The gym, the teacher and the supermarket

Loads of good news today! Yay!  One of my local gyms has agreed to train me for the trek in exchange for publicity.  I need to go off and round up the local press and then we can agree on the angle we're gonna take.

Also, I've e-mailed a local teacher who did the same Kili route last year.  Hopefully we'll be able to have a chat over a pint so that I can get firsthand knowledge of the climb and also learn about his fundraising exploits.

As well as these moves forward, I got the details of the Events Co-ordinator at my local giant supermarket.  Hopefully, I'll be able to do a sponsored bag pack etc.

And there's more, I also got a nursing friend, whose partner is diabetic, to agree to see if he'll do a sponsored gig for me!  He's the leader of a blues band and plays the harmonica.  That should rake a few quid in!

And finally, some more money came rolling in!  Thanks, folks!

New boots and contacts

Aren't these the bee's knees in hiking boots?  They are Cosmic 4D GTX's from Salomon.  They're only £160/$240!  Okay, back in the real world, so I'm going to get up the mountain with my bargain January sale boots from Berghaus at a third the price...;o)

Meanwhile, I'll be writing to the company to see if they'll give me some for free if we can do a publicity deal.  What do you think, eh?

On another front, I saw an old web article mentioning a local diabetic high school teacher, from Cramlington (about 10 miles south of here), who did the exact same route up Kili last September, and for Diabetes UK too!  I must get in touch to pick his brains about both fundraising and the trek to the top.

Coming home to Kili

Here's a classic photo of Kili. It goes some way to showing how it rises up over 15,000 feet from the African plains to the summit at 19,340,making it the tallest freestanding mountain in the world!

One overnight thought - I was listening to something on the radio the other day where a bloke from the Tanzanian tourist board was chatting on about his country. He used a phrase which I thought was interesting. He said, "truly, everybody comes home to Tanzania." He then went on to explain that, as the oldest human remains have been found in Tanzania, it's the place we ALL started out from. Therefore, in actual fact, it is our ancestral home, wherever we live on the planet these days!

Off to do some house tidying with, maybe, some time to do a little more Kili planning this afternoon...

At the gym and the hiking shop

Well, just got back from Morpeth with my copy of the Stedman book on Kili. That's my weekend reading sorted!

While there, dropped in on Northumbrian Hiking shop next to the Chantry. They were luke warm at offering me any kit for publicity, mostly cos the owner was away today. One angle they were taking is that it might be hard for them to support me during the economic downturn. I came straight back and said that maybe the best time for some positive publicity was right now, then?! I'll pop back next weekend. I'll investigate Snow and Trek in the meantime. Mind, if anybody has any kit that they could lend to me, please get in touch. I'm going to transfer my kit list onto a file that I could then e-mail out to folksd if needed. I draw the line at borrowing used undies, though! ;o)

I also went into Roadrunner Sports who, ostensibly, do sports kit as opposed to hillwalking, climbing stuff. The woman there was much more keen on a chat and happily talked about all the clothes they have to wick away moisture etc. I'll need to work on her too, but quite a contrast to the bloke on the opposite side of the road.

As for the gym, well, likely good news methinks. Again, the boss man wasn't in, but he works every evening so I'll catch him through the week. Oh, btw, I'm talking about Oasis in Ashington, keeping it local again, eh? When I brought up my notion of a free pass until I fly to Nairobi, the guy at the front desk was VERY encouraging. Apparently the owner has sponsored people over the years and is open for discussions, especially if, as with me, I'm not asking for any dosh, just to be able to train there in return for press coverage. There were two charity boxes/badge thingys at the reception desk, which I feel is a good omen.

I got a quick tour of the facilities and, thankfully, they seem to have all the right gear including step and cross trainers. The gym fella correctly stated I need to do lots of cardio work, which all the bumph from Diabetes UK and Charity Challenge highlight.

So, not a bad morning's work. I'll follow up all these leads through the week and I'll be checking out the press and other media too. Must get on with cooking my darling wife's lunch...

Cheers

Bruce

Starting out

Well, it's been one week since I signed up to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in June 2011, or Kili as us would-be mountaineers call it, for Diabetes UK and what an eventful week it's been already!

I've accomplished lots of things, the most important of which has been setting up my donation page at Diabetes Challenge:

http://www.diabeteschallenge/challenge/brucefraserkilimanjaro

Some money has already been given from two friends from different areas of my life; one, somebody I only know off a webforum I frequent, the other a nursing colleague. Thanks, ladies!

Well, what can you expect to read about over the next year and a bit? I'm planning on keeping things mixed up so that you get a flavour of what I'm going through, whether that be endlessly thinking up new ways to raise money, or me and my struggle to get fit. There'll be insights into what I'm having to get in the way of kit and, boy, is it extensive! Hopefully, you'll be seeing how well I get on with convincing people/shops to give it all to me for free in exchange for publicity.

My pack from Diabetes Challenge arrived yesterday with all its info on fundraising and stuff like how to access materials like their pretty pink collection boxes, T-shirts etc. The trekking company I'll be going with, Charity Challenge (http://www.charitychallenge.com/index.html), also have loads of helpful hints too on their web pages. I was up half the night both reading the bumph and clicking through stuff on my laptop. I dozed off surrounded by bits of paper with notes and ideas - I really must organise that side of things pretty quickly!

So, off to get a guide book by Henry Stedman on the climb itself. It seems to be the most recommended and has great reviews on Amazon. Will also drop in on the hiking shop in nearby Morpeth to see if the owner will give me some kit so long as we can get the media interested, which I'm sure we can. I'd like to give them the first bite at the cherry before I go to Snow & Rock at the Metro Centre in Gateshead, a much bigger concern.

Gotta dash, my wife has woken up this beautiful Saturday morning and needs tea and toast!

Please visit my donation site.