9 Weeks and counting – Kit Contacts to help!

“Jambo” our intrepid trekkers!

Should you still be trying to find somewhere to buy or hire remaining equipment for the trek, i.e. a four season sleeping bag or jacket or even find someone you could perhaps borrow these from, I’m pleased to let you all know there are three great places who can be of help!

The first is a company aptly named ‘TREK HIRE UK’ based in Shere in Surrey who have a great website for you to take a look at: www.trekhireuk.com/index.html  Having spoken with one of the Directors today called . . . wait for it . . . . . Michael Cain . . . honestly, that’s his name!  Mick has very kindly offered a discount to all of you who would like to either buy or hire equipment from them by quoting ‘MND Association Mount Kilimanjaro Trek’. Prices for hiring a 4 seasons sleeping bag for example (either ‘down’ or ‘synthetic’ – both are fine for this challenge), would be £50 plus a £10 delivery charge. Items are hired for a month and once returned, are cleaned within a week and resent out as required. Please note however, that October is a busy time for treks so if you’re interested in hiring something from them, please do this as soon as you can to avoid disappointment.

The other place is ‘nomad travel & outdoor’ and their website is: www.nomadtravel.co.uk  Their stores are located in Manchester, Bishops Stortford, London (Russell Square, Turnpike Lane & Victoria), Bristol and Southampton and they offer

• A carefully selected range of travel equipment and kit to cover all types of trips and holidays
• Expert staff at each travel store provide excellent travel advice on your trip equipment and kit needs
• Access to Travel Health Clinics and Nurses on site for staying healthy whilst travelling
• The latest in travel clothing and footwear
• Our own range of travel gear – Travelproof – designed by and used by us
• Experienced informative staff who are well travelled
• Comprehensive range of travel medical kits

The Sales & Marketing Manager Alex Johnston has very kindly agreed to offer a discount of 10% off in their stores and clinics, as well as from their on-line store. They have also provided some incredibly useful ‘kit lists’ which have been sent to you separately to help you prepare for the challenge ahead. Please note that not all areas and items are required for this challenge, so please don’t feel like you have to get everything off the ‘tick list’ they have provided as this is a kit list that includes ‘extreme mountain trek and climbing’.

And finally, Kevin at Fox’s Outdoor in Amersham, Bucks has also very kindly offered a 15% discount should anyone wish to make an order online – all you need to do is enter ‘MNDA15’ into the e-voucher box at the checkout and it will apply the 15% discount. Their address and details are: Fox’s Outdoor 1 London Road, Amersham, Bucks HP7 0HE 01494 431431 www.foxsoutdoor.co.uk

We have the lovely Ray Stidwell to thank for this contact after purchasing some equipment from them recently – thanks Ray!

Happy hunting and I hope you find the above contacts of great use! Please do share with the rest of the group how you get on!

“Kwhaeri”
Trek Trudi is signing off but will be back again soon!
x

A few ‘swahili’ words for you!

Hello our MND intrepid trekkers,

I hope you’re all fine and dandy with only 10 weeks on Saturday to go? 

I think it’s about time to teach you a few useful ‘swahili’ words before the trek so let the class begin and repeat after me . . . .

hello                                        jambo
goodbye                                 kwaheri
thank you (very much)       asante (sana)
welcome                                 karibu
no problem                            hakuna matata
sorry                                       pole
slowly                                     pole pole
quickly                                   haraka
let’s go (now)                        twende (sasa)
yes                                          ndiyo
no                                            hapana
danger                                    hatari
help                                        usaidizi
toilet                                       choo
water (drinking)                   maji (ya kunywa)
journey                                   safari
I am tired                               nimechoka
my head hurts                       kichwa kinauma
I feel (much) better              afadhali (sana)
fine, good (very good)           mzuri (sana)
bad                                           mbaya
hungry                                     njaa
thirsty                                      kiu
expensive                                ghali
cheap                                        rahisi
ice, hail                                     barafu
storm                                        kipunga
how are things?                       habari?
how much/many?                   ngapi?
Where?                                     wapi?
When?                                       lini?
Why?                                         kwa-nini? 

