So using tactics we had learnt from our fundraising - mainly phoning everyone we know and hoping someone would have something - we managed to tick off most things on the equipment list. Not everything was found however. Ben would be experiencing a night at -10c degrees in a three season sleeping bag and our altitude tablets would have to be tested on the flight rather than a week before as recommended, but we were ready. It was at this point that I read our first blog post on the JCC website where Ben had promised we would reach the summit wearing animal costumes!

The first leg of our journey was a flight from Heathrow to Nairobi from where we would catch a connecting bus across the Tanzanian border, which proved to be an interesting experience. Filling in the forms before handing them to the border official who threw them in the bin then being issued new forms which went the same way as the first lot.

From the border we continued by bus to the north eastern base of Kilimanjaro. We spent our first night in Tanzania in the Snowcap Cottages which was a small hotel just outside the Kilimanjaro national park gates where we would begin our trek in the morning.

Oli and Ben, in their Meerkat and Zebra suits, at the summit of Kilimanjaro

Straight away then we booked our climb with Action Challenge UK, for the 22nd September. Straight after that we started fundraising! At the time of writing now, we have raised £6,491 for Teenage Cancer Trust.

We really do appreciate every single penny donated, and thank you so much to all of you who have so generously given to our cause. However, our view is that you can never campaign too much for charities, so please, if we’ve somehow managed to touch a nerve, donate as much as you feel is necessary to our JustGiving page.

 

Throughout the year we’ve been training hard, making various trips all the way to Wales to climb some big hills. The problem we found was that the Brecon Beacons are more like mounds when compared to Kilimanjaro, so to enable us to train at a high enough level we’ve been running up and down the Beacons. We also made a trip up to the Lake District, that harmonious and picturesque (boring, nothing happens up North, don’t go unless you have to) place, to climb Scarfell and the surrounding peaks, England’s tallest mountain (we think). As well as the climbing training we’ve been working on our general fitness.

So that’s all the build up to our trip, we’re gonna do our best to keep a video diary, and to blog for as long as we have reception on each day’s events! Please don’t forget to visit our JustGiving page, and while you’re there, you might as well sponsor us!

While at the base temperatures reflect the fact that Kilimanjaro stands in central Africa, the summit can boast temperatures as low as -35C. Going from bottom to top, you pass through six different climatic zones, each one colder than the last, each one with fewer living organisms, as even plants can't withstand the extreme cold at such altitude. There is also only about 50% of the levels of oxygen we normally enjoy at the top, and so climbing too quickly without leaving time to properly acclimatise can actually be fatal.