TORBAY LIFEBOAT CREW

KILIMANJARO CHALLENGE 2023 - HELP US RAISE THE FLAG

The Drive Challenge - 18th - 20th January 2023

Day 1: https://youtu.be/6ISuyrJYDZM

Day 2: https://youtu.be/kn1owdNpuZw

Day 3: https://youtu.be/rdaeRLNMTUM

Torbay RNLI’s Drive team completed their 3 day tour of the coastline of the West Country, returning to Torbay on Friday 20th January after visiting all 31 lifeboat station between Bristol and Poole.

It turned out to be an especially challenging ‘challenge’ due to the weather. Every day was freezing making the going tricky, especially down some of the more rural Devonian and Cornish lanes that we all love so much!

It also made for some chilly evenings bunking up in the van overnight. Then there were the problems with the electricity – basically it wasn’t working! So, the toasty warm electric sleeping bags never made it out of the packaging.

Despite all the adversities, the team accomplished their ambitious task, driving 809 miles over 29 hours of actual driving time, in the 3 days, with a commemorative photo taken at each station with the team and Kilimanjaro flag. Unfortunately, the weather hindered most planned activities with local station crews - like going out on exercise with Padstow RNLI – but the lads succeeded in their primary tasks of raising both money and awareness around the Southwest for our Kilimanjaro Challenge 2023 project.

The four Drive team members included Julian Blewitt, Jason Stride, Gareth Phipps, the team mechanic, and Owain Rees, team leader.

Short videos for each day can be viewed on YouTube (see links above), which tell the story in pictures and film - especially showing the hairy conditions faced on the roads each morning - and the final video includes an interview with team leader Owain once safely back at the station on Day 3.