I wonder which words will get used the most???  Don’t worry, I won’t be testing you at the base or indeed summit of Kili to see if you’ve remembered any, however, I think it would be great if we could greet our porters on the first day with ’Hamjambo’ to which the reply will be ‘Hatujambo’.  I think they would really appreicate us learning a few key words so we can show them our appreciation and thanks for their support . . . I’m sure some of them will be keen to teach us a few more too!

Please share your experiences and photos with each other in this way and ’asante (sana)’ for your dedication, support and commitment.

Trek Trudi is signing off once again – but I’ll be back soon!
x

11 Weeks on Saturday to go!

Hello fellow trekkers!

Thanks again to those of you who have very kindly commented on recent blog posts – please do keep them coming and share your training and fundraising experiences with one another! Please remember that each new blog post will appear on the right hand side of the page (most recent one first), so you can always keep up to date with what has been going on and read who has made a comment.

I’m pleased to say our very own ‘Dareboy’ has been doing some dares recently, so please do check his latest videos out: http://www.dareboy.co.uk/ One of which is aptly named ‘hot stuff’!

Has anyone else had a fundraising event or activity that they would like to share or perhaps had a particularly eventful training session we would like to hear about?  If so – get blogging and tell us all about it! : )

Neil Hookway has very kindly sent in some photos of himself below . . . . he looks very fetching in his MND t-shirt don’t you think?

Neil getting to grips with his poles!

Neil Hookway in Training!

While writing – IMPORTANT DIARY DATE for you . . . . please do remember to send in your updated Travel Insurance to me no later than Friday 20 August!  Thank you so much!

More details to follow next week . . . . . . . . continued best wishes with your training and fundraising and keep those comments coming!  Only 11 weeks to go on Saturday – let the countdown continue!

‘Trek Trudi’ will be in touch again soon!
x

Useful information!

Well hello our MND intrepid trekkers!

Firstly – thanks to those of you who have already ‘commented’ on the blog – please do keep them coming and share information with the rest of the group.  Please remember if you want to send in any photos, they can be uploaded onto the blog too! (All you need to do is send them to me and I’ll gladly add them for you).

I just wanted to drop you another post to let you know a few things . . . . . . . . . . .  Millets currently have a great sale on at the moment for all trekking equipment (sleeping bags, liners, boots, walking poles, etc) – not to mention a great ‘Lifesystems’ range of products. 

They have an ‘Expedition Plus’ Insect Repellent (contains DEET) 100+ (maximum strength) 100ml spray for 10 hours protection for £7.00.  Those of you in couples may wish to buy this size bottle between you both however, they also do a smaller size too!

The water purification tablets that were mentioned at the event Information Day are ‘Chlorine Dioxide’ and again at Millets, I’ve found the Lifesystems range of Chlorine Dioxide droplets (high strength).  This contains two bottles; a ”purifier’ and an ‘activator’.  They also do tablets, so you can choose which sort you’d like to use (current price £6.99).

Malarial tablets - you may want to call into your local Tesco Pharmacy to talk to a Pharmacist about the FREE NHS services they provide – not to mention a Travel Health Service.   I was informed that I could be charged up to £15.00 for a Doctors’ prescription for the suggested ‘Malarone’ tablets in addition to the cost of purchasing them.  The price of which can vary.  However, my local Tesco confirmed these can be ordered directly with them at no charge with the price per tablet of £2.87,  recommending 19 tablets in total; 2 days before, 10 days during the trek and 7 days after, total £54.53.   So it’s certainly true that ‘every little helps’ when it comes to Tesco.

My training is continuing to go well with the stair carpet at home wearing out quite nicely now from tramping up and down them!  I’ve also been using the breathing techniques whilst out walking and training whereby you breathe in and out through your nose only (and not your mouth) so you’re not taking as much air into your lungs.  This was another tip given to us at the Information Day which may come in handy for us whilst acclimatizing to the high altitude.  It also helps when walking around a reservoir with lots of flies as it saves you catching them in your mouth! : )

Continued best wishes with your fundraising and training and keep those updates coming!

13 weeks to conquering Kili . . . and counting!

Regards
Trekking Trudi
x

MND Mount Kilimanjaro Trek 2010

  The ‘mighty’ Mount Kilimanjaro! 

Welcome to the MND Association ‘Mount Kilimanjaro Trek’ blog – ready and raring to go for the forthcoming exciting ‘climb to the ‘Roof of Africa’ on the 16 October 2010. 

The blog will include our dedicated participants sharing their exciting experiences leading up to the trek with each other and giving us an insight into their ingenious fundraising activities . . . . . “Dares for Donations” by Dareboy continues to entertain, however, we’re still waiting for another one to take place and he knows exactly what he has to do – so if that’s not an incentive to keep checking on what’s going on – I can certainly think of many more! : ) 

You can also find out how their training is going and I will indulge some of my own ‘trek training’ experiences too as myself and my colleague will be supporting the group ‘literally every step of the way’! 

We’re all working hard on becoming ‘kili-fit’ for the challenge ahead and will laugh in the face of the infamous saying ‘Kili-trudge’ that attacks all trekkers during the event. Well, we will try to once we’ve acclimatised to the altitude. One step at a time people! : ) 

Photographic evidence will indeed play a big part in helping to tell the story with topics as follows to name but a few: 

• Hot tips
• Having ‘fun’ fundraising
• Do’s and Don’ts!
• Training tales of woe – ouch!

The recent ‘Event Information Day’ in London had a great turn-out of trekkers, all eager to meet each other and find out more about the challenge ahead from the experts, our tour operators; Classic Tours. I was very impressed with how many people came along considering it was the first day of the World Cup . . . now that’s what I call committment to the cause! 

We now know a little more about what to expect each day on the trek; early wake ups, long hours of trekking, great food and stunning views. We’ve been told what medication to take with us and what jabs to have and when (fortunately the question of ‘where’ wasn’t asked!) – and how altitude can affect us. Mild symptoms seem to appear similar to those of a ‘hangover’ so I’m sure we’ll be fine to deal with those although on a serious note, also know when to ‘stop and descend’ for our safety. 

A fantastic group of incredibly inspirational people, all helping to make a difference to raise funds and awareness for those with MND. With just over 16 weeks to go until 40 intrepid trekkers embark on this incredible adventure, the journey has been great so far . . . . . but there’s yet even more fun to be had! This is only the start of things to come! 

Please feel free to comment on any of our blogs but please be mindful of our comment policy and for those of you with the ‘blogging bug’ and want to regularly follow us in the future, by providing stories, articles, updates and photos – please sign up to the email subscriptions and become a regular ‘guest blogger’ to the site. 

I look forward to hearing from you!
Trudi 

Our intrepid MND trekkers!

1. Pat Says:
   July 9, 2010 at 8:56 pm | Reply Looking forward to meeting up with all of you wonderful people again in October. Since I’ve started fundraising I’ve realised I’ve become quite a ‘user’ I’ve contacted people I haven’t seen for years – but it’s been great getting to know them again. Unfortunately haven’t discovered any millionaires but hey ho!!
2. Lisa Says:
   July 12, 2010 at 7:15 pm | Reply Training, fund raising, work, and then more fund raising – it’s all go at the moment, but it’s all good! Bag packing is definitely a winner – thanks to Chris for the incentive to pursue this ! Just 4 hours on a Saturday morning and over £300 raised – easy money!
   We also did 2 car boot sales at the weekend, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday – each car boot sale was then followed by a walk in the afternoon – a busy weekend!
   Hope that everyone is enjoying clocking up their miles – perhaps you’re seeing parts of our good green land that you’ve not seen before – life is good. Take care everyone.xxx