Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

http://www.justgiving.com/AmandaGeake

I will be climbing the remote and beautiful Simien Mountains in northern Ethiopia in November 2013 together with about 15 others. It is an extreme challenge, trekking up to 11 or 12 hours a day, covering around 20-25 kms per day for eight days, up and down mountain passes to about 4,500m (15,000 feet). It will be hot during the day and below freezing at night as we camp under the stars. I must be crazy!  I’ve been inspired to do it because I want to raise as much as I can for a charity that I love and admire. Martin has been working for Send a Cow for the last 12 years and I’ve been fortunate to visit some of their work which is transforming for ever the lives of thousands of smallholders in Africa.

I’ve started training to get used to walking long distances up and down steep hills, although it is difficult to train for altitude in Bath - our local hills don’t quite qualify!

Please support me in this mad adventure. I lived in Africa for many years and I’ve seen for myself how impoverished rural people yearn for a chance to improve their lives and make a good living from their land. Send a Cow does just that and I know the funds I raise will help to transform the lives of some incredibly hard working Africans.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to Send a Cow and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thank you in advance for your support & encouragement.

With my love

Amanda

 

I am back now...

Wow - what an amazing trek through the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia! It was very tough - definitely the most difficult thing I have ever done in my whole life, with long days getting up in the dark to start trekking at dawn, climbing up & down, up & down each day (reaching a maximum height of 4200m / 14,000ft) feeling dizzy with the altitude, then returning to camp just before dusk. Hot in the day and below freezing some nights with frost on the ground in the morning! 

However it was also the most spectacular trip in breathtakingly beautiful surroundings, with stunning views of the dramatic mountains in all directions - I really felt as if we were up in the attic of the world! I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the sunsets and sunrises... And there was an explosion of brightly coloured flowers lining the pathways - different species according to the height that we were at: aloes, red-hot-pokers, giant lobelia, euphorbia, marigolds and many more. We watched Gelada baboons scavenging for bugs to eat amongst the wild thyme, a rare and shy Walia ibex hiding in the scrub and a majestic Lammergeyer vulture with a huge wing span of 10ft soaring below us as we came down the near vertical Devil's Staircase. What a privilege to be there!

It was incredible to see how local people were cultivating crops in such thin stony soils and on such steep slopes, often with contour terracing. There was an amazing patchwork of little green and golden fields of barley, teff-wheat, millet, peas & beans, with everything being harvested by hand using small sickles, piled up into stooks, and threshed by donkeys or tossed in the air by pitch-forks. It was unbelievable what enormous loads of produce / wood / charcoal were carried, particularly by the women who seemed bowed down or even completely lost in their loads... And there were mules and horses everywhere, again carrying great packs on their backs and picking their way nimbly up the steep rocky paths.

I was in a wonderful group of trekkers - 17 of us who hardly knew each other at the start, but quickly became very close knit as we camped together in pretty basic conditions. We supported and encouraged each other as the going got tough and the blisters / sunburn appeared... It was miraculous how well my feet held up given all my problems with them over the previous weeks and months.

It was also great to visit the Send a Cow projects - we had quite an adventure even just getting there driving the vehicles down severely gullied roads and across rivers! Their work was as inspiring as ever, and it was good to see fruit trees and various herbs being grown as well as the usual prolific vegetables on quite large plots. Everybody in the group was so excited to see for themselves what Send a Cow do, and have really been spurred on to tell others about the amazing work. 

I am now safely back home - exhausted but exhilarated!

With much love and grateful thanks for your support & encouragement

Amanda