Weekends...... a time for chilling, for lying in, for leisurely trips to the seaside, for pottering round the garden, for buying paint, for a 1200 mile round trip whilst attempting to climb each of the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales. What could be more relaxing I ask you?! Hang on a minute......... A band of intrepid explorer/ecologists are doing the Three Peaks Challenge on the 16th and 17th of August, in aid of Hope HIV, a charity working with AIDS orphans in Africa - and we need your help! Our adventure begins on the 15th August, when we'll be traversing the wilds of the M5, M6, and all manner of other roads beginning with 'A' and 'B' in our people-carrier. Our destination is Fort William, near the foot of Scotland's highest summit - Ben Nevis. Obviously it's quite a long way from Stroud to Scotland, and we'll be taking lots of sleep and water in order to stave off the jet-lag. On Saturday morning, it looks like we might actually need to do some walking. Damn-it. Starting at 0700hrs (I said it wouldn't be easy), our well-oiled machine of walkers will start their ascent to the 'roof of the world' , up to the dramatic snow-capped (maybe just) peak of 'The Ben'. Once we've jogged up to the summit we'll be stopping only as long as it takes to grab a photograph of the momentous occasion, before making a rapid descent out of the high altitude 4406ft 'death zone'. No really. One mountain down, two to go! Once we have finished the descent of Ben Nevis we'll hop into our mini-bus/people carrier and begin the long drive to the Lake District, where we must ascend Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, which weighs in at 3206ft. We'll be climbing this mountain as the sun sets, and coming back down again in the dead of night...As well as the walkers, we couldn't be doing this event without the kind support of our driver/chef(s) - who will hopefully have a fantastic feast waiting for us as we come down off each mountain! After finishing the descent of Scafell Pike we'll be whisked down the M6 and along the A55 to Wales' highest mountain - Snowdon. By which time we will already be very, very tired. We'll probably be starting this mountain by night as well, with huge amounts of chocolate needed to help us push on to the top
Our challenge will be complete once we've staggered down to the base of Snowdon again, with the aim being to have completed the whole thing in less than 24hrs. Could be painful............... Anyway, seeing as you've read this far, here's what we would love you to do. 1) Sponsor us! Like it says above, this is all being done to raise money for Hope HIV. You can find out a lot more about their work with AIDS orphans in Africa by visiting www.hopehiv.org. Contributions of any amount will be very gratefully received - our team is covering all of the costs of actually doing the challenge (fuel, food, accommodation etc), so all of the money raised will go directly to the charity. 2) Pray for good weather for us. 3) Packages of chocolate, energy bars, energy drinks, sunshine tokens etc all very appreciated!
Thanks for your support!
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