning selling cakes and also some of the African bits and pieces we have including jewelry, wooden animals, key rings, letters openers...  we made £145!

Thank you to Lily, Kirsten (mum), Millie, Ruth, Leanne for making such lovely cakes and also for manning the stall (also Ralph & Cameron).

Mount Kenya continued...

Day 3 – 7km – The Temple and Lake Michelson…

Today was another early start, getting up at 6am in order to leave by 7am. We had to leave this early in order to complete the day’s hike before the weather turned ugly, and being the same level as the clouds we were the first to know if the rain/hail fell!

So as I put my coat and boots on my guide gave me a pair of gloves and told me to wear my hat!  Being in Africa I was slightly puzzled but once we were outside and I saw that everything was covered in deep snow I understood. Our first task was to climb almost as high as the summit in order to veer off for out detour, but for someone like me at 7am and considering the weather I was less than enthusiastic! However Nicholas ensured me that this was the best thing to see in the vicinity of the mountain, and coming from someone who has climbed it for the past 12 years I felt inclined to believe him. So we started to climb and after about 1.5 hours we turned left and found somewhere to rest for a moment and Nicholas pointed out a cliff in the distance past miles of vast, white, rocky landscape. From where I was sat it looked cool so I couldn't wait to get nearer, so with my rucksack back on we honed in on this awesome piece of natural architecture.  It took another hour or so to reach the top of ‘the temple’ but I was enjoying the relatively flat and downhill landscape considering my AM climb.

The view from the top of ‘the temple’ was immense at every angle but especially when I looked over ‘Lake Michelson’, which led onto the ‘Gorges Valley’ – talk about postcard material!

Nicholas asked if I fancied climbing down the cliff to the lake, of course I wasn't going to say no but in the back of my mind I did wonder how we might get back up! Heading down to the lake was the most fun I’d had so far as the descent was a near vertical drop and the shortcuts Nicholas insisted on taking made me feel like Indiana Jones. After 30 minutes of clinging on for dear life we reached the lakeside…. WOW!! 

If you could set up camp anywhere in the world this would definitely have to be the location of choice. The water sparkled like diamonds reflecting off of the blistering African sun, and was surrounded by American canyon looking rocky peaks. The opposite side of the lake from where I was sitting looked like the gateway to heaven as it was past a golden lake to the valley that was covered with clouds for as far as the eye could see. On the rocks behind me about 50 meters up I spotted a large eagle which Nicholas told me was an ‘Argur Buzzard’. I must admit I did try and scare the bird in order to see it fly but my screeching had nowhere near the desired affect!

The day’s euphoria was short lived as I then realized we were about to embark on a 4km climb back to Camp Shipton and to make matters worse I was dying for the loo! 

The way back to camp seemed a completely different world as by now all the snow had melted and all the rocks and obstacles were now visible. The climb back wasn't all-bad as every time I turned around I was blessed with fantastic views and lizards were constantly shooting across my path which was pretty cool. After a couple more hours we reached the point where I first saw ‘the temple’ and I knew I only had to travel downhill from now on, which made my legs and my bottom very happy…

School Uniforms

Rose texted very early his morning! - "The uniforms have been delivered. Only a few girls' skirts need alteration then everyone will be shiny as new pins!  Wait for pics. It's raining so hard we have to transport all the kids after classes otherwise they'd be so late! My flu is gone! Give my love to all xxx"  So pleased Rose is feeling better and that the children now have new uniforms